Intellectual Development - How Did Ayn Rand *Become* Ayn Rand?

It’s pretty clear from her novels and her private life that Rand fantasized about having sex with different heroes. But in real life her fantasy necessarily included her husband, in whatever role. And she must have had some view about the relationship between her husband and her lover.

One thing we do know is that people in her situation tend to fantasize that their spouse and lover will be best of friends. I suppose it’s a sort of psychological protection, as well as a wish fulfillment, the vision of a big happy family of loving friends.

In Atlas Shrugged, Francisco, Reardon and Galt are just the sort of loving friends a female could want. Dagny passes from one to the other, and they all remain best buddies, the rejected suitors not even taking up with other females, who might spoil the cosy atmosphere. Above all, the friends abide by the trader principle, that all relationships – personal and cultural – should be open and transparent, and not just to the participants, but also to all observers.

In trying to re-create Galt’s Gulch in her own life, Rand became enmeshed in a double deception – first in relation to her circle, and following the break in relation to the wider movement. In doing so she violated her trader principle, and that was the real betrayal. On the one hand, she insisted on open and honest dealings, on the other, she kept her own hand hidden.  

That’s the fundamental context of the Rand-Branden affair, which the focus on Branden’s lies and peccadilloes tends to obscure, since he was just one player in the circle of deception.

Brendan

Er, that’s Brendan, not Branden. Hmm. That guy’s signature really runs deep. I take your point, though. In fact, Phil’s original post raises an interesting point about how Rand might have induced her system of philosophy, and whether her distinctive methodology was involved in this process.

In the final word to the discussions in ITOE, Rand talks briefly about how she came up with her theory of concepts, involving half an hour’s presumably highly focused introspection on her own mental processes. The question is: how did she discover the basis for her theory of concepts, since prior to the half hour she was not yet in possession of her theory?

One might suggest a flash of inspiration or intuition, but that risks appeal to mysticism etc. So it would be interesting to know what went on in that half hour. She also says her theory required much more elaboration of the initial insight. I wonder whether there exist any papers that show her mind at work developing her theory from the initial half hour’s introspection.

Brendan