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Falling into the Abyss: Dostoevsky's 'The Double' and Mental Illness

Article · July 2019

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FALLING INTO THE ABYSS: DOSTOEVSKY’S ‘THE
DOUBLE’ AND MENTAL ILLNESS
By Ryan Buesnel
P icture the following scenario: you
overhear your work colleagues talk-
ing in the break room one lunchtime. You
find out they have planned a party for that
very evening. Everyone in the office is in-
vited, and there will be plenty of food,
drink, and entertainment. The problem
is, they have neglected to invite you. You
had absolutely no idea this
event was taking place.
Confused, you rightly be-
gin to feel a sense of re-
jection and unworthiness.
After all, you have never
said a bad word about an-
yone in the office, and you
pride yourself on being
both honest and friendly.
Squashing down a grow-
ing sense that you are de-
liberately being exclud-
ed, you continue to listen
to their hushed whispers
in the hope that there is
some mistake. You find out that the par-
ty is going to be taking place at the home
of one of your co-workers. You catch the
address and decide that against your bet-
ter judgment you will turn up to the party
anyway. After all, they probably just forgot
about you, right?
You arrive at the party several hours af-
ter it commences in a carefully planned
attempt at letting people know you wer-
en’t that desperate to be there. You don’t
receive the apologetic and friendly wel-
come you were hoping. On the contrary,
32
those present (most of the office staff in-
cluding management) eye you off with an
unsettling mixture of disdain and amuse-
ment. You were clearly not meant to be
there. Your lack of invitation was no over-
sight. You have been deliberately and cru-
elly overlooked by the office staff. You
feel a growing sense of turmoil and an-
ger, which leads to a de-
sire to do whatever it takes
to prove yourself as wor-
thy. You approach office
management and casually
strike-up a casual conver-
sation. They ignore you,
smugly dismissing you
with the wave of an apa-
thetic hand. This outright
rejection only spurs you
on in your efforts to be ac-
cepted. Eventually, your
persistence pays off and
these arrogant bureau-
crats are reduced to actual-
ly having to speak to you, telling you in no
uncertain terms to sod off. Emboldened
by this perverse form of recognition, you
approach one of your attractive colleagues
and drunkenly attempt to flirt, full-well
knowing that her husband is also present.
Understandably outraged, the husband
avails himself of the opportunity to rough
you up and – together with some people
from the management team – you are es-
corted out of the house and into the cold
night.
EREMOS
 The above scenario is the situation exact replica scurrying through the
in which Mr. Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin frosty evening. Convinced of the reality
finds himself at the beginning of Fyodor of his double, this second version of Mr.
Dostoevsky’s 1846 novella, The Double and Golyadkin begins a process of sadistically
the triggering event for his subsequent interfering in the real Golyadkin’s life in
descent into madness. The occasion of his an attempt to take it over. This imposter
public humiliation and downfall arises is a faithful clone of the original; he has
after Mr. Golyadkin’s doctor had told him the same looks, clothes, accent, and man-
that his isolation is affecting his health nerisms. The only difference is that Mr.
and that he should socialise more. So, act- Golyadkin version two is a phenomenal
ing in a way that is contrary to his inher- success in all he does, whereas the original
ently shy nature, Mr. Golyadkin decides article is a lowly titular Councillor with a
to attend the upcoming birthday party of somewhat mediocre ranking of level 9.
a certain Klara Olsufyevna as a form of After the shocking discovery that this fake
self-therapy. Ms. Olsufyevna is the daugh- persona has commenced working at the
ter of the office manager same office, the real Mr.
at Mr. Golyadkin’s place of Golyadkin’s horror quickly
work, and the ensuing so- he manages to increases as his fraudulent
cial faux pas committed offend all the
caricature quickly rises
wrong people
by Golyadkin at the par- through the bureaucracy’s
in his misguided
ty is witnessed by his en- ranks, soon eclipsing his
attempts at social
tire workplace, shaming acceptance own success and status
him in ways that would ul- in every conceivable way.
timately be beyond repair. His meteoric rise to the
Painfully aware that he had not been in- top is accompanied by an increase in so-
vited in the first place, Mr. Golyadkin’s cial standing, wealth and prestige, which
chatter with guests is disconnected and the caricature savagely uses to taunt and
rambling, and he manages to offend all humiliate the original. In short, the fake
the wrong people in his misguided at- Mr. Golyadkin is everything the real ver-
tempts at social acceptance. He is soon sion is not: graceful, cultured, popular,
booted out. competent. It scarcely matters that he is,
Humiliated and emotionally fragile, in fact, a cruel illusion, a mere trick of the
the subsequent feelings of an inexora- mind. The mere thought of his presence
ble slip from reality cause Mr. Golyadkin is enough to tip the real Mr. Golyadkin off
to experience a number of psychotic the precipice of mental stability.
breaks, the first of which occurs soon af- Amongst Dostoevsky’s numerous lit-
ter he was escorted out of Klara’s party. As erary gifts is a distinct talent for captur-
he attempts to find his way home through ing the fragility of the human psyche and
the snow of a bitterly cold St. Petersburg the isolation which comes about when an
night, Mr. Golyadkin’s mind tricks him individual feels themselves to be radical-
into thinking that he has spotted his ly different from the crowd. A recurring

No 146 33
theme throughout Dostoevsky’s writings – slapstick clumsiness. It is a cruel fate in-
is the clash between these solitary indi- deed, the more so because his motivations
viduals and the dehumanising, seemingly are of the purest sort: a desire to be accept-
inexorable forces of arbitrary bureaucracy ed, valued and loved. Unfortunately, the
and social custom. Many of Dostoevsky’s harsh, theatrical and often artificial nature
characters are depicted as of social dynamics means
suffering from their own that Mr. Golyadkin’s awk-
For these lonely
sense of being isolated and misunderstood ward attempts at ingra-
from the crowd, unable to characters, tiating himself are met
reconcile their own indi- maintaining with mockery and deri-
vidual feelings and mor- mental and sion. He cannot play the
al convictions with the ex- emotional stability social game and is per-
ternal demand to conform is an ongoing ceived as a colossal embar-
to societal norms and ex- balancing act rassment. As the story un-
pectations. For these lone- which involves folds, Mr. Golyadkin grows
ly and misunderstood walking a fine line increasingly paranoid and
characters, maintaining between harmony psychotic, resulting in his
and turmoil
mental and emotional sta- eventual sectioning in a
bility is an ongoing bal- mental health facility.
ancing act which involves walking a fine The Double is a prism through which
line between harmony and turmoil. For readers can gain an insight into the com-
Dostoyevsky, therefore, mental illness plex dynamics of mental illness and into
is an inevitable feature of his world, and the need for empathy and compassion in
something which must be understood our dealings with those around us. It is
and reckoned with. difficult not to empathise with the plight
The Double makes for of Mr. Golyadkin. As the
harrowing reading in- painful drama unfolds,
deed. Dostoevsky continu- It is a cruel fate one cannot help but throw
ally paints the picture of a indeed, the more oneself into the narrative:
man crumbling under the so because his what would I do if I were
burden of his own social motivations are the central character? In
ineptitude. Mr. Golyadkin of the purest the depths of social iso-
has a good heart and the sort: a desire lation, how can I be sure
purest of intentions, but to be accepted, that my own grip on real-
valued and loved
he has not been gifted with ity is sufficiently strong to
that most essential skill avoid abandoning myself
in life: the ability to successfully navigate to an encroaching madness?
the complex intricacies of social interac- This brief novella also caused me to
tion. Every move he makes is marked by a think about how we react to mental illness
tragic-comic mixture of poor timing, awk- in our own time. Is it any less stigmatised?
ward verbal interchanges and – at times I am no therapist, but it seems to me that

34 EREMOS
despite an increase in knowledge, pro- On each of these occasions, we have the
grams and treatments, those with a men- opportunity to contribute – in whatev-
tal illness continue to struggle with that er small way – to another’s mental well-
most crippling of existential conditions being. The great philosopher Philo of
– loneliness. As a society, we may affirm Alexandria knew the power of such inter-
mental illness as a legitimate struggle in actions, and implored us to ‘be kind, for
an individual’s life, but at the same time, everyone you meet is fighting a hard bat-
we have a tendency to grow uncomfort- tle’. We are not always privy to the inner
able when we are forced to confront it in struggles a person might be facing, even
those immediately around us. We are hap- though our first instinct is often to diag-
py to outsource the problem to medical nose them as arrogant, pathetic or weird.
professionals and counsellors, but when Dostoevsky’s depiction of a life falling
someone struggling with into a mental abyss thus
mental health issues en- presents us with an ongo-
I am no therapist,
ters our own sphere, the ing challenge. Although
but it seems to
tendency can be to cast me that despite Mr. Golyadkin ends up be-
them out for fear that they an increase ing trapped in the prison
may hurt or inconven- in knowledge, of his mind, what might
ience us. Unless we expe- programs and the outcome have been
rience mental illness our- treatments, those if his longing for accept-
selves, we prefer to think with a mental ance had been met with
about it in the abstract. illness continue to empathy and understand-
Like the members of struggle with that ing as opposed to the
Russian high society pres- most crippling mocking judgment he re-
ent at Klara Olsufyevna’s of existential ceived? Meditating on the
conditions
birthday, we too might accounts of Jesus’ deal-
– loneliness
prefer the likes of Mr. ings with the demon-pos-
Golyadkin simply to go sessed can help us gain
away and get the help they need in a place some insight into the way in which Jesus
where we don’t have to look at them. If sought not only to heal the afflicted, but
there is indeed a lesson to be extract- to challenge prevailing attitudes toward
ed from Dostoevsky’s depiction of Mr. those deemed as outcasts in the society of
Golyadkin’s descent into mental hell, I be- the day.
lieve it relates to this: we all have an op- Dostoevsky’s The Double has prompted
portunity to influence each other’s men- me to consider how all of us might con-
tal health in each social interaction we tribute – in whatever small way – to the
make. Each day we come across not only emotional wellbeing and inclusion of
our friends and family but also those those suffering from mental illness. The
whom we do not yet know – it could be Church, too, has a key role to play in striv-
the person serving us at the grocery store ing to incorporate the isolated and mar-
or the receptionist at the local GP surgery. ginalized into its community of faith.

No 146 35
Social isolation and recurring experienc-
es of loneliness can powerfully fuel the
descent into psychological chaos, and it
is within this sphere that the Church can
play a vital role in offering a place of ac-
ceptance for those marginalized from
wider society. The Trappist monk Thomas
Merton was aware of this when he penned
his classic work No Man is an Island,
which remains a potent reminder of the
inherent interconnectedness of things. In
our own age of fragmentation and relent-
less consumerism, The Double implores
us to remain sensitive and compassionate
in our treatment of others, even though
the issue of mental illness may remain
complex and challenging for us.
Ryan Buesnel is a PhD student in theology at
Charles Sturt University. In his spare time he en-
joys creative writing and playing music.

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