Art and the Monad

Keith Lincoln Cook's essay centres on his diagram of the monad: a circular diagram, showing the relationship between external stimuli, the intellect and the emotions. Although everyone should be able to freely respond to the vast amount of external stimuli collected by the senses, many people will block off their responses, collecting the stimuli in the band of intellect and thereby preventing it from reaching the emotions. These people then tend to intellectualize or analyse instead of responding emotionally. The essay focuses primarily on how we respond, or do not respond, to art in all its forms, but the ideas regarding the obstruction of the emotional response can be applied to all situations involving external stimuli.