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The author uses psychoanalytic approaches to examine the individual reader's acceptance of an author and the methods of social psychology for studying the phenomenon of group acceptance. He examines the emotion-laden three-day centennial celebration honoring Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) held in 1859 which provides invaluable evidence concerning the social acceptance of an author. Recent work has directed attention to the social milieu as important in the genesis of individual psychological symptoms. The evidence available from the public records of the Schiller Festival suggests obvious differences in the status of poetry then and now. Today, appreciation of a poet is a rather private, individual affair, limited to a certain educated social level, in contrast to the mass celebration at the festival. Further, Schiller is honored today mostly in public cultural settings, such as theatre and university, in contrast to the mass acceptance of Schiller and tendency to proclaim him a revolutionary leader and savior in 1859. Noltenius thus suggests that an individual thinks of an author according to his/her life situation and personal psychology, as well as identification with political or social groups and those groups' reception of an author.