USING ALL CAPITALS IS IRRATIONAL (Coffin 855-862)

A belief in the irrational nature of humans seems to have been a big part of the philosophy (under which umbrella I am including psychology) and culture of the early modern age. This is pretty clear in Sigmund Freud's work on the mind, specifically concerning the id, and art like Edvard Munch's "The Scream" or Franz Kafka's short stories, which, intentionally or not, show Freudian influences. But aside from some type of revolution occurring in the collective mind of the more educated Europeans, what impact did all of this have on the (I apologize for this) Joe Sixpacks of Europe, or, rather, the Johann Steinkrugs? As the textbook explains, "the theories of...Freud, though in the air and troubling [to members of the middle class], did not matter to the same degree [as movements like Socialism]" (Coffin 857), and sure, people in the middle class were probably more worried about making money and feeding their families than on the workings of the mind or the role of art in modern society, but I think there's more too it. Perhaps they were "distracted" by the newly expanding consumer culture and the various technological developments of the time. Somewhat conversely, maybe they didn't want to leave behind Europe's previous philosophical and artistic traditions, which many probably believed justified European supremacy around the world. Maybe the idea of irrationality even scared Europeans to the point that they rejected it, or at least did not continue to pay attention to it. Still, regardless of the effect on average Europeans, the idea of irrationality was significant in European history.