Seeking perfection
Capturing an elusive ideal is what binds Richard Anderson to John James Audubon, the famous artist and naturalist. As early as he can remember, Anderson has been fascinated by the perfection of Audubon’s paintings.
"The artist combined scientific precision with his delight in the specimens. That is what produced watercolors of such rare and delicate beauty," he says. It was observation as art. And it is a highly motivating ideal for achievement.
"An ideal is the stuff dreams are made of; it can lead to a Nobel Prize or turn someone into a great artist," says Anderson, a retired UW-Madison professor of psychiatry and pediatrics.
That pursuit, he explains, is driven by what Anderson and others call the "ego ideal." It is a sense of an ideal self, the person one would like to be.
"It helps us develop the capacity for self observation, self criticism, self responsibility, and self regulation," he adds. "More important, it helps us share these virtues with others."
Anderson applied the same observational skills he saw in Audubon to his own work as a pediatric psychiatrist. Quiet observation became the basis of his success with adolescents. Anderson was known for listening with an acute "third ear." It gave his responses consummate timing.
His approach to younger children centered on play therapy, sometimes with family members and residents observing behind a one-way mirror. He is considered the first to use the technique. Anderson was also among the first to describe a rational treatment strategy for anorexia nervosa, founding the Eating Disorder Clinic at UW Hospital.
Anderson bought his first Audubon engraving, called "Wild Turkey," at age 18 with money he earned as a desk clerk at the Wisconsin Memorial Union. He continued buying Audubons through his undergraduate years and during medical school at the UW in the 1940s. He bought each of his plates for between $50 and $100, although their value has multiplied many times since then.
"I did not have a collecting philosophy when I started," he explains. An aunt and uncle, who were surrogate parents, were art collectors who left him their collection. "I traveled all over the country looking for Audubons. Whenever I had any money, I put it into Audubon engravings."
The message the art carried of conservation and public trust guided Anderson to donate many of them to the university.
"My goal," he explains, "is to make sure that students see them as examples of social and environmental responsibility."
His latest gift of Audubons to the university are on permanent loan to the Department of Special Collections in Memorial Library. It is a fitting choice, since its collections include a full set of Audubon’s famous Birds in America (1827-1830), illustrated with 435 life-sized engravings made from his watercolors. Only 200 sets of the four-volume "elephant" folios were printed.
Some of Audubon’s prints show nature’s violence—snakes attacking birds or hawks clutching prey. Anderson’s favorites are "family portraits" of birds nesting and feeding together.
Which brings him back to the notion of an ideal social self. "It’s easy to get so involved in our work and studies that we shut out the rest of the world," he says. "Through his art Audubon left us a clear message: we must care for our world and be socially responsible."
