New-York tribune., 1917-04-09
Freudism Against Cublsm

Rv the common consent Of the pro'ane
the stigma Of insanity was fastened neon
tinently on the first victims of that pan
demic outbreak Of Rstheticism known 10
the elect by the comprehensive title o1
Modern Art. The popular hypothesis was
readily accepted by some Of the more
learned and refined, and few critics were
at pains to Justify their conviction by clab-
orate arguments designed TO show that
they had not fallen into the foolish ms
take Of disnrissing those they could not IN
derstand as madmen. but were honestly
satisfied hy careful and impartial examlna-
ton that what were offered TO them as new
and quintessential interpretations Of the
visible world were in truth nothing more
than the irresponsible fancies Of disor-
dered intelectuals.
Six years ago, when the Post-lmpres-
sjonists first raided London, DR.. Iheo B.
Hysop, sometime Neutrality-suspicious.
cnt of Bethlem Hospital, undertook az
some length to prove that what Mr.. Roger
2 Frv and his cronics were pleased to hah
as new era in art was in reality nothing
but a temporary ana more or less VII
fully provoked relapse into a form oil
degeneracy sufficiently familiar to all con-
cerned in the care of the insane And two
wears later. during the meeting Of the IN
ternational Medical Congress, Sir George
Savage drew from various mental hos
pi,als a collection OF pictures which III
form ard content bore, indeed, surprls-
ing likeness to the inventions Of some OF
oar famous Moderns.
These endeavors TO discrcdit fashion
able form Of expression, If that was the
purrose. were misdirected from the first.
The exhibition, however instructive, was
designed only for the medical visitors at
the congress and the public at large were
not to be convinced by DR.. Hyslop. whose
censure was uncomfortably reminiscent OF
the philistinism of Dr.. Nordau. Fashions
are only to be downcd by fashions-SunHld
simifbus c1uGntur- and The Medical Rec
ord" has gone about the business IN a more
subtle and dangerous way by eXpoundnS
and apolocizing for the new art on Freud
ian principles.
For those who will not heed your old
fashioned psychiatrist will cheerfully give
ear to the rcasonings of any one whose
arguments are ostensibly founded on
Viennese dogma. Though on their guard
against all who talk Of degeneracy, they
are less critical Of those who reason about
the Hbido. whose discoveries are IN the
region Of compeXes and conflicts and the
repressed wish, adopts in the mysteries
of the unconscious, deeply versed IN the
trickeries of the visionary, shrewd enough
10 discover the latent beneath the manifest
content of dreams, and bearing bagful
Of symbols together with the infallible
equivalents at their fingers tips.
Not that the purpose of "Thc Medical
Record" is to discourage the harmless dI-
versions Of the Cubists and their aesthetic
kin. On the contrary. the argument IS
that even if, as seems inevitable, they are
of the catholic company embraced IN the
highly elastic Kraepelnian category Of
Dcncntin 1,rRcor. it is better for them to
find relief in this way "than to turn their
whole vital force inward and lose them
selves in day dreams. or to fight bhndly
with their fate and become in the end
untidy and destructive inmates Of in
stitutions"
Nevertheless, if we could only catch a
few thousands Of these sudden converts
the mystic offspring of the New Art on
one side and litter of babbling Freud
cites on the other-what sport would be
rarer than to set them together by the
ears and let them have it out in the thor
ough and conclusive manner of the Xii
kennv cats?