A brilliant book by Nobel Prize winner Eric R. Kandel, The Age of Insight takes us to Vienna 1900, where leaders in science, medicine, and art began a revolution that changed forever how we think about the human mind—our conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions—and how mind and brain relate to art.
At the turn of the century, Vienna was the cultural capital of Europe. Artists and scientists met in glittering salons, where they freely exchanged ideas that led to revolutionary breakthroughs in psychology, brain science, literature, and art. Kandel takes us into the world of Vienna to trace, in rich and rewarding detail, the ideas and advances made then, and their enduring influence today.
The Vienna School of Medicine led the way with its realization that truth lies hidden beneath the surface. That principle infused Viennese culture and strongly influenced the other pioneers of Vienna 1900. Sigmund Freud shocked the world with his insights into how our everyday unconscious aggressive and erotic desires are repressed and disguised in symbols, dreams, and behavior. Arthur Schnitzler revealed women’s unconscious sexuality in his novels through his innovative use of the interior monologue. Gustav Klimt, Oscar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele created startlingly evocative and honest portraits that expressed unconscious lust, desire, anxiety, and the fear of death.
Kandel tells the story of how these pioneers—Freud, Schnitzler, Klimt, Kokoschka, and Schiele—inspired by the Vienna School of Medicine, in turn influenced the founders of the Vienna School of Art History to ask pivotal questions such as What does the viewer bring to a work of art? How does the beholder respond to it? These questions prompted new and ongoing discoveries in psychology and brain biology, leading to revelations about how we see and perceive, how we think and feel, and how we respond to and create works of art. Kandel, one of the leading scientific thinkers of our time, places these five innovators in the context of today’s cutting-edge science and gives us a new understanding of the modernist art of Klimt, Kokoschka, and Schiele, as well as the school of thought of Freud and Schnitzler. Reinvigorating the intellectual enquiry that began in Vienna 1900, The Age of Insight is a wonderfully written, superbly researched, and beautifully illustrated book that also provides a foundation for future work in neuroscience and the humanities. It is an extraordinary book from an international leader in neuroscience and intellectual history.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Jens Olesen
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
So far, I've only read half of "The Age of Insight", and already, I'm so grateful to Eric Kandel for spending the effort and time to write this book. Reading it, I have had so many satisfying episodes of "is that so?" and "oh yes, of course!" that I look forward to reading the rest... With mixed feelings of sadness about the fact that it is going to end and expectation of a long time of rumination and a new found sense of perspective.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By M. Brownell
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The book is very interesting, and an in depth insight into how the brain works, particularly related to viewing art. The delivery was excellent; it arrived quickly and as described.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light." -- Ephesians 5:13 (NKJV)
The Age of Insight is a hard book to categorize. Professor Kandel's stated purpose is to demonstrate how a knowledgeable scientist can write clearly about science so that the interconnections between art and science can be exposed to those who know only about the art. As such, this book is more about informing those interested in the humanities than those whose interest is in science. As a necessary part of his method, there's a circumscription around a narrow set of artists and literary figures rather than an attempt to make a universal statement. To have attempted otherwise would have made a hefty book into a multi-volume tome that few would read.
As someone who reads a lot of art history, history of science, and current research on mental processes, I was impressed by the conception of the book and how deftly it was carried out in ways that deepened my appreciation for subjects I have long been familiar with. I was grateful for these new perspectives. I found the book to be enjoyable for the most part. If I got to a part that was too elementary for what I wanted to absorb, I just skipped quickly through until I got to weightier material. I didn't have to do that very often.
This book would be a wonderful gift to a budding artist or writer . . . or to an art historian in training. I'm sure that many wonderful shows could be mounted that would take advantage of the information here in ways that would delight museum and gallery goers.
Although the book will seem flawed to some, I think it succeeds in its purpose of proposing a new way to write about art and science.... Read more ›
The Age of Insight is a hard book to categorize. Professor Kandel's stated purpose is to demonstrate how a knowledgeable scientist can write clearly about science so that the interconnections between art and science can be exposed to those who know only about the art. As such, this book is more about informing those interested in the humanities than those whose interest is in science. As a necessary part of his method, there's a circumscription around a narrow set of artists and literary figures rather than an attempt to make a universal statement. To have attempted otherwise would have made a hefty book into a multi-volume tome that few would read.
As someone who reads a lot of art history, history of science, and current research on mental processes, I was impressed by the conception of the book and how deftly it was carried out in ways that deepened my appreciation for subjects I have long been familiar with. I was grateful for these new perspectives. I found the book to be enjoyable for the most part. If I got to a part that was too elementary for what I wanted to absorb, I just skipped quickly through until I got to weightier material. I didn't have to do that very often.
This book would be a wonderful gift to a budding artist or writer . . . or to an art historian in training. I'm sure that many wonderful shows could be mounted that would take advantage of the information here in ways that would delight museum and gallery goers.
Although the book will seem flawed to some, I think it succeeds in its purpose of proposing a new way to write about art and science.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By bluejohn
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a most interesting book, very well written by a retired neuroscientist who was born in Vienna. As a hardback, it is quite large (not too convenient for the bedroom!), but well presented. Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By L. Farrell
Format:Hardcover
Beautifully illustrated and presented, Eric Kandel has managed to produce a superlative book that interweaves art history focusing on the fin de siecle modernist Vienese artists Klimt, Scheile and Kokoscha and Freud's theories as a point of departure for presenting in some detail the developments and experiments leading to the latest insights into how humans percieve and emotionally process the sensory and social world. An amazing feat and a feast for anyone interested in the new science of mind!
By Goff
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The first third of the book is a rehash of art history that is well known, and done better by, for example, Gombrich, whom the author praises. The middle third summarizes recent research on the biology of mind, which is one of the greate advances of science in the last thirty years, and will become one of the major scientific achievements in the twenty-first century, once all the pieces have been put together. The author is a leader in this field. He is an expert on the biology of memory.
The final third seeks to link art appreciation with the biology of the mind. Ambitious, but worth attempting. Unfortunately the author fails to make the case that the new biology of mind is ready to contribute significantly to understanding why we appreciate art.
The book is a progress report, rather than a mature work of scholarship. But I enjoyed it, and recommend it, with reservations.
The final third seeks to link art appreciation with the biology of the mind. Ambitious, but worth attempting. Unfortunately the author fails to make the case that the new biology of mind is ready to contribute significantly to understanding why we appreciate art.
The book is a progress report, rather than a mature work of scholarship. But I enjoyed it, and recommend it, with reservations.
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