Diary.06: Sander Cohen - Fallen Art

Introduction: The Sunken Palace of Aesthetics and the Limits of Objectivism

In the 1950s, the utopia “Rapture” was built at the bottom of the cold, dark depths of the North Atlantic. Constructed by thinker and industrialist Andrew Ryan on the foundations of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism and Rational Egoism, this city was completely liberated from state censorship, religious ethics, and the moral constraints of the masses, promising the purest blossoming of intellect and art in human history. However, its brilliant ideals were ruthlessly shattered by the material desires brought about by the genetic modification substance known as ADAM, and by the bottomless egoism of humanity. This report is a historical examination of the spiritual trajectory of Sander Cohen—an artist who was the cultural symbol of Rapture and ultimately transformed into a monster that most vividly embodied its decadence and madness—and the space he ruled.

Rather than dismissing the madness of the unique individual Sander Cohen as mere abnormal psychology, this report unravels the contradictions and ultimate failure of the Objectivist philosophy underlying Rapture within the realm of “art.” Based on objective facts such as in-game audio diaries, environmental visuals, and the “artworks of death” he left behind, it logically examines the depths of his psyche. Cohen serves as historical evidence of the ultimate destination of freedom without ethics: when egoism that disregards the pain of others is affirmed as an artistic privilege, the human body itself turns into canvas and clay.

1. The Darling of the Seabed—The Ideals of Objectivist Art and Its Fragile Foundation

1.1 The Phantom of New York and Exile to the “City Without Censorship”

As a fact confirmed by in-game records and background lore, Sander Cohen is a Jewish-American artist who rose to prominence in New York during the 1930s. He demonstrated extraordinary talent in all artistic fields, including composition, playwriting, poetry, and sculpture, making a name for himself. His artistic ambition and eccentric sensibilities were reminiscent of the great creators of the real world, namely George M. Cohan and Salvador Dalí, as symbolized by his mustache. However, Cohen himself harbored a strong dissatisfaction, believing that his talents were not being justly evaluated by the “mediocre masses” and “conservative critics” in surface society.

Andrew Ryan’s vision of Rapture as a “city where the artist would not fear the censor” resonated with Cohen as the ultimate salvation. Receiving a direct invitation from Ryan, Cohen joined the Rapture Central Council and reigned as the supreme authority over the city’s cultural and artistic sectors.

Analysis: The Trap of Elitism in Objectivism The analysis derived from this fact points to the vulnerability of the “elitist Objectivism” that lay at the ideological root of Cohen. In Ayn Rand’s philosophy, a superior creator must follow only their own reason, create solely for their own happiness, and never yield to the demands of others. Cohen believed that in this deep-sea city, isolated from the “Parasites” of the surface—critics and the masses who create nothing themselves but repeatedly offer moral criticism while relying on the talents of others—his own talent would eternally hold absolute value.

However, art is fundamentally a form of expression predicated on “reception and evaluation by others.” The Objectivist ideal of “complete self-sufficiency requiring no others” and the “desire for recognition” as an artist harbored a fatal contradiction from the very beginning. The enclosed space of Rapture, while stripping away “surface censorship,” simultaneously deprived him of the massive audience that satisfied his desire for recognition. This contradiction would become the driving force behind his later paranoid behavior.

1.2 Hatred for “The Doubters” and the Chosen People Complex

One of the facts that most vividly records Cohen’s psychological transformation is his audio diary titled “The Doubters.” This recording proves the intense hatred he harbored toward those who did not align with his art.

“Rapture is heading to hell. Why? Because of them… always lurking in the shadows. In the Lyceum, in the galleries of Soho, and even in this place called ‘Utopia’. The Doubters. But Ryan knows. We resonate with each other… Yes, blood flows in the streets, and people sometimes… disappear. Those wretched little girls, too… But the Doubters think they can paint a picture without getting their smocks dirty…”

Analysis: The Reign of Terror and the Logic of Artistic Purification

The deep psychology inferred from this audio diary bears an eerie resemblance to the “Red Scare (McCarthyism)” under the Cold War structure of the 1950s and the logic of extreme ideological purification. Cohen defined anyone who even slightly questioned the absoluteness of his art as an abstract hostile force called “The Doubters,” justifying their elimination.

The metaphor of “getting their smocks dirty” is a ruthless declaration that he would not hesitate to accept the “stain of blood”—such as the sacrifice of others, physical violence, and social obliteration—if it meant realizing his artistic ideals. When the Objectivist pursuit of self-interest reaches its extreme, others are downgraded to mere “obstacles” or “consumables” for achieving one’s own goals. The artist, who supposedly dove into the deep sea in search of free expression, ultimately came to justify even the taking of others’ lives as an “artistic act” in order to protect his own privileges.

2. The Dictator’s “Stableboy”—The Secret Feud with Anna Culpepper and the Hypocrisy of Censorship

What most deeply wounded Sander Cohen’s narcissism and exposed the deception of the “freedom” he espoused was his fierce conflict with a fellow female artist, Anna Culpepper. The series of in-game records regarding this secret feud serves as crucial evidence showing the clash between “state-sanctioned art” and “anti-establishment expression” in Rapture.

2.1 The Decisive Insult of “Ryan’s Stableboy”

As a matter of fact, Anna Culpepper released songs that sharply criticized Ryan’s authoritarian policies and the corruption of Rapture, garnering support from the masses. She openly mocked Cohen as “Ryan’s Songbird.” Her audio diary “Ryan’s Stableboy” records a scathing critique of the essence of Cohen’s art.

“Cohen isn’t a musician. He’s Ryan’s stableboy. Ryan’s corrupt policies are dropping crap all over the place, and Cohen flits about cleaning it up. But instead of using a shovel like a decent mule, Cohen cleans it up with catchy melodies and clever turns of phrase. But no matter how pretty it sounds, he can never wash away that stench…”

In response, Cohen expressed fierce anger in an audio diary titled “Musical Insult.”

“Regarding your review of Anna Culpepper’s latest musical insult. With all the fine artists in Rapture, I cannot imagine why you continue to devote column inches to this musical gremlin. Her work is derivative, if not tedious. If not tedious, it is transparent. If not transparent, it is dangerous!”

Analysis: The Collapse of Objectivist Freedom and Dependence on Power

Culpepper’s criticism accurately struck Cohen’s sore spot. Cohen perceived himself as a “genius bound by no one,” but in reality, he was nothing more than a “state-sponsored artist” dependent on the power and patronage of the dictator Andrew Ryan.

What is noteworthy here is that Cohen ultimately condemns Culpepper’s work as “dangerous.” In Rapture, where all censorship was supposed to be rejected and all freedom of expression guaranteed, this attitude of deeming expressions critical of himself as “dangerous” and demanding the suppression of speech demonstrates a complete self-contradiction of the Objectivist philosophy he espoused. For him, “freedom” was a privilege to affirm his own bloated ego, not something that tolerated the free criticism of others.

2.2 Purge by Power and the Death of Art

This conflict did not stop at a war of words but ultimately escalated into a violent purge. The audio diary “Bump Culpepper?” by Sullivan, Rapture’s chief of security, records the fact of an assassination by those in power.

“The order came down to put the bump on Anna Culpepper. We’re not talking about a gangster or a hardline political activist here. She’s a flighty broad who wrote a song or two that got under Ryan’s skin.”

Later, Culpepper’s corpse is discovered in her own residence in Mercury Suites, brutally murdered while taking a bath. In another of Sullivan’s diaries, “Artist’s Feud,” it is recounted that Cohen relentlessly pressured the security forces to take his side, ultimately bringing the matter to a meeting in Ryan’s office.

Analysis: Assassination as the Preservation of Narcissism

This fact illustrates the ruthless reality that Cohen eliminated a “Doubter” using state power without dirtying his own hands (or smock). The vulnerability and hypocrisy of Cohen—who called himself a supreme artist but was in fact protected by those in power and could not maintain his identity without silencing critics through violence—are condensed in this assassination drama. It can be said that “freedom of expression” in Rapture met its complete death at this very moment.

2.3 Table 1: Correlation of Audio Diaries in the Anna Culpepper Assassination Incident

3. The Frenzy on the Eve of the Civil War—The Sprouting of Decadence Seen in “Burial at Sea”

Even before Rapture completely collapsed, at the end of 1958 when it still maintained its functions as a city, Cohen’s artistic madness had already become apparent. This factual relationship can be confirmed from the depiction of Cohen’s club in the additional records (DLC “Burial at Sea - Episode 1”).

3.1 The Giant Facial Sculpture and the Spatial Beauty of Madness

On New Year’s Eve in 1958, the club managed by Cohen had already become a space that deviated from the norm. What is recorded as fact are the humans striking bizarre poses atop the pillars lining the entrance, the space leading from a pure white cubic room to a pitch-black corridor, and the “giant sculpture of Cohen’s own face” enshrined on the stage. The mouth of this giant face was open, leading to yet another space, unfolding a visual violence that fused maddening Art Deco and surrealism.

Furthermore, inside the club, people wore masks and surrendered themselves to eccentric music and dancing. It is evident that by this time, Cohen had already begun treating people as “moving objects” to decorate his own artistic space.

Analysis: Self-Deification and the Objectification of Others

This depiction shows that even before Rapture’s society collapsed, art based on Objectivism had culminated in the “objectification of others.” The structure of entering and exiting through the mouth of a giant self-portrait is a manifestation of an extreme solipsistic psychology in Cohen’s worldview, where “the world exists inside Cohen (in his womb or digestive organs).”

Moreover, the deprivation of individuality through masks was an attempt to erase the participants’ free will and reduce them to a part of the stage setting born from Cohen’s mind. His obsession with “performances using living humans” during this period became the soil that would eventually, through the chaos of the civil war, seamlessly transition into the ultimate bizarre act of “encasing living humans in plaster to fix them eternally.”

4. The Spatial Theory of Fort Frolic—The Art Deco of Desire and Death

“Fort Frolic,” which was under the absolute control of Sander Cohen, was the premier entertainment district for the citizens of Rapture to escape the daily pressures. The structure and transformation of this district accurately reflect the downfall of the city of Rapture and the deepening of Cohen’s madness.

4.1 A Space of Pleasure Filled with Deception and a Giant Gilded Cage

As a matter of fact, Fort Frolic is a multi-layered space lined with luxurious Art Deco decorations, glittering purple and red neon signs, marble checkerboard floors, and giant torchiere pillars. Here, receptacles of desire such as a theater (Fleet Hall), a casino, a high-end boutique street (Southern Mall), and a strip club (“Eve’s Garden”) were densely packed.

Inside the facility, cheerful public announcements (PA) like the following echo incessantly:

“Being at the top of your field is exhausting. That’s why you need to unwind! Gamble, shop, take in a show, and meet new friends at Fort Frolic. The place where the brightest and best celebrate their success, that is Fort Frolic.”

However, as Rapture’s civil war intensified, Cohen promised a “Final Frolic” and completely sealed off this district from the general public. Amidst the continuous echoing of glamorous facility announcements, Fort Frolic, with its communication networks severed and escape routes to the outside cut off, transformed into Cohen’s bizarre private art museum and a giant “gilded cage” with no way out.

4.2 Table 2: Spatial and Functional Classification and Symbolism of Fort Frolic

4.3 Plaster Corpses and Eternal Stillness

What visually defines the grotesqueness of Fort Frolic are the “plaster statues” placed everywhere. These are not mere sculptures. As a matter of fact, they are the remains of Rapture’s citizens and Splicers who were brutally murdered by Cohen’s hands, had plaster smeared directly onto their corpses, and were fixed in theatrical poses. More than dozens of them are arranged, including statues gazing at the Bathysphere in the metro station and statues hanging from the ceiling, dancing.

Analysis: Fear of Change and the Desire for Complete Control

There is a deep ideological and psychological background to this bizarre act. As Rapture’s social order collapsed due to the civil war and the “audience” that praised his art disappeared one after another through mutual slaughter, Cohen became unable to endure the “change” in the world.

The act of encasing humans in plaster is a ritual that completely strips the subject of “free will” and the “passage of time,” eternally fixing them as “obedient artworks” under his control. Living humans betray, criticize, or die on their own accord. Only at the moment when the subject ends its life as a human and is reduced to mere matter (an objective object) could Cohen obtain the peace of mind that his aesthetic perfection would not be threatened. This is the extreme culmination of Objectivist egoism—which views others as means to one’s own ends—reaching the point of processing physical death.

5. Science Without Ethics and the Transformation of the Flesh—The Corruption of Art Brought by ADAM

What decisively fueled Sander Cohen’s madness was the existence of “ADAM,” a genetic modification substance extracted from the Sea Slug. This substance, a product of Eugenics and the runaway cutting-edge science of the 1950s, completely abolished human physical limitations.

5.1 “Clay” by the Name of Flesh

The audio diary “Higher Standards” by Dr. Steinman, who stands at the pinnacle of Rapture’s medical division, clearly records how ADAM distorted artistic sensibilities.

“ADAM presents new challenges to the professional. As tools improve, so do standards. (…) With ADAM, the flesh becomes clay. What excuse is there not to carve, and carve, and carve until the job is done?”

Analysis: The “Living Body” as a Medium of Art From Cohen’s perspective, ADAM and the Plasmid abilities applied from it were the “ultimate new art supplies” for altering the real world itself. Classical art, such as applying paint to a canvas or carving stone and metal, had become obsolete. In a world where even the structure of the flesh and the laws of physics could be freely rewritten, the subject of art shifted to the “flesh and spirit of living humans.”

5.2 Cohen as a Houdini Splicer

As a matter of fact, Cohen himself suffered mental abnormalities due to excessive consumption of ADAM and mutated into a “Houdini Splicer.” He freely manipulates teleportation and pyrokinesis, toying with the player, Jack.

“The artist has a duty to seduce the ear and delight the spirit…”

Analysis: The Acquisition of Mythical Authority and the Loss of Ethics

For Cohen, the magical power to unleash flames and leap through space was nothing more than a part of his theatrical presentation (showmanship). However, this power beyond human comprehension physically corroborated his megalomania of viewing himself as a “god-like supreme being (creator).” As a result of granting the ability to alter mythical physical laws to a genius who had lost his ethics, the purpose of art degenerated from the “pursuit of beauty” to a “demonstration of the destruction and reconstruction of others, fearing not even God.” His acts of killing humans, encasing them in plaster, and burning them with fire were the omnipotent games, stripped of ethical constraints, played by one who had gained a sense of omnipotence through ADAM.

6. The Existential Scream of “The Wild Bunny”—The Conflict with Behaviorism

With the collapse of Rapture and the rampant spread of ADAM, Cohen’s mind plunged into a point of no return. The culmination of this is his representative and most maddening poetic work, “The Wild Bunny.”

6.1 The Cursed Rabbit Ears

As a matter of fact, this audio diary, discovered in the back of a beauty salon (Sophia Salon) in Fort Frolic, is engraved with Cohen’s screams.

“‘The Wild Bunny’ by Sander Cohen. I want to take the ears off, but I can’t. I hop, and when I hop, I never get off the ground. It’s my curse, my eternal curse! I want to take the ears off, but I can’t! My curse! My fucking curse! I want to take the ears off! Please! Take them off! Pleeease!”

Analysis: The Adhesion of Persona and the Collapse of Existence This poem is an extremely existential scream that symbolizes the dark side of Rapture, where Behaviorism and mind control (imprinting) were rampant. The “rabbit ears” Cohen wears are the very persona (mask) he created for himself as a “solitary genius artist” or a “ruler of madness.” He looked down on ordinary people and continued to play the role of an authoritarian artist. However, amidst the mental transformation caused by ADAM and the absolute loneliness where no one understood his true art, that mask completely adhered to his flesh and spirit.

He “hops (attempts artistic leaps)” but “never gets off the ground (never achieves true liberation, transcendence, or genuine connection with others).” He trapped himself in the world of madness he constructed and became unable to step down from the role of the “mad artist.” The self-awareness that he, who supposedly sought freedom, had become a slave to the obsessions he set for himself, gives birth to this gruesome scream.

6.2 Fierce Resistance to Psychoanalysis and Defense Mechanisms

As a noteworthy fact, there is an attempt at psychoanalysis on Cohen by Dr. Sofia Lamb, which can be confirmed from unused data in the DLC “Minerva’s Den.” Dr. Lamb calmly pointed out that Cohen’s “concept of the rabbit” was a “defense mechanism” to protect his fragile ego.

In response, Cohen was enraged and retorted as follows:

“Dr. Lamb: So, this alternate personality of yours is a kind of defense mechanism. That… rabbit construct. Cohen: I told you it’s not a defense, Doctor! The Wild Bunny is the incarnation of expression! The very gravity of art pulling at the blood! I will not stand idly by while some philistine insults an artist’s very muse! Don’t think you’ll ever see my face again, Dr. Lamb. I’m used to being dragged down by people like you without even paying the price.”

Analysis: The Collision of Objective Psychology and Artistic Ego

Dr. Lamb’s objective analysis based on behavioral and psychoanalytic approaches (elucidation through the causality of behavior) fundamentally denied Cohen’s “absolute and sacred self.” Cohen’s bloated ego was in a state where it would completely collapse unless he beautified even his own mental pathology and suffering as a “sublime artistic gravity (Muse).” When confronted with the scientific truth of a “defense mechanism,” the fact that he, who championed Objectivism, showed the most illogical and emotional rejection is a brilliant psychological depiction that pierces the deception of his philosophy.

7. The Sacrifices of the Quadtych—The Pinnacle of Creation Without Ethics

When the protagonist Jack steps into Fort Frolic, Cohen jams communications and traps him in a space with no exit. He then uses Jack as a “photographer” or “angel of death” to complete his ultimate goal, the “Quadtych.” Cohen orders the assassination of four individuals who were once his disciples, having Jack place photographs of their corpses into giant picture frames on the stage in the Atrium.

This atrocity is the ultimate exploitation of others carried out in the name of art, and the consequence of the most distorted interpretation of Objectivist philosophy.

7.1 The Four Victims of the Quadtych and Their Symbolism

7.2 Reduction to the Format of Photography

Every time Jack murders these victims, photographs their corpses with the Research Camera, and delivers the photos, Cohen’s abnormal excitement heightens. He rejoices, “Magnificent! I am as full as a pregnant mother,” and becomes intoxicated by the catharsis of fulfilling his “revenge against the Doubters.”

Analysis: Escape from Three-Dimensional Reality to Two-Dimensional Control For Cohen, the lives, backgrounds, and the time once spent together with these four humans did not matter. They were nothing more than “paint” to fill Cohen’s grand canvas. What was important was the fact that they were reduced from “living humans (unpredictable beings with the potential to rebel)” to “photographs (completely still, controllable two-dimensional data).”

Only when their corpses are fixed in photographs do they become part of a “Masterpiece.” This was a ritual to compensate for Cohen’s vulnerability—his extreme fear of change and criticism—through a format (photographs and frames) that possessed absolute control. The ultimate destination of Objectivism was to take the lives of others and confine them within frames as inorganic parts for one’s own purposes.

8. Love and Hate for the Creator—“Requiem for Andrew Ryan”

The spiritual pillar of Sander Cohen, and simultaneously the source of his greatest despair, was the creator of Rapture, Andrew Ryan.

8.1 Fanatical Obsession with Ryan

As a matter of fact, several pieces of evidence remain suggesting that Cohen harbored an obsession toward Ryan that went beyond a mere patron, resembling deep reverence, fanaticism, or even romantic feelings. His own words, “a man I once loved,” speak eloquently of this. He fell in love with Ryan’s brilliant ideal of a “city of free enterprise and art without Parasites,” abandoning the temptations of success on Broadway and in Hollywood on the surface to follow him into this “soggy bucket.”

However, with the outbreak of the civil war, Ryan became absorbed in a quagmire of conflict with Frank Fontaine (Atlas) to protect his utopia, transforming into a dictator. With the survival of the city at stake, Ryan completely lost interest in art and culture. When Fort Frolic was closed and no one came to the theater anymore, Cohen tasted the deep despair of being “abandoned” by his god, Ryan.

8.2 The True Meaning of the Requiem

The audio diary “Requiem for Andrew Ryan,” discovered in the projection room after the completion of the Quadtych, is filled with the sorrow and grudge of a creation abandoned by its worshipped creator.

“I could have been the toast of Broadway, the talk of Hollywood. But instead, I followed you to this soggy bucket. When you needed my starshine, I illuminated you. But now I rot here, waiting for an audience that will never… ever come… I’m writing a song for you now, Andrew Ryan… It’s a requiem.”

Analysis: The Declaration of the Death of God and Surrogate Revenge

The psychological analysis that can be read from this record is extremely heavy. The act of dedicating a “requiem” to the living Ryan is equivalent to Cohen declaring that the “Ryan as a pure idealist” he once loved is already dead. The current Ryan he sees is merely an empty shell clinging to power.

After using Jack to complete his Quadtych, Cohen tells Jack, “Paint your own canvas with the blood of a man I once loved… Yes, I will send you to Ryan,” opening the path to Ryan’s assassination. Cohen cannot kill Ryan with his own hands, but through the existence of Jack, he attempted to complete a grand “surrogate revenge (artistic performance)” against the creator who abandoned him. Cohen’s madness was born at the end of his desire for revenge for being abandoned and his never-ending artistic masturbation.

9. The Final Act in Mercury Suites—The Eternal Waltz and an Ironic Death

In the mad production of the Quadtych in Fort Frolic, if Jack chooses not to take Cohen’s life and “lets him live,” a further tragic (and comedic) final act is prepared for Cohen’s story.

9.1 The Miniature Garden of Creations Dancing Eternally

Leaving the theater of madness behind, Cohen retreats to his private living space in “Mercury Suites,” a luxury apartment in “Olympus Heights,” the residential area where Rapture’s high officials and wealthy class live.

When Jack later steps into the first floor of this apartment (the room with the nameplate S. Cohen), a bizarre and eerie sight unfolds. As a matter of fact, to the elegant music (Cohen’s Scherzo) playing from a phonograph, two Houdini Splicers continue to dance a waltz eternally. They do not harm Jack; they simply dance intently.

Analysis: Complete Severance from the Outside World and a Microscopic Art Space

This scene is a “microscopic, self-contained theater” that Cohen, having lost his audience, created in his own living space. The final form of the Objectivist artist who severed ties with others culminated in a pathetic miniature garden therapy: making madmen, mind-controlled and stripped of their will, dance in his room while he looks down on them alone from the safety of his second-floor bedroom. His universe shrank from the entirety of the former Rapture to the small space of a single apartment.

9.2 The Imperial Wrath and the End as “Irony”

If Jack stops this phonograph, plays the piano, or lays a hand on the dancers, breaking the silence and rhythm of Cohen’s “perfect little world,” Cohen becomes enraged.

“Don’t dare rattle their rhythm!”

He unlocks his second-floor Master bedroom himself and descends to slaughter in order to eliminate the intruder. He, who was supposed to have completely isolated himself from threats, abandons his safe zone of his own accord out of anger that his art space (property) was violated, and heads to his death. After a fierce death match utilizing teleportation and fire magic, Cohen finally falls.

Analysis: Reduction to an Objective Record and Philosophical Demise Hidden in Cohen’s death is the ultimate Irony regarding Objectivism and the art of madness. As a systemic fact, photographing Cohen’s corpse with the Research Camera unlocks the achievement/trophy “Irony.”

The narrative significance suggested by this meta-event is extremely profound. Sander Cohen—who once murdered four disciples, boasted of the photographs of their corpses as pieces of his “Masterpiece,” and satisfied his desire for control by reducing others to two-dimensional data—met an end where, in his own death, he himself became “part of a still photograph” and was consumed as a record by another (Jack). It is the moment when the man who thoroughly objectified others was ultimately reclaimed by the world as an object himself.

Conclusion: A Man Chooses, an Artist Consumes Himself

The trajectory of Sander Cohen’s life and ruin is the grandest fable in the history of Rapture, demonstrating how Ayn Rand’s “Rational Egoism” and “Objectivism” fail in the realm of “art,” which is supposed to be the pinnacle of human mental activity.

Objectivism holds as its supreme morality “to follow only one’s own reason and not sacrifice oneself for others.” However, art is fundamentally an endeavor predicated on “spiritual communion with others” and “the observation and reflection of the world.” Cohen hated the criticism and moral concepts (censorship) of others as the “behavior of a Parasite,” and chose the path of pursuing only his own beauty in absolute loneliness. Yet, having lost his audience and assassinated sympathizers or critics like Culpepper as “The Doubters,” all that remained within him was the most grotesque parasitic relationship: “unilaterally consuming others as mere physical materials (flesh encased in plaster, or burning corpses).”

The scream of The Wild Bunny, crying out “I want to take the ears off, but I can’t,” is the irrevocable regret of an artist who forcibly lifted his feet off the ground of humanity and fell into a suspended state of nothingness known as absolute freedom.

In the cold darkness of the seabed that is Rapture, the numerous mad artworks left behind by Sander Cohen serve as vivid historical proof that unrestricted freedom does not necessarily bring liberation of the soul, but rather eternally confines a human being in the harshest prison of “narcissism.” He was the being who most purely cultivated the pathology inherent in Andrew Ryan’s utopia, and his bloodstained, fallen art continues to emit a dark light that will never fade, even after Rapture is completely submerged.