Medical materialism

Whatever the spiritual, altruistic or creative experience, this may be reduced to the malfunctioning of the body or mind, so there is little distinction to be drawn between the outpourings of a genius and his state of physical health or obsession. Much modern art can thus be interpreted as the result of scotomic vision during an attack of migraine. A Freudian analyst might interpret the struggle for beauty and for spiritual values as attempting to overcome premature ejaculation. Such a theory does not explain why physical disability does not always result in spiritual or artistic expression; and ignores the fact that, although an individual's physiology may predispose him to certain means of expression, it is only a conditioning or modulating not a creating or directing influence.