From Symptom to Reality In Modern History

9 lectures, Dornach, October 18 – November 3, 1918 (CW 185)

In a radical approach to understanding current affairs and history, Steiner presents a method of penetrating to the hidden causes and realities behind outer appearance. He tells us that contemporary life cannot be fully understood by an analysis restricted to external events. Deeper levels of meaning are revealed when we begin to view such events as symptoms. The causes of the symptoms (the reality behind them) are discovered on other levels of existence.

Rudolf Steiner demonstrates his “symptomatological” approach in these lectures, surveying some of the great developments in consciousness that have helped form the world during recent centuries. He examines the role of true socialism, the rise of nationalism, and describes contrasting approaches to religion by distinguishing between “People of the Christ” in Russia, “People of the Church” in Central Europe, and “People of the Lodges” in the West.

This book is a translation from German of Geschichtliche Symptomatologie (GA 185).