English description: First published in 1892, Degeneration is one of the most controversial cultural critiques of the late nineteenth century. Physician and social thinker Max Nordau offers a medico-sociological interpretation of artistic and intellectual movements he associated with cultural decline.
Beyond its famous polemic against certain writers and artists, the work reflects a Europe transformed by rapid urbanization, industrial change, and the destabilization of traditional values. Drawing on contemporary psychiatric theories, Nordau interprets symbolism, mysticism, egotism, and realism as symptoms of a society in crisis.
Divided into five parts - Fin de si cle, Mysticism, Egotism, Realism, The Twentieth Century - this volume remains an essential document for understanding the intellectual debates of European modernity.