ABSTRACT
IN the analysis of gestalt perception we found that ‘modern’ art tended to be gestalt-free, in the analysis of thing perception we found that it also tended to be thing-free. The secondary processes of traditional art had satisfied both principles of surface perception, i.e. the gestalt principle guiding perception towards perceiving the ‘best’ possible gestalt as well as the tendency towards perceiving the ‘constant’ things. We thought that for some reason our modern civilization disregarded the rational surface functions of the mind and allowed the irrational (gestalt-and thing-free) modes of the depth mind to intrude openly into the structure of ‘modern’ art. We found this disregard for rational functions also in other branches of modern culture, for instance in Bergson’s theory of intuition. What is the cause for this significant shift in the stimulation of the surface and depth functions? Our analysis of realism in Western painting showed that a persistent libidinous withdrawal from external reality had been going on for centuries. Only on the surface did realism in art seem to be animated by an increased interest in the real things while in psychological fact the realistic study of perspectivic distortions, Chiaroscuro, etc. required a detached ‘scientific’ interest, not in the things themselves and their constant properties, but in one’s own changeable subjective perceptions of them. At last we found that the general ‘scientific’ bent of Western civilization too was not inspired by an increased libidinous interest in outer reality, but rested on a compulsive projection mechanism imposed by the pressure of certain (oral) guilt feelings. In order to escape from unconscious guilt feelings scientific man projected the internal compulsion of his superego into the external compulsion of causality. We thought that the same guilt feelings which begot the scientific quest in Western civilization also gave our art its specific scientific tinge and
increasing libidinous detachment. The libidinous loss which is so clearly marked in our ‘abstract’ (thing-free) art is also noticeable in science. I will comment on the scientific fashion of ‘debunking’ accepted values and try to connect this now passing fashion with the general loss of object libido in our cultural life.
