DOSTOEVSKY

AND PARRICIDE
SIGMUND FREUD
BIOGRAPHY
 Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of
psychoanalysis, who created an entirely new approach
to the understanding of the human personality. He is
regarded as one of the most influential - and
controversial - minds of the 20th century.
 Sigismund (later changed to Sigmund) Freud was born
on 6 May 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia (now Pribor in the
Czech Republic). His father was a merchant. The family
moved to Leipzig and then settled in Vienna, where
Freud was educated. Freud's family were Jewish but he
was himself non-practising.
 In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of
Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General
Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria
by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885,
Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean
Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set
up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain
disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with
whom he had six children.
 Freud developed the theory that humans have an
unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in
perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against
them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In
1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was
published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of
unconscious desires and experiences.
 In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University
of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment
disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began
to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic
Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the
president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.
 After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and
concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and
anthropology. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested
a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the
'superego'.
 In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly
after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife
and daughter Anna.
 Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent
more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.
 ISSUES

Freud argues that DOSTOEVSKY’S epileptic attacks,

compulsive gambling, his latent homosexuality and
his submissive attitude to religious and state
authorities are manifestations of his neurosis (p.179)
resulting from his `Oedipus Complex’.

Neurosis is a relatively mild illness that is not caused

by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress
(depression, anxiety, obsessive behaviour) but not a
radical loss of touch with reality.
Oedipus complex, in psychoanalytic theory, a desire
for sexual involvement with the parent of the
opposite sex and a concomitant sense of rivalry with
the parent of the same sex; a crucial stage in the
normal developmental process (p.183).

In Dostoevsky’s situation, this emotional crisis coming

from his phallic phase is the real cause of his neurosis,
gambling addiction and feeling of guilt. This
unresolved and unrepressed conflict results in
`epileptic attacks’ which resemble the experience of
dying for Dostoevsky.
ARGUMENT

Freud’s ideas cannot be proved rigorously

and scientifically (annex, p.195).
Personal history of the author is not very
useful for understanding the works of art
because the artist has to transcend himself
in order to create so that he may reach out
to the entire humanity (Jung,1930).
Resolution
However, Freud has always been very influential in
literary criticism and on the creative writers.
Theories of Freud may be use in the field of
literature. Psychoanalysis has been proved to
convincingly analyze the thought patterns and
emotions of fictional characters and in the author.
Thank you!

References:
Researchgate.net/publication/270598326_Dostoevsky_and_Freud_Autonomy_and_Addicti
on_in_Gambling date retrieved on 05/07/2019

www.Sigmund-Freud-Dostoevsky-and-Parricide-pdf.pdf date retrieved on 05/07/2019

www.Britannica.com › topic › Oedipus-Greek-mythology date retrieved on 05/07/2019