Chapter Overview

Young Indy travels to Florence, Italy with his parents and Helen Seymour, his tutor. Helen gives him lessons in physics, with examples from Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci, along with tours to see the splendors of Renaissance art. While Indy's father is temporarily away, the family is charmed by the generous attention of Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini. Indy is at first fascinated by the dynamic Puccini, but comes to realize that Puccini's devotion to his mother is more than mere courtesy. He is troubled by the turmoil it creates with his mother's emotions.

On a visit to Vienna, young Indy and his family stay with the American Ambassador in Austria during a flourishing cultural period in the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the Spanish Riding School, Indy meets Princess Sophie, the daughter of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He suffers the pangs of first love when he realizes how impossible it is to be a friend of a princess. He is given some advice on the meaning of love from the leaders of the new science of psychology from its founding masters Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Alfred Adler.

People and Topics

Documentary Previews

Below you will find information about each documentary that supplements The Perils of Cupid.

Psychology--Charting the Human Mind

The analysis of the mind and the exploration of human motives and behavior are some of the breakthrough areas of study in the 19th and 20th century, shaped by visionary thinkers and landmark experiments. This documentary tracks the development of the first scientific approaches of Wilhelm Wundt, the practical applications of Sigmund Freud, the controversial philosophy of eugenics and the startling discovers of B.F. Skinner and Stanley Milgram. Produced and Written by Adam Sternberg and Kristin Pichaske. Running Time: (0:26:33)

Sigmund Freud--Exploring the Unconscious

There was a time where doctor-patient relationships were strictly authoritarian -- doctors did not listen, but rather prescribed -- and those suffering from mental problems endured cold and brutal recuperative programs. Sigmund Freud changed all that with the development of psychoanalysis, wherein he listened to the patient, mapped the unconscious and elevated the study of dreams from mysticism to science. Freud's bold and occasionally regrettable conclusions stirred the conservative society of his time, yet still hold considerable influence on the world today. Produced and Written by Adam Sternberg. Running Time: (0:21:56)

Carl Jung and the Journey of Self Discovery

A protégé of Freud, Carl Gustav Jung felt that his mentor's ideas were too limiting, and he sought other sources of influence on the behavior of individuals and cultures. It was Jung's explorations that allow us to identify how we typify people and behavior into archetypes, and how the underpinnings of culture and society shape who we are. Through it all, Jung remained steadfastly committed to the strength and quality of the individual, regardless of what the outlying society dictates the norm to be. Produced by Adam Sternberg. Written by Adam Sternberg and Kristin Pichaske. Running Time: (0:19:30)

The Archduke's Last Journey--End of an Era	In June 1914, a special train carried Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, to Sarajevo. Terrorists would strike, and a 19-year old gunman killed the Archduke and his wife. A chain-reaction disaster followed, as a web of diplomatic alliances dragged the world into a war that would kill millions, maim millions more, and bring an end to royal dominance of Europe. Produced and Written by Sharon Wood. Running Time: (0:20:55)
Powder Keg--Europe 1900 to 1914	Between August 1914 and November 1918, 27 countries would declare war. Over 60 million men from around the world would fight and over eight-and-a-half million would die. In the summer of 1914, none of the world's leaders set out to wage the most destructive war the world had yet known, and yet they did. Why? Produced and Written by Sharon Wood. Running Time: (0:26:06)
It's Opera!	Most everyone can recognize the sound of opera when they hear it, but few of us know what opera really is. What is the secret to opera? Discover how the complex interplay of multiple art forms -- song, music, costume, stage direction and drama -- blur to become a truly unique experience by visiting a modern class of opera performers, learning of the historic origins of opera, and following a performance of The Marriage of Figaro. Produced and Written by David O'Dell. Running Time: (0:29:02)
Giacomo Puccini--Music of the Heart	To this day, an opera by Giacamo Puccini will play to a packed house. Puccini's works -- including La Bohème -- are engaging stories set to stirring music that are still very much in demand. Rather than craft operas about mythological concepts, momentous historic events or classical literature, Puccini's stories were about of real people in relatable circumstances, inspired by Puccini's own life experience. Produced and Written by David O'Dell. Running Time: (0:25:34)

Indy Connections: The Perils of Cupid

Below are current event articles that relate to events, topics, and people found in The Perils of Cupid.

World War I in Photos: The War at Sea

theatlantic.com

6/8/2014

The land war in Europe became a destructive machine, consuming supplies, equipment, and soldiers at massive rates. Resupply ships from the home front and allies streamed across the Atlantic, braving submarine attacks, underwater mines, and aerial bombardment. Battleships clashed with each other from the Indian Ocean to the North Sea, competing for control of colonial territory and home ports.

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Opinion: The True Causes of World War One discussed for Centenary News

centenarynews.com

6/8/2014

After all the research, thousands of books, and learned papers, who or what started World War One is still debated. The British government isn't much help. In commemorating the 100th anniversary of the War it decided to exclude discussion of its causes to avoid upsetting Germany. Though one leading conservative broke ranks and couldn't resist blaming German imperialism. In the words of Boris Johnson "It is a sad but undeniable fact that the First World War – in all its murderous horror – was overwhelmingly the result of German expansionism and aggression". A recent book, "July 1914", heaps all the blame on Russia set on its ambition to take control of the Turkish Straits, eagerly pushed along by France seeing in the ensuing war an opportunity to liberate Alsace-Lorraine. The author is an American and an assistant professor at a Turkish university.

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How the Monuments Men Saved Italy’s Treasures

Smithsonian.com

1/15/2014

Swam through the sea a crescent of sunwashed white houses, lavender hillsides and rust red roofs, and a high campanile whose bells, soft across the water, stole to the mental ear. No country in the world has, for me, the breathtaking beauty of Italy.” It was the fall of 1943. A couple of months earlier, the Sicilian landings of July 10 had marked the beginning of the Allied Italian campaign. The two British officers, who had met and become instant friends during the recently concluded push to drive the Germans from North Africa, were assigned to the Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories (AMGOT), which took over control of Italy as the country was being liberated by the Allies. Edward “Teddy” Croft-Murray, who in civilian life was a curator of prints and drawings at the British Museum in London, belonged to the small Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) unit inside AMGOT. Its task—dramatized in George Clooney’s new film, The Monuments Men, celebrating the unit’s exploits—would be to safeguard landmarks and works of art from war damage. Croft-Murray had, Fielden wrote in his memoirs, a “twinkling eye in a large face which was attached to the most untidy imaginable body...the Ancient Monument he called himself. God be praised, I said, for someone like this.”

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Are Babies Born Good?

Smithsonian.com

1/3/2013

Arber Tasimi is a 23-year-old researcher at Yale University’s Infant Cognition Center, where he studies the moral inclinations of babies—how the littlest children understand right and wrong, before language and culture exert their deep influence.“What are we at our core, before anything, before everything?” he asks. His experiments draw on the work of Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky, his own undergraduate thesis at the University of Pennsylvania and what happened to him in New Haven, Connecticut, one Friday night last February.

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Brain Science: 10 New Studies That Get Inside Your Head

Smithsonian.com

8/17/2012

We know so much more about our brains than we once did. Some would suggest too much. Because neuroscience, once a subject confined to academia and research labs, now belongs to all of us. Every day, it seems, there’s a story in the mainstream media about a study providing fresh insights on how our brain functions or what we do to make it perform better or worse. Scientists can caution all they want that this is a maddeningly complex subject, but in our search to understand why we do the things we do, we more often look for overly simple answers deep inside our heads.

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Simply Smiling Can Actually Reduce Stress

Smithsonian.com

7/31/2012

It sounds like the most useless advice imaginable: Just put on a happy face. Conventional wisdom is that smiling is an effect of feeling happy, rather than the other way around. Simply smiling in stressful situations can’t possibly make you feel any better, right? Wrong. A fascinating new study by University of Kansas psychologists that will soon be published in the journal Psychological Science indicates that, in some circumstances, smiling can actually reduce stress and help us feel better.

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New Mind-Reading Device Lets Paralyzed People Type

Smithsonian.com

6/29/2012

Imagine that a debilitating illness, stroke or accident has left you entirely paralyzed. You’re fully conscious but unable to move or even communicate with those around you. People in this condition—known as Locked-in Syndrome—suffer greatly, locked in their own minds, appearing superficially to be in a persistent vegetative state despite a full inner life.

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Mechanical Matchmaking: The Science of Love in the 1920s

Smithsonian.com

5/23/2012

Online dating sites like eHarmony and OkCupid claim they can find you the perfect romantic match by using algorithms. These kinds of sites have catchy slogans like "date smarter, not harder," implying that they've finally perfected a scientific approach to matchmaking. Just answer a few questions, and their super-secret love science will find the person who is right for you.

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Gavrilo Princip's Sandwich

Smithsonian.com

9/15/2011

It was the great flash point of the 20th century, an act that set off a chain reaction of calamity: two World Wars, 80 million deaths, the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, the atomic bomb. Yet it might never have happened - we're now told had Gavrilo Princip not got hungry for a sandwich.

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The Great Ballerina Was Not the Greatest Revolutionary

Smithsonian.com

6/18/2010

Dame Margot Fonteyn is still remembered as one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, revered worldwide for her duets with Rudolf Nureyev and still seen as a national treasure in her native Britain. Her role in a plot to overthrow the pro-U.S. government of Panama in 1959 was all but forgotten until recently, when Britain's National Archives released formerly classified British diplomatic cables on the matter.

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Suggested Lessons

• Leonardo da Vinci: Creative Genius
• Imperialism and the Open Door