Dostoevsky and Parricide
"Dostoevsky and Parricide" (German: Dostojewski und die Vatertötung) is an introductory article contributed by Sigmund Freud to a scholarly collection on the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The collection was published in 1928.[1] The article argues that it is no coincidence that some of the greatest works of world literature – including Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, as well as The Brothers Karamazov – all concern parricide, which in Dostoevsky's case Freud links to his epilepsy.
Ernest Jones termed the piece "Freud's last contribution to the psychology of literature and his most brilliant";[2] Freud himself however called it "this trivial essay. It was written as a favour for someone and written reluctantly".[3]
Gambling
The second section of Freud's essay turned away from a primary consideration of The Brothers Karamazov to consider the related question of Dostoevsky's gambling. Freud saw gambling as a defiant struggle with Fate (concealing the father figure);[4] the associated guilt was the reason for the gambler's compulsion to lose. As Freud himself put it with reference to Dostoyevsky's wife:[5]
"she had noticed that the one thing which offered any real hope of salvation – his literary production – never went better than when they had lost everything....When his sense of guilt was satisfied by the punishments he had inflicted on himself, the inhibition on his work became less severe."
See also
- Edmund Bergler
- Father complex
- Theodor Reik
References
- ^ Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (Penguin 1964) p. 590
- ^ Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (Penguin 1964) p. 590
- ^ Quoted in J. Halliday/P. Fuller eds., The Psychology of Gambling (1974) p. 105
- ^ Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 372
- ^ S. Freud, 'Dostoevsky and Parricide' in J. Halliday/P. Fuller eds., The Psychology of Gambling (1974) p. 170
Further reading
- F. Dostoevsky, The Gambler (Penguin 1971)
- Joseph Frank Dostoevsky (197?) Appendix 379-91
External links
- Complete text of "Dostojewski und die Vatertötung" (in German)
- SLOBODANKA VLADIV-GLOVER - Dostoyevsky, Freud and Parricide; Deconstructive Notes on "The Brothers Karamazov" in New Zealand Slavonic Journal(1993), pp. 7-34
- Freud on Dostoevsky's Epilepsy
- v
- t
- e
- On Aphasia (1891)
- Studies on Hysteria (1895)
- The Interpretation of Dreams (including On Dreams) (1899)
- The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901)
- Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905)
- Totem and Taboo (1913)
- Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1916–17)
- The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (1917)
- Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego (1921)
- The Ego and the Id (1923)
- The Question of Lay Analysis (1926)
- The Future of an Illusion (1927)
- Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)
- Moses and Monotheism (1939)
- "The Aetiology of Hysteria" (1896)
- Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905)
- Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva (1907)
- Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming (1908)
- Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood (1910)
- On Narcissism (1914)
- The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (1914)
- Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work (1915)
- Thoughts for the Times on War and Death (1916)
- Mourning and Melancholia (1918)
- Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920)
- Medusa's Head (1922)
- Dostoevsky and Parricide (1928)
- "Dora" (Ida Bauer)
- Emma Eckstein
- Herbert Graf ("Little Hans")
- Irma's injection
- "Anna O." (Bertha Pappenheim)
- "Rat Man"
- Sergei Pankejeff ("Wolfman")
- Daniel Paul Schreber
concepts
- Bibliography
- Archives
- Vienna home and museum
- London home and museum
- Interment
- Freudian slip
- Humor
- Inner circle
- Neo-Freudianism
- Views on homosexuality
- Religious views
depictions
- Freud: The Secret Passion (1962 film)
- The Visitor (1993 play)
- Mahler on the Couch (2010 film)
- A Dangerous Method (2011 film)
- Freud (2020 TV series)
- Freud's Last Session (2023 film)