The Calming Quietude of Nature and Its Disturbances

To understand the life credo of Carl-Gustav Carus, one needs to look carefully at his childhood and adolescence—culminating in his decision to become a medical doctor—particularly specializing in the field of gynecology and its extension into midwifery. The decision was well prepared by the life-course personal philosophy that emerged over childhood and adolescence, but what remains—interestingly—hidden behind the many words Carus wrote over his lifetime (His legacy includes around 70 book size volumes. The nature of Carus’ writing matches his drawing and painting style—meticulous description of particular ideas with their affective connotations remaining semi-hidden in the context of very long sentences.), and of his drawings and paintings. For him—in his mature life as both a medical doctor and a painter—the centrality of humanistic way of being was the inherent personal reality that required no declarations. Carus’ verbal self-presentation was filled with descriptions of actions and events—somewhat parallel to his drawing detailed pictures of animals and their organ systems—rather than revealing his own explorations into his own soul. Yet the search for the soul preoccupied him since early childhood. Chapter 1 includes description of Carus’ childhood and formative university years as well as his first experiences of the work as a medical doctor in the French military hospital.