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Kafka and Autism. The undisclosed logic behind Kafka’s work.

Article  in  Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · May 2017

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Kafka and Autism
The undisclosed logic behind Kafka’s work

Jerry Stuger, Independent Researcher

Overvoorde 19
1082GA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E-mail: jerrystuger@yahoo.com
Tel: +31 20 4280468

Amsterdam, June 2017

Contents

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3

Diagnosing Kafka .................................................................................................................................... 4

Why Kafka was an autistic person ......................................................................................................... 5

Memory ............................................................................................................................................... 6

Pronoun reversals and existential problems ..................................................................................... 6

Attention to detail .............................................................................................................................. 8

Kafka’s tendency to focus on details rather onto the general meaning of situations ..................... 8

Discrepancy between events and emotional reactions .................................................................. 10

Honesty and conscientiousness ....................................................................................................... 10

Physical problems, noise sensitivity and hypochondria.................................................................. 11

Obeying (social) rules and obligations ............................................................................................. 11

Shame and guilt ................................................................................................................................ 11

Concreteness of thinking and literal mindedness ........................................................................... 12

The need to confide in someone ...................................................................................................... 13

Unwarranted sense of loyalty .......................................................................................................... 13

Compulsive behavior and repetitive behavior ................................................................................ 13

Special interests and preoccupations .............................................................................................. 14

Existential fear .................................................................................................................................. 14

The parable ‘Before the Law’ is the key to all of Kafka’s work ........................................................... 14

The autistic perspective of the parable ‘Before the law’ ................................................................ 16

The use and function of parables ..................................................................................................... 17

Sources of the absurd in Kafka’s work ................................................................................................. 19

Animal stories ....................................................................................................................................... 20

The writer Kafka ................................................................................................................................... 21

1
 The Trial and unconscious preoccupations ...................................................................................... 22

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 23

References............................................................................................................................................. 24

2
Abstract
In this paper the hypothesis is presented that Franz Kafka was a person with autism. This is
done by analyzing and discussing his biography, letters, diaries and major works. Kafka’s
autism is an integral diagnosis which encompasses both his personal life and his work. This
interpretation is contrary to other interpretations from the past which in all cases were only
partially applicable to explain Kafka’s life and work. In Kafka research the big secret of Kafka
was how he was able to write he did, like no one before him had done. The function and use
of parables are also discussed to support this autism hypothesis concerning Franz Kafka
which ultimately makes his life and work more understandable and accessible.

Keywords: Franz Kafka; Kafkaesque; person with autism; autistic traits; neural frame of
reference; autistic perspective; before the law; parables;

3
Introduction
In this paper the hypothesis is presented that Franz Kafka was a person with autism. This is
done by analyzing and discussing his biography, letters, diaries and major works. Kafka’s
autism is an integral diagnosis which encompasses both his personal life and his work. This
interpretation is contrary to other interpretations from the past which in all cases were only
partially applicable to explain Kafka’s life and work. In Kafka research the big secret of Kafka
was how he was able to write he did, like no one before him had done. It was widely
assumed that this secret would never be revealed. However, it is hypothesized that Kafka’s
autism is the big secret of how Kafka was able to write like he did. This big secret is more
important than all the little secrets Kafka incorporated in his work although they might turn
out not to be intended as secrets at all, once Kafka’s work is analyzed from the right
perspective. The key parable ‘Before the Law’ is also discussed because it is the main literary
work to understand Kafka’s autistic frame of reference in his writing. Therefore the function
and use of parables are also discussed to support this autism hypothesis concerning Franz
Kafka which ultimately makes his life and work more understandable and accessible.

Diagnosing Kafka
In Kafka research one of the suggested diagnosis was that he might suffer from a narcissistic
neurosis, however the alleged main source of this disturbance is almost completely assigned
to the inadequate role of the mother which is an obsolete and outdated psychoanalytical
explanation. [1] Narcissistic persons are assumed to arise from poorly affectionate parents,
by their absence, by leaving the upbringing to others, by withholding affection but to spoil
the child out of guilt feelings. Especially the ‘empathic failure’ of the mother is thought to be
the main cause of narcissistic neuroses. However the symptoms of this so called narcissistic
neurosis can scientifically better be explained with the symptoms of autism spectrum
disorders which leave the unwarranted role of the mother out of the origins of the
psychopathology of the individual. The psychoanalytical view confuses autistic egocentrism
with narcissistic tendencies which are completely different self-consciousness phenomena.
This psychoanalytical view is also wrong regarding Kafka’s presumed anorexia nervosa which
is confused with the often observed eating problems in autistic individuals because of their
digestive problems which are the result of the hyper conscious awareness of autistic persons
which include internal processes. The hyper awareness of digestive processes can result in
peculiar forms of food preferences or restricted appetite.

Verhaar (1975) wrote, “From the extensive autobiographical material one can conclude that
Kafka has lived his life as a defenseless person, not able to cope with his father, his daily
work, his city of birth, too weak for love, for life itself, only capable of writing and even that
was difficult for him to finish properly.” [2] From an autism perspective it is interesting to
notice that Kafka had problems with all these daily tasks and customs which normal people
don’t seem to have any problem with. The important question is why Kafka did have so

4
many problems with life in general. Why could he not do what he thought others could do?
This question is also how his protagonists behave in his stories and novels, and with their
help Kafka tries to answer, however mostly in vain but it is at the same time not a senseless
effort. The alienating feeling of the unattainability of the attainable, not capable to do what
others could because he thought he couldn’t; this paralysis was a hindrance in his life and
was the important theme in virtually all of his stories. This sense of impotence is
characterized that it primarily exists as a feeling and only because of the fact it exist as a
feeling it becomes a reality. This feeling of being incapable of living life, the unattainability of
the attainable and the feeling of impotence can also be attributed as a good description of
the struggle in daily life and how autistic persons experience life among non-autistic persons.
[ 3]
It is therefore more productive and scientifically more correct to regard Kafka’s behavior and
his artistic expressions as one of a genuine autistic person rather than to analyze every detail
or idiosyncracy of his autobiography assuming they are peculiarities and odd behavior of a
cognitively 'normal' person or assuming he was a rather strange neurotypical person. By
assuming that Kafka was a neurotypical person he and his work were subjected over the
decades to unwarranted overinterpretations, mystification, complications and all sorts of
presumed riddles rather than to look at Kafka from the correct neurological perspective.

For a person to be diagnosed with autism, childhood experiences are regarded as important
and helpful and often a good indicator that the diagnosis might be correct. However medical
information of Kafka’s childhood are scarce and moreover as Reiner Stach noted: “All we
have from those final high school year are fragments of memory, bits and pieces of an
intellectual mosaic, and a dozen somewhat spectral names; too little to derive a vivid
picture, let alone the compelling logic of a coming-of-age novel.”[4] Like Kafka himself, here
it is thought that Kafka’s psychosocial makeup and his anxieties cannot be explained solely
on the basis of early-childhood traumas; it arises only when insecurities, rejections and
desertions are experienced and interpreted as traumatic. Stach 2017 [5] Thus contrary to
psychoanalytic, abandonment and attachment theory framing of how the adult might recall
these experiences as though they were actual traumas, it is the autistic mind with its
inherent state of anxiety that caused Franz Kafka to recall his childhood memories the way
he did. Moreover Kafka’s biography, letters, diaries and work provide compelling evidence to
justify a posthumous autism diagnosis.

Why Kafka was an autistic person

The autistic perspective was not long ago regarded by the autism establishment as either a
mere defect or malfunctioning version of the neurotypical perspective rather than to
recognize the autistic frame of reference as an autonomous and specific perspective to
engage reality. In the history of Kafka research, Kafka is often incorrectly associated with all
sorts of diagnoses which only referred to his behavioral symptoms but none of them could

5
explain or simply ignored his mental expressions and the logic of his writings which should
also be addressed by an explanatory diagnosis. [6] [7] Most posthumous Kafka diagnoses are
primarily based on comments of his behavior which rules them out as being scientifically
reliable diagnosis of what Kafka might have been suffering from. These diagnoses are
therefore at best just speculations. In this section relevant Autism spectrum disorder
symptomology is used to prove the case that Franz Kafka’s was a person with autism. The
most convincing behavioral symptoms of autism are highlighted and supported with
examples from Kafka’s biography and work.

The present theory asserts that the main evidence of Kafka’s autism is best explained by the
analysis of the logic of his autistic mind and the elucidation of the main themes of his work,
the parable ‘Before the Law’ and undisclosed connections in his other works. In this chapter
relevant autistic traits in connection with Kafka’s biography are discussed because they also
resemble my personal experience. The discussion of his behavioral symptomology is
presented as additional evidence. These behavioral traits are to be found in most autism
textbooks. [8] [9]

Memory
Kafka’s excellent memory enabled him not to study that much during the academic year
instead he managed in a final sprint a couple of months before the finals to pass his exams
without much damage. Although he passed with rather average scores. In his previous
schools it was his routine to read books in the evenings and neglecting his homework then
the next morning to memorize his schoolwork at top speed. His memory was that good. [10]
Another instructive example of his photographic memory, are Kafka’s recollections of his
first meeting with Felice Bauer in his letters. [11] From the situation around the time Kafka
wrote ‘Letter to his father’ one can read how to interpret his memory. Reiner Stach notes:
“The overwhelming impression is that even when Kafka talked about experiences that dated
back to his childhood; it was a matter not just of harking back to decades past but of
describing a perpetual state that eludes chronological classification. It is as though a tiny
step was connecting the most remote periods. Or ‘marching in place’ as Kafka later sought to
grasp the law of his life.” [12] These excerpts from Kafka’s autobiography read like examples
from an Autism textbook regarding the special talents and cognitive strengths of these
persons. [13]

Pronoun reversals and existential problems

Pronoun reversal, the use of you for self-references and I for an addressee have often been
associated with autism spectrum disorders. Thus pronoun reversals are described as
idiosyncratic language impairment in autism, which some researchers accurately propose
they characterize an atypical understanding of the social world because deictic shifting is
embedded in understanding the self- and other- relationship. [14] This requires the

6
recognition of the self-stance relative to other’s existence. This view can be understood by
emphasizing the significance of the ability to flexibly shift the viewpoint in social
communication in stating that ‘perspective-taking is at the very core of language structure
and higher cognition’. [15] Pronoun reversal can also be observed in some of Kafka’s work
such as: “An Imperial Message”, it’s function is to underscore the autistic logic behind the
story, which Kafka himself was unaware of

The problem of individual identity is also evident in Kafka’s novels but also in his diaries
where the sense of existential disorientation is such, that a degree of uncertainty arises
about one’s own distinctive individual identity. [16] A very interesting feature that appears
from time to time in Kafka’s personal diary and that is the way he at times adopts an alter
ego who addresses him as ‘du’. The following extract from March 9th 1914 relates to him
considering going to Berlin:

“But you are spoiled.

No, I need a room and a vegetarian diet, almost nothing more
Aren’t you going there because of F.?
No, I choose Berlin only for the above reasons, although I love it and perhaps I
love it because of F. and because of the aura of thought that surrounds F.; but that
I can’t help.”[17]

This example demonstrates a total inability to come to a decision. The author challenges
himself with the various factors which have a bearing on the situation. What is of particular
importance is that he assumes two different roles within his own mind. From a neurotypical
perspective there can be no definite, secure, personal identity where a person feels the need
to project some of his feelings and attitudes on to another persona. Furthermore, the other
persona is continually questioning him:

“Then what do you want to do?... Leave your job? … Then what do you want to do?”[18]

For the outsider or non-autistic person this might be something deeply unsettling about this
‘other voice’ within him. These examples might lead critics to assume that the world of Kafka
is a chaotic one. This is however a fundamental misunderstanding of how Kafka’s mind
worked. These examples make more sense once Kafka’s autism is taken into account.

Pronoun reversal as one of the features of autism might also explain why Kafka uses a prose
which is stark and unemotional and which does not dwell on psychology. The pain and
suffering are no less real for Kafka’s protagonists, but the reader is left to fill in the details for
himself and complete a psychological picture which is only given in outline. [19] Moreover
Kafka’s so called “He” aphorisms and the confusing intermingled use of ‘Sie’ and ‘du’ which

7
are similar expressions are considered as mysteries in Kafka research. [20] These phenomena
must be regarded as expressions of the compartmentalized self-consciousness of a genuine
autistic person in which The ‘I’ and The ‘Self’ are not experienced as a unity or at least
fundamentally different from a neurotypical person.

Attention to detail
By examining the original manuscript of ‘The Metamorphosis’ we can pinpoint the spots at
which Kafka exercised control over his autobiographical material. A rather perplexing
correction in the manuscript indicates that Kafka deliberately encoded autobiographical
material in his texts with a positively bureaucratic attention to detail. [21]

Kafka’s tendency to focus on details rather than onto the general meaning of situations
Individuals on the autism spectrum tend to be more, sometimes overly focused on details;
this can often be at the expense of understanding the actual meaning or appreciating the
nature of a situation or context. This tendency is also noticed in Kafka’s novels and in his
personal life. However what is known as the central coherence deficit does not take into
account that genuine autistic persons engage with reality and the external world from a
different neural perspective. From neurotypical perspective it may seem that persons with
autism do not understand the gist of situations but this assumption is however a narrow
view of social reality because the autistic person has his own logic to assess social situations
and reality. However the autistic assessment of specific (social) situations might not make
sense for most neurotypical persons because they don’t understand the autistic logic on
which the reactions and behavior of the autistic person are based.

There is evidence in Kafka research which clearly indicates that Kafka showed excessive
attention to detail to the point he did lose sight of the general context of the stories and
novels he was working on. Kobs (1970) did research into Kafka’s minute description of
details in his work which paradoxically leads to indistinctness. [22] Although this research is
valuable to unravel the phenomenon Kafka, it is important to remind ourselves that these
conclusions are how the reader might interpret what in Kafka’s autistic perspective is a
logical process or sequence of events. According to Kobs (1970), Kafka’s mania for details
leads to fragmentation of reality. That is why Kafka avoided the use of metaphors because
they obfuscate the concreteness of reality. Kafka was more confident in the use of parables
and images. What he did was translating images into word because he was also confident in
the use of language. His hyperbole activity by accentuating the concreteness resulted in that
the whole falls apart into pieces, Kobs calls this ‘Einzelkeiten’. Reality poorly endures such
focusing because the whole or general meaning of the story gets lost by the gaze on details.
According to Kobs (1970), Kafka did not maintain the balance between the whole and
details, which is an accurate assessment because of this fact Kafka’s novels and stories are
unnecessarily inaccessible.

8
This is however the result of the autistic perspective on which the whole of his writing is
founded. Kafka remains stuck in details, connects one detail to the next and loses sight of
the whole of the story. This is how Kafka seems to let his protagonist understand reality. It is
by focusing from one detail to the next. However this is not the main reason why Kafka’s
protagonists seem to lose sight of the whole because as already stated Kafka’s stories and
novels are based and guided by his autistic neural frame of reference which is an alien type
of logic and reality for the neurotypical reader. Thus the sense of disillusion, contradictions
between details, hopelessness and despair in face of their reality by his protagonists are the
result of the dominant impact of the general autistic perspective on the narrative which
fundamentally differs from the neurotypical sense of reality.

In sum, Kafka’s protagonists are implicated to suffer from a weak realization function. The
prejudices by which reality is engaged are sources of all sorts of contradictions, frictions and
serious problems with adapting to circumstances. This was not only a problem for the
protagonists of Kafka’s novels but also for Kafka himself which is evident from a letter
Milena Jensenká wrote to Max Brod. [23]

An excerpt from this letter to prove this point:

“He doesn’t understand the simplest things in the world. Were you ever in a post office with
him? After he composes a telegram and picks out whatever little counter he likes best,
shaking his head, he then drifts from one counter to another, without the slightest idea to
what end or why, until he finally stumbles on the right one, and when he pays and receives
change, he counts it and discovers one krone too many, and so he gives one back to the girl
behind the counter. Then he walks away slowly, counts once again, and in the middle of
descending the last staircase he realizes that the missing krone belonged to him after all. So
there you stand next to him, at a loss, while he shifts his weight from one foot to the other,
wondering what to do. Going back is difficult; upstairs there’s a crowd of people pushing and
shoving. ‘So just let it go,’ I say. He looks at me completely horrified. How can you let it go?
Not that he’s sorry about the krone. But it’s not good. There’s one krone missing. How can
you forget about something like that? He spoke about it for a long time, and was very
dissatisfied with me. And this repeated itself with different variations in every shop, in every
restaurant, in front of every beggar.”

A similar scene is repeated between Kafka and a beggar and it is once again about one
krone. Milena’s letter gives a precise description of Kafka in which we very clearly can see
the resemblance with his literary protagonists. Both the author Kafka and his literary
protagonists seem to be unable to separate details from the general meaning of the
situation.

9
Discrepancy between events and emotional reactions
This is evident in both Kafka’s writing and in his real life however most of his anger and
frustrations were put in his writing. [24] This effect can be assigned to the dominant influence
of primary emotions on mental images in persons with autism. As an example, Kafka was
short on human affection and love for his parents and sister Ottla in the period he wrote The
Judgment and The Metamorphosis. In the period before he wrote The Metamorphosis he
was entangled in a family quarrel regarding the asbestos factory. This was a confrontation
with his family and he was seething with rage because his sister Ottla took the side of his
parents. He threatened to commit suicide by jumping from the fourth floor apartment. This
example also shows the discrepancy between the real events and his emotional reaction
which is more a testimony of a death struggle or fight and flight reactions rather than
acknowledging that unfortunate things can happen in life. These emotional outbursts can be
regarded as signs we are dealing with a genuine autistic person. [25] The same discrepancy
between daily events and the content of his writing is apparent after the encounter in the
Hotel Askanischer Hof when he wrote The Trail and In the Penal Colony.

Kafka often accused himself of being an insensitive and cold person. He did not really
experienced love and as result in his work love is not a motif. This discrepancy can be found
all through Kafka’s work while in reality the only thing that was happening was that he did
not feel at ease at home, he felt like being a stranger and rejected by everyone. Nobody
understood what he was doing although his family took care of him, let him be, but nobody
showed interest in what he was writing which was the only thing of worth for Kafka. This
obvious indifference evoked enormous emotional reactions in Kafka which is evident in his
writings that is at odds with the rather on the surface peaceful and rather tranquil life he led.

Honesty and conscientiousness

According to his friends Kafka was not able to lie and his work, notebooks, diaries and letters
indicate that he by all means could not believe in lies. Kafka was very scrupulous that
sometimes seemed excessive. Max Brod wrote about his inconceivable precise
conscientiousness or thoughtfulness concerning both his work and injustices which he could
not ignore. Kafka asked himself often moral questions regarding these issues. [26] This trait is
one of the hallmarks of persons with an autism spectrum disorder who are often regarded as
‘pure’ and honest and tend not to deceive.[27] As Milena Jensenká wrote, “He is without the
slightest asylum… That which has been written about Kafka’s abnormality is his great merit. I
rather believe the whole world is sick and he the only healthy one, the only one to
understand, feels correctly, the only pure human being. I know he does not fight life as such,
only against this kind of life.”[28]

Kafka could not stand white lies and broken promises which shattered his trust which was
extraordinarily fragile and was hard to reestablish. [29] Another example follows from his

10
correspondence with Felice Bauer around November-December 1913 where first he did not
receive letters from her for seven weeks. She then lied about the reason why she did not
send any letters. He lamented this situation with the metaphor. “Lies are dreadful; no
mental torment is worse than that.” [30] This statement did not become irrefutable until
1920, after he had had more experience in this regard. But even in 1913 he would have
found it impossible to form an alliance with a woman who had no misgivings about lying. [31]

Physical problems, noise sensitivity and hypochondria

It is well known that Kafka often suffered from insomnia and also complained about fatigue,
about his limited physical power, about his digestion, Kafka makes frequent notes about
stomach problems in his diaries, hair loss and the anxiety to suffer from spinal curvature and
also of being too skinny. [32] Kafka was also sensory sensitive and because of that he was
irritated by the slightest noise.

Obeying (social) rules and obligations

His engagement with Felice Bauer was predominantly inspired by contemporary social
pressure to be a married man. He regarded marriage and children as the most highly
desirable things on earth in a certain sense. [33] Obligations regarding the asbestos factory
were experienced as compulsory or a rule of honor because he had committed himself to
this endeavor by investing in it with free will till he faced a nervous breakdown and
threatened to commit suicide if he was not relieved from his obligations. Adherence to rules
is also a well-known trait in persons with autism.

Shame and guilt

The autistic person’s sense of loyalty towards family and close friends and his inability to
deceive is the mechanism behind the infinite sense of guilt experienced by genuine autistic
persons when situations do not occur according to plan or people behave not according to
expectations and the logic of the autistic person. This guilt is evoked regardless of the fact
whether or not the autistic person is to blame for these deviations. Guilt is a main theme in
Kafka’s work. All protagonists in Kafka’s work feel guilty. According to critics, their guilt
feeling are the drivers of their actions and suffering, of their meekness, as well as their
aggressiveness and ultimately of their presumed failures as functioning human beings.
Kafka’s protagonists act out their destinies by denying the reality of guilt, yet somehow they
are all guilty. Kafka’s characters don’t show the more obvious guilt and a conscious
acceptance of responsibility but exhibit merely the residue of a guilt morality although in
entirely negative terms, namely as crippling guilt feelings. In Kafka’s work guilt feelings lead
only to despair which has existential origins.

His protagonists all suffer from severe sense of guilt which cannot be explained from the
actions and occurrences in the stories itself. What is happening in reality is that the sense of

11
guilt is implied by the author and narrator. In fact Franz Kafka superimposes his autistic guilt
onto the protagonists of his stories which has the effect that the causal mechanisms behind
the guilt felt by the protagonists cannot be discerned from events within the story. The
manner guilt is implied in his stories follows from Kafka’s real life autistic perspective
through which all of his novels and stories are written and presented to the reader. This guilt
is true for both his real life events and for his personal projections into his work.

Finally it is important to understand without delving too much in physiological details that
the autistic mind with its inability for deceit and culminating in self-sickening loyalty to
people close to the person with autism, will suffer intensely when confronted by deceit and
illogical or irrational behavior. The main culprits are discomforting cognitive links or simply
put mental short-circuits with the dominant primary emotions in the autistic mind. This
creates intense guilt feelings in the autistic mind and will have severe impact on the body of
the autistic person. Infinite guilt can be seen as a reaction to compensate for the inability to
recognize deceit or because of illogical or irrational behavior when the autistic person is not
aware of his own frame of reference and is also not aware of the fact that others have a
different neural frame of reference. Thus these infinite feelings of guilt are triggered to
compensate for fight and flight primary emotions which makes the autistic person really
miserable which forces him to look for some form of cognitive release or outlet. That will
ultimately culminate in meek, apologetic and docile behavioral reactions or sometimes in
aggressive behavior. As a result the guilt stems also from Kafka’s interest in tracing the
human reasoning process in great detail up to the point where it fails. His protagonists are
desperately trying to comprehend the world by following the ‘normal’ way which is
obviously doomed to fail since they encounter the world from a different vantage point. Not
able to act ‘normal’ will cause in most genuine autistic persons a crippling sense of guilt,
shame and sometimes despair.

Concreteness of thinking and literal mindedness

Kafka’s method was that he did not need to invent or develop anything; he could devote his
entire creative power to fitting together all the parts to form a perfect whole. His diaries
reveal that the conflicts, metaphors, gestures and details were all there. In many cases, the
images had already taken on linguistic shape. Kafka did not work form a welter of emotions
but instead focused on the amassed material that his emotions brought out, hence the
unparalleled, provocative plethora of references and links between the visual and linguistic
elements in his texts. [34] Literal mindedness and concreteness of thinking is also a well-
known autistic trait which sometimes can be confused with fantasy when applied in creative
endeavors.

12
The need to confide in someone
The constant, senseless need to confide in someone that came over Kafka after only a few
hours at for example, The Jungborn clinic is recognizable trait of genuine autistic persons.
[35] This need to confide in someone shows where current autism theory is wrong by
assuming cognitive rigidity in (genuine) autistic persons which can be attributed to
misdiagnoses and false positive Asperger’s diagnoses. [36] While in Matliary, where Kafka
stayed to recover from his tuberculosis he often confided in Robert Klopstock, one of his
favorite fellow patients. Klopstock must have been deeply impressed to find that one could
have long and serious discussions about Zionism, Christianity, Dostoevsky, and love to clown
around and think up practical jokes with one and the same person. [37]

Unwarranted sense of loyalty

Canetti in his book length essay: Kafka’s Other Trial is unable to explain why it took virtually
five years for Kafka to part with Felice Bauer. Why he obviously needed her letters to live
and not just to write. Canetti consistently depicts the path of this relationship as a steady
decline and contends that Kafka ultimately would have been able to extend it only by self-
deception. [38] Here human relationship is regarded as means of guaranteeing the influx of
emotional fuel and of maintaining the necessary degree of creative simulation while in
reality autistic traits were at work which maintained this relationship. In fact, adherence to
social rules and the undying sense of loyalty to specific close friends or family is what is at
stake in this situation.

Compulsive behavior and repetitive behavior

Kafka showed in different areas forms of compulsive or repetitive behavior. This was evident
in his letters to Felice Bauer in which the repetition of his self-denigrations strikes the reader
as compulsive which can be traced back to the major disappointments in his relationship
with her. Another form of repetitive behavior is his compulsion to continuously speak about
his hypochondriac obsessions with his body.

Kafka was also inept at small talk. On this issue Stach (2013) notes: “Felice Bauer had known
Kafka long enough to realize that he loathed ordinary chit-chat and that when talked about
aspirin, fresh air, and third-class train rides there was invariably an underlying issue of
totality. [39] Now the issue of totality was becoming explicit and the disparity between the
plain everyday matters that were so important to Kafka and the ponderous arguments why
they were important loomed larger than ever.” A true life, dans le vrai, Kafka had in mind.
Now that Kafka and Felice Bauer had decided to marry, he tried to persuade his bride-to-be
of this, as well.

13
Special interests and preoccupations
Asceticism was a magic word for Kafka, an intricate complex of images, cultural paradigms,
idiosyncrasies, fears and psychological techniques that he incorporated into his thoughts and
feeling and gradually made a focal point of his identity. He was entirely justified in asserting
that he had ‘a fabulous innate capacity for asceticism.’[40] The way he steadfastly denied
himself warmth, meat, drugs, and medicine clearly refutes his alleged weakness of will. He
reduced his food intake, toughened his body and simplified his habits. Asceticism is not
austerity for its own sake; it is a process of self-regulation and self-formation based on the
utopian notion of attaining complete control over one’s body, self and life. All Kafka’s
interests, habits and likings were modified accordingly.

The reason why asceticism is mentioned separately is because its abnormality in the
intensity and focus combined with other traits mentioned in this section also indicate Kafka
was a person with autism. When the focus of the interest is eccentric which is obviously the
case with Kafka’s asceticism, which also extended to his writings, then the interest could be
considered unusual and of clinical significance. The DSM criteria refer to the development of
non-functional routines and rituals with the routines being imposed in all or almost all
aspects of ordinary life. It is without a doubt that Kafka idiosyncratic lifestyle was the main
cause of his tuberculosis since none of his family members contracted this disease. Kafka’s
special interest and need for asceticism can be regarded, which is very clear from his diaries
and letters, to provide for a sense of identity when faced with (presumed) inadequacies or
alienation. [41]

Existential fear
One of the few persons who really understood Kafka, Milena Jensenká quickly realized that a
deep- seated fear was beleaguering Kafka and draining his will to make practical decisions.
He tried to explain it, to give reasons for it, and did not appear to be fully aware of the
significance of the concept of fear, until battling it through with Milena Jensenká. He felt that
this fear had to have some sort of basis; it was something essential, a form of alertness,
awareness that could not simply be conquered and was not treatable with therapy. Kafka
was unable to make it clear to her how it felt when that inner force welled up. [42]

14
The parable ‘Before the Law’ is the key to all of Kafka’s work
An insightful paper to understand Kafka is: The trace of the absurd in Kafka’s The Trial [43].
This paper discusses some selected interpretations of The Trial. It is obvious that as a writer
Kafka expressed his meaning through allegories or parables and symbols. According to
Ingeborg Henel the parable of the Doorkeeper which in chapter 9 of The Trial is told by the
Warden, is not only of paramount significance for an understanding of the novel but
provides as it were a key to all of Kafka’s work. [44] The meaning of The Trial therefore
depends on how we interpret the legend of the Doorkeeper. This is a profound and insightful
statement to understand the work of Kafka. However it requires a rather different
explanatory model than Henel presented to understand the legend of the Doorkeeper in her
article. According to Henel the role of the Doorkeeper in the parable is paradoxical. While he
is supposed to forbid the entry to the countryman, he also thereby draws attention to the
fact of the entry itself. The last sentence, the last revelation of the Doorkeeper that the gate
was intended only for the countryman unlocks, as it were, the mystery of the parable and
hence of the novel itself. In Henel’s interpretation which is close to the real meaning or logic
of this novel, the validity of the Law is not its universality but the unquestioned,
unconditional claim on the self which allows no rest but drives him forth a lifelong to achieve
the impossible.

Furthermore the fact that the entrance is reserved for one person only proves in this view
that it does not lead to a universal generally valid Law comprehensible by reason and
accessible to any rational person of good will. It is not only that no one else comes to the
gate except the countryman, but even the doorkeeper has no access to the Law, he cannot
close the door till the countryman dies. All the components to really understand the logic of
The Trial are summed up, but most critics and Henel go astray by arguing that to blame the
Doorkeeper for barring the entry to the countryman is to side with Josef K. and not with
Kafka. In this view the protagonist and author should not be confused but kept apart, which
is the crucial and fundamental mistake and error in the understanding of this parable and
the novel The Trial.

Another interesting interpretation is discussed in Thomas Kavanagh’s ‘The semiotics of the

Absurd’ [45] By examining the way language operates right from the opening sentences of
the novel and the narrative mode, Kavanagh shows that the universe of The Trial is split by
doubt and uncertainty. To move up the ladder of hierarchy in the story is to become more
confused to be told less and less, to become more and more painfully aware of the
epistemological gap on which the chain of events is based. Simply put there is a crisis of
knowledge in understanding the universe of The Trial. The narrative mode and the use of
language show the universe of The Trial to be a subversive one. The language does retain its
mimetic or representational character, that is, the Inspector is an inspector, the warders are
warders, but at the same time the representation itself is marred or undermined from

15
within. The main problem with a text like The Trial according to Kavanagh is to choose a way
of talking about it, to pick up a metaphor that is adequate to the term. The problem is one of
perspective which is an unintended profound statement to understand the real meaning and
logic of The Trial.

The knowledge crisis that is said to pervade the universe of The Trial is nothing other
than the absence of a code adequate to the various messages being emitted. That is why
the universe of The Trial appears to be absurd. The messages in the story not only call into
question the code Josef K. is accustomed to but in subverting their validity, they point to,
yet refuse to reveal, a more extensive code to which Josef K. is completely alien. This
onslaught of an unfamiliar code completely destroys his comfort and feeling of security and
confidence of being able to any situation. Josef K.‘s problem is no longer that of expression
and manipulation but that of simple comprehension. The Law is not just another code but
the governing code of the universe of The Trial. It is a code through which the ‘message’ of
crime and arrest comes to Josef K. and he is supposed to defend himself. For the proper
functioning of any code it has to have one property and that is clarity, the ability to eliminate
ambiguities and internal contradictions. And that precisely is the quality the governing penal
code lacks in The Trial.

Both above mentioned interpretations are excellent summaries of the motifs and
symbolisms presented in The Trial. Once the autistic frame of reference of the author Franz
Kafka is revealed and incorporated in explaining this novel, the logic behind Kafka’s The Trial
will be immediately apparent and the reader will be able to decipher the real meaning of this
novel and actually all of Kafka’s work.

The autistic perspective of the parable ‘Before the law’

Understanding the parable of the doorkeeper and the countryman looking for entrance to
The Law in his novel The Trial is the key to understand Franz Kafka’s work and to understand
the fact Kafka was a person with autism.

In this parable in the novel the Trial, The Law is the unintended metaphor of the neural
frame of reference of people in the world around him. In this parable both the doorkeeper
and countryman are alter egos of the author Kafka. The countryman in this tale must be
regarded as Kafka’s autistic self-consciousness which cannot figure out what is going on and
why just he is single out to endure such misery. The countryman asks the questions Josef K.
is asking to understand what is going on and in reality it is the self-consciousness of the
author Franz Kafka who is asking these questions. The doorkeeper resembles the chaplain in
the novel by putting up objections and alternative explanations why entrance to the Law is
prohibited. Thus narrator and author cannot be separated in this novel. In this tale Franz
Kafka shows via the remark by the doorkeeper that only he is refused entrance to The Law

16
which shows that Kafka is unaware of his autistic frame of reference because he cannot
recognize other persons with a similar point of view. He is all alone with his point of view,
both in his story and in daily reality. Even waiting till his death won’t resolve this enigma
(refusal of entrance to the law and why nobody else has asked for entrance) for the
countryman in this tale. The Law is an extrapolation of the code or the neural frame of
reference of neurotypical persons since they all automatically adhere and acknowledge the
logic of The Law. What Kafka unknowingly describes with The Law is their shared neural
frame of reference because of their similarly configured brains which in daily life is
expressed in arbitrarily spoken and unspoken sociocultural rules and codes.

In the end Josef K. who instead of acknowledging his innate guilt and thus ‘understanding’
the law of his life, dies ‘like a dog’. Furthermore, dying in this manner, oblivious of the fact
how the other, for him, unknown human frame of reference works, is an exaggeration of his
anger, frustrations and anxiety about living within an autistic frame of reference of which he
is unaware.

The use and function of parables

A very good description or metaphor for Kafka’s art and reality is stated by Burkhard Müller
(2010): “Kafka’s art may be compared (if you don’t consider this metaphor debasing) with a
hornet that, trying to break free, bumps against the window pane time and again, and this
buzzing and bumping in its modified repetition gives a rhythm to the process. Although the
hornet does not succeed in passing through the glass (which is impossible, and impossible to
grasp for the insect, for the very reason that the pane is transparent), somebody watching
will not fail to notice how blue the sky is beyond the obstacle.” [46]

This metaphor of Kafka’s art and life is the best description I have found which captures both
the struggle and search by Kafka in disclosing the invisible reality of the social world around
him which always eluded him and he was not able to put a finger on it. This notion of a
pursuit which Kafka understood in metaphorical terms was in itself the search for metaphor
in the form of parables.

The use of parables by Kafka and the function of parables are perfectly explained by
Matthew Powell (2006): “In parable, Kafka located a narrative structure that appeared to
represent the relationship between his internal and external worlds. In the relationship
between what a parable states and what a parable means, Kafka recognized the struggle
between his understanding of the truth and his ability to express the truth. In parables Kafka
found a mode to express his unconscious need to describe his intuition about reality he
missed and could sense but yet could not understand. In this process the qualities of
language are important restrictions to express what is beyond one’s understanding. Kafka’s
compulsion to write was tied to an understanding of language as that which traps us within
this world while simultaneously alluding to a world beyond. For Kafka, language is both
17
problematic and transcendent. It is in the tension between the literal and the figurative that
Kafka chose to locate his narratives.”

It is important to emphasize that Kafka as an autistic person was not always consciously
aware his interpretations and writings were literal, thus the line between literal and
figurative were not consciously clear for Kafka. This blurring stems from the specific focus of
autistic persons who look at external predictable behavior of people and situations rather
than at internal mental states of individuals. Kafka wrote from his autistic perspective in
which the literal form is a default state of understanding the external world. For Kafka to
move beyond the literal is not only to express that which cannot be said literally, but to
express that which is not literal. The figurative is not simply not the literal, it is more than the
literal. It is beyond the literal. The gap between the literal and the figurative, across which
the reader is compelled by language to traverse, is for Kafka also the space which language
cannot adequately express. The use of parable by Kafka marks his most concentrated effort
to examine the space between language and that which is beyond language.

From the functions of parables it is clear that in order to crack the secret of Kafka and his
work it is necessary to provide the parable ‘Before the Law’ with a context or metatext
which can reveal the true meaning of this parable and Kafka’s work in general. Powell (2006)
[47] The metatext of the novel The Trial does not provide any insight in the deeper meaning
of Kafka’s parable ‘Before the Law’, which was first published separately, but is rather more
confusion because of the interpretations in the novel. In sum the present autism hypothesis
provides for a context and metatext in which the parable ‘Before the Law’ can be set and
reveals its deeper meaning and in fact discloses the secret of Franz Kafka as a person and the
logic behind his work. Thus autism is the integral explanation of the phenomenon Kafka in all
its expressions, and autism can explain the mystery of Kafka like no other of the
interpretations proposed by literary scholars and critics in the history of Kafka research.

18
Sources of the absurd in Kafka’s work
Discussing the collision between the autistic and neurotypical perspectives which is the
source of Kafka’s anxiety and misery, can also explain his style of writing including what is
referred to as “The Absurd” or “Grotesque”. Usually the absurd refers to a belief held by
some 20th century writers and philosophers, in and out the existentialist movement, that
human life cannot be understood by any set of general rules. It is utterly devoid of meaning,
and therefore ‘absurd’, until it is invested with meaning for an individual by his or her own
actions. The definition of the absurd shows that it is not adequate to describe Kafka’s work
because there is meaning in his work which can be discerned although one has to look and
analyze it from the right (autistic) perspective.

The search by Kafka in his writing was for the unknown perspective in his fellow human
beings which could put him at ease but he never managed to find it. He intuited this other
state of mind and his writing is a testament of his search for this alien state of mind or self-
consciousness which he tried to describe via parables, animal stories, aphorisms and images.
His problem was that he could not get to grips with reality, more specifically his own reality,
because he could not live with it. Moreover every thinkable alternative: a better life, a more
authentic existence, a more ‘real’ reality was not attainable for him, it remained forever out
of reach. It is this despair and his complicated view and approach of reality in his writing
which many have deemed Kafka’s work to be absurd.

Kafka’s life is viewed from many perspectives; however they were not the correct ones. His
work is analyzed from contradictory assumptions by many and interpreted by countless
critics and scholars. Their views have inspired many artistic and philosophical traditions but
never has a dominant evaluation of Kafka appeared. For surrealist the dream reality was
more important and more real than the genuine reality of the daytime. They were the ones
who imposed upon Kafka his reputation as an absurd and mysterious writer. The
existentialists on the other hand who implicated Kafka with a fundamental human feeling of
alienation thought in earnest that the world was to blame, rather than the individual. While
the psychoanalysts who studied Kafka did not want to talk about the human as such but
nothing more than the sick human being. However Kafka is never satisfactorily incorporated
in one or another trend or tradition. Expressionism, marxism, surrealism, magic realism,
realism, mysticism even: on the surface his work seems to have something in common with
all of them, but not enough with any of them. What is evident that the uniqueness of Kafka’s
work thoroughly depends on how his work is interpreted. And the history of Kafka
interpretations has shown that the views and traditions tell more about the interpreters
than something fundamental or objective about Kafka or his work by itself. [48]

19
Animal stories
Kafka wrote many stories in which solely animals appear while he had severe aversion to
dogs, cats, rats, mice and all sorts of vermin. His fear in Zürau for field mice is of a phobic
nature.

“My reaction toward the mice is one of sheer terror. To analyze its source would be the task
of a psychoanalyst, which I am not. Certainly this fear, like an insect phobia, is connected
with the unexpected, uninvited, inescapable, more or less silent, persistent, secret aim of
these creatures”[49]

On Kafka’s animal stories Verbeek (1984) wrote: “Why then write stories about animals?
Like everything Kafka ever wrote dealing with himself, his feelings, his images, his misery, his
vainly attempts, so are the animals in The Burrow, Investigation of a Dog, Josephine, and
Metamorphosis alter egos of himself. His choice to use animals as the protagonist stems
from the need to express self-loathing, condemnation, low sense of worth and feelings of
inferiority.”[50] The word dog had very depreciatory meaning. One can notice in Kafka’s work
that every time the word dog is mentioned something contemptuous, reprehensible or self-
denial is indicated. Overall animals in Kafka’s work refer to problematic aspects of himself
and have no allegoric meaning but are determined associative. The use of animals is more a
creative device rather than an intrinsic one because by using animals, which are seen as
categories rather than individuals, in this way represent a collective whereas humans are
often interpreted as individuals. Thus animals are in most cases used as a literary device to
represent a collective feeling although there are exceptions such as the story The Burrow.

20
The writer Kafka
Verbeek (1984) wrote: “By reading Kafka’s work the reader must be cautious not to easily
assume allegories, analogies, symbolisms, paradoxes and parables by Kafka. Kafka’s work
deals with images, a procession of images he presents of which the connections are difficult
to retrieve, partly because Kafka himself did not see the connections and that is one of the
reasons it is very difficult to interpret his inherent motivation. This is also the reason why
Kafka’s work is subjected to all kinds of interpretations because of the absence of a clear
discernable explanation. “ [51] However as proposed in this paper the origins of the logic of
his writing can be assigned to his autistic frame of reference whereby this logic is alien to
neurotypical readers and requires additional information regarding Kafka’s daily events,
preoccupations and his special topics of interest. Kafka’s writing was also very subjective and
self-referential prose whereby he distilled from myths a method to express human strengths
and impotence, to express fate and domination. In essence these motifs were literary
reflections of his personal issues for which he could not find solutions.

Whereas critics and literary scholars study the psychological motivations of the characters in
terms of, in Kafka’s case, observed lovelessness, egocentricity, arrogance, egotism, limited
awareness of others, lack of compassion, lack of pity and friendships, and naivety of his
protagonists, which are evident in most of his novels. It is however important to
contemplate that Kafka wrote his characters based on external behavioral motivations from
what is known in consciousness studies as the intentional stance. [Dennet,1987] [52] His
focus on external intentional behavior explains the dynamics of Kafka’s protagonists in which
they focus on finding solutions for difficult situations within the available frame of
possibilities, adjusted to the mentality of the ‘judges’ in the stories, ready for the defense of
opponents, to express in these situations what in essence are autistic frustrations, and to be
ready to exploit the ‘law’ or situation.

Verhaar (1975) stated: “Kafka’s protagonists hardly possess something like a personal
character. Not their psychology is on the forefront but they are determined in the stories by
their actions. Kafka’s protagonists don’t know what they’re doing well or what felonies they
commit, but the reader also doesn’t know. Their predicament is at the end still not clear as it
was at the beginning. Kafka’s stories don’t present a prehistory of the characters; neither do
they begin into a narrative, the stories just start in a totally new situation. When the story is
finished, nothing is clarified and in reality nothing has happened what already was stated in
the opening sentence.” [53]

When Kafka’s novels are analyzed with the autistic frame of reference in mind the behavior
of his protagonists make more sense and will reveal that Kafka’s protagonists focus on
external behavioral cues which are guided by Kafka’s education and mindset of a lawyer. As
such Kafka’s protagonists are a reflection of the thinking and behavior of Kafka the author.

21
Critics and literary scholars misinterpret Kafka’s work by focusing on aspects such as the
psychological and mental state of the characters, which are of limited actual concern for the
externally intentional focus of the writer Kafka. This also explains the experienced sense of
absurdism and alienation the neurotypical form of reading evokes in the general reader
because of the difference in neural frames of reference which stands between the author
and most readers.

In Kafka research it is sometimes suggested that Kafka was trying to mystify his work and of
‘semi-private games’ but these claims can only be explained because these critics did not
truly understand the logic of Kafka’s mind. [54] They invoked explanations which seem
plausible to them but have nothing to do with the writer Kafka himself who was not very
different from his protagonists. For that matter it is very interesting to look at statements
made by Max Brod which are very difficult to believe by critics and literary scholars since
they are trying to interpret every detail of Kafka’s work for some special meaning. Max Brod
claimed that Kafka obtained first names of characters in his novels simply from the literature
and books which interested him. [55] Brod also noted that the names of ‘Barnabas’ or
‘Galater’ refered to the fact that in the days he was writing he was also eagerly reading the
New Testament. ‘Bertuch’ refered to works of Goethe, and ‘Gerstäcker’ was found in the
small library of his parents. This version of Max Brod seems more plausible than the
overanalysis of Kafka’s work by critics and literary scholars in the decades after WW II. Max
Brod’s version about how Kafka might have chosen character names concurs with the
proposed diagnosis of autism because not all of Kafka’s special topics of interest were
written down in his diaries and letters but were part of his unconscious frame of reference
which guided his writing without any specific deeper meaning. This claim is also supported
by the analysis of the short story: Silence of the Sirens and his unconscious use of fairy tale
motifs in his other stories. Kafka was fond of fairytales based on his collections of fairytales
books but hated the word fairytale. [56]

The Trial and unconscious preoccupations

Verbeek (1984) wrote on this topic: “The novel The Trial knows an abrupt beginning and
abrupt ending. What is written in between has because of its repetitive nature an
atmosphere of hopelessness, gloominess and uselessness. The constituent parts resemble
each other and are even exchangeable. The sequence of chapters can be switched without
any problems. This circularity of this novel indicates that unconscious motives are at play,
unresolved conflicts are because of repetition and compulsion time and again brought to the
attention. The chapters of The Trial show coherence not because of rational chronological
order but because of its atmosphere which stems from the unconscious origins that make
them form a unit whereby the chapters have a large degree of independence but not in an
absolute sense.”[57]

22
This tendency of repetitive behavior or compulsion is a trait that is well known in persons
with autism. [58] Because it is a part of the neural frame of reference of persons with autism,
it is therefore evident that these cognitive preoccupations will be expressed by the individual
in an unconscious manner. Topics of interest which are consciously learned and specific
preoccupations will form parts of the unconscious repertoire in expressions of daily behavior
and cognitive tasks such as writing and language. For this matter, writing can be a form of
relaxation or stress release which seems to be the case in the phenomenon Franz Kafka.

Conclusion
In this paper the hypothesis is presented that Franz Kafka was a person with autism.
Acknowledging this fact enables the unravelling of many mysteries and puzzles regarding
Kafka’s life and work. In this paper his important works are discussed and explained to prove
the point that Kafka was a person with autism. He therefore engaged the social world and
his writing from a different neural frame of reference which made his work complex and
difficult to understand for the non-autistic general public. With this information Kafka’s work
will be more comprehensible because now it is possible to look at his work from a different
perspective. Acknowledging that Kafka was writing from an autistic perspective is a
fundamental revelation which is of interest for literary scholars, critics and for autism and
psychiatry researchers. A more accessible Kafka without losing its appeal and originality will
actually make it an even more interesting read for the general reader.

23
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