Universit of Batangas

Philosophy of Language and Literature

JAKE ARMAN A. PRINCIPE Dr. Pricilla Mizpah Santillana

Ph.D Filipino- Student Professor

DOSTOEVSKY AND PARRICIDE

By: Sigmund Freud
About the Author
 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.
ISSUE
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 resulting from his `Oedipus Complex’.
 Universit of Batangas
Philosophy of Language and Literature

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.
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.
ARGUMENTS
Freud’s ideas cannot be proved rigorously and scientifically.
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.
References:

Researchgate.net/publication/270598326_Dostoevsky_and_Freud_Autonomy_and_Addiction_in_Gamb
ling 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