Degeneration

«Degeneration» – the most famous and controversial book by Max Nordau, written at the intersection of cultural studies, philosophy, and psychiatry. Nordau, a pupil of Charcot and Lombroso, presents his explanation of the phenomenon of degeneration in Western society at the end of the 19th century, illustrating it with examples from the works of the most prominent representatives of art and philosophy of his era: Wagner, Nietzsche, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Wilde, and others. The cultural phenomenon of the «turn of the century» is examined by Nordau both from a medical perspective, considering degenerative art as a product of neurosis, and from a social perspective, noting the negative impact of moral decline, the destruction of traditional social structures, urbanization, and even environmental pollution.