Degeneration / by Max Nordau.

  • Max Nordau
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Degeneration / by Max Nordau. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    demanded for the solution of these chimerical problems. In view of Lombroso's researches,* it can scarcely be doubted that the writings and acts of revolutionists and anarchists are also attributable to degeneracy. The degenerate is incapable of adapting himself to existing circumstances. This incapacity, indeed, is an indication of morbid variation in every species, and probably a primary cause of their sudden extinction. He therefore rebels against conditions and views of things which he necessarily feels to be painful, chiefly because they impose upon him the duty of self-control, of which he is incapable on account of his organic weakness of will. Thus he becomes an improver of the world, and devises plans for making mankind happy, which, without exception, are conspicuous quite as much by their fervent philanthropy, and often pathetic sincerity, as by their absurdity and monstrous ignorance of all real relations. Finally, a cardinal mark of degeneration which I have re- served to the last, is mysticism. Colin says :i- ' Of all the delirious manifestations peculiar to the hereditarily-afflicted, none indicates the condition more clearly, we think, than mystical delirium, or, when the malady has not reached this point, the being constantly occupied with mystical and religious questions, an exaggerated piety, etc' I will not here multiply evidence and quotations. In the following books, where the art and poetry of the times are treated of, I shall find occasion to show the reader that no aifference exists between these tendencies and the religious manias observed in nearly all degenerates and sufferers from hereditary mental taint. I have enumerated the most important features characterizing the mental condition of the degenerate. The reader can now judge for himself whether or not the diagnosis ' degeneration ' is applicable to the originators of the new aesthetic tendencies. It must not for that matter be supposed that degeneration is synonymous with absence of talent. Nearly all the inquirers who have had degenerates under their observation expressly establish the contrary. 'The degenerate,' says Legrain,| 'may be a genius. A badly balanced mind is susceptible of the highest conceptions, while, on the other hand, one meets in the same mind with traits of meanness and pettiness aU the more striking from the fact that they co-exist with the most brilliant qualities.' We shall find this reservation in all authors * Lombroso, 'La Physionomie des Anarchistes,' Noiivelle Revue, May 15, 1891, p. 227 : ' They [the anarchists] frequently have those characteristics of degeneracy which are common to criminals and lunatics, fi)r they are anomalies, and bear hereditary taints.' See also the same author's Fazzi ed Ajiomali. Turin, 1884. t Colin, op. ciL, p. 154. { Legrain, op. cit., p. 11.
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