What drives Herbeck? Schizophrenia, immediacy, and the poetic process

Abstract

A poem by the Austrian schizophrenic Ernst Herbeck (1920-91) is examined and evaluated in view of his considerable success as a poet. It is argued that the text’s circumstances of production and Herbeck’s cognitive deficiencies leave little room for creativity, let alone genius. The poem ‘Weihnachten 1967’ is characterized by a peculiar line-by-line approach that is explained in terms of the immediacy hypothesis, according to which schizophrenics’ actions are triggered by the immediate environment (Salzinger et al., 1970). Speech acts may be triggered by preceding words or phrases, leading to an appearance of incohesion. In the case discussed here, the poet takes cues for the extension of his text from the preceding lines only. Depending on their success, he either develops or evades the topic found there, or he attempts to repair a mistake by suggesting a re-analysis in the new line. The obscure and partly private connections within the poem are traced and explained in terms of conceptual frames (Fillmore, 1975). The discussion of the poem contributes to debates concerning the aesthetic appreciation of Herbeck’s poetry, the nature of schizophrenic speech in terms of cognitive and/or linguistic deficiencies, the evaluation of art brut in general, and the larger debate concerning the intersection of art and pathology.