Submission Type
Event
Faculty Advisor
Jamie Zelechowski
Expected Graduation Date
2019
Location
Room E103, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan Universit
Start Date
4-21-2018 10:00 AM
End Date
4-21-2018 11:00 AM
Disciplines
German Language and Literature | Mental Disorders | Philosophy of Science | Public Health Education and Promotion
Abstract
In 1962, as Cold War tensions approached their peak, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, a Swiss playwright, published his play The Physicists. Two of the most important topics in The Physicists are mental illness and ethical responsibility of scientists. Dürrenmatt’s three main characters: Möbius (a genius), Einstein (a Russian spy), and Newton (an American spy) are all physicists who appropriate the status of mentally ill in order to hide from society inside the Les Cerisiers Sanatorium. Their status as mentally ill acts as a cover up that reveals their different reasons for adapting that status–from Möbius attempt to escape the politics of the time, to Einstein and Newton engaging in those same politics. Using their status as mentally ill, the three men are able to convince society at large to leave them alone—while also avoiding any legal complications via an insanity defense. By having his characters act mentally ill, I argue that Dürrenmatt provides his characters with the “freedom” to choose not to participate in the new destructive processes promoted in post-World War II era societies. I further argue that Dürrenmatt challenges his audience to question their presumptions about mental illness, while also making them question the ethics behind allowing scientific discoveries to be revealed––particularly ones capable of mass destruction, if put in the wrong hands.
Included in
German Language and Literature Commons, Mental Disorders Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons, Public Health Education and Promotion Commons
Science, Mental Illness, And Ethics In Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists
Room E103, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan Universit
In 1962, as Cold War tensions approached their peak, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, a Swiss playwright, published his play The Physicists. Two of the most important topics in The Physicists are mental illness and ethical responsibility of scientists. Dürrenmatt’s three main characters: Möbius (a genius), Einstein (a Russian spy), and Newton (an American spy) are all physicists who appropriate the status of mentally ill in order to hide from society inside the Les Cerisiers Sanatorium. Their status as mentally ill acts as a cover up that reveals their different reasons for adapting that status–from Möbius attempt to escape the politics of the time, to Einstein and Newton engaging in those same politics. Using their status as mentally ill, the three men are able to convince society at large to leave them alone—while also avoiding any legal complications via an insanity defense. By having his characters act mentally ill, I argue that Dürrenmatt provides his characters with the “freedom” to choose not to participate in the new destructive processes promoted in post-World War II era societies. I further argue that Dürrenmatt challenges his audience to question their presumptions about mental illness, while also making them question the ethics behind allowing scientific discoveries to be revealed––particularly ones capable of mass destruction, if put in the wrong hands.