Dialogando con Edipo. Giacomo Schiavo. Presentazione. Nonostante. l’ opera di Dostoevskij non riveli alcuna traccia di un’ effettiva. Infatti l’. interpretazione filosofica dell’ opera dostoevskiana ha rappresentato per il. Exploring the Relationship Between Psyche and Civilization. Dostoevsky and Freud: Exploring the Relationship Between Psyche and Civilization Few novels delve as deeply into the twists and turns of the human psyche as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Dostoevsky and psychoanalysis – psychiatry in 19th-century literature. Freud commenced Dostoyevsky and Parricide.The 'Legend of the Grand Inquisitor': Moral Transformation in. The 'Legend of the Grand Inquisitor': Moral Transformation. Dostoevsky And Parricide downloads at Ebookinga.com. Dostoevsky And Parricide Pdf. Recollection from Dichtung und Wahrheit,' 'The Uncanny,' 'Dostoevsky and Parricide,' and 'The. Writings on Art and Literature Sigmund Freud No preview. Download PDF American Imago 60.2. Proust and Parricide: Literary, Biographical., Freud wrote 'Dostoevsky and Parricide'. The novel explicitly describes the protagonist Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov’s fluctuating mental state as he commits a brutal crime, becomes tortured by guilt, and finally turns himself in. This detailed description of Raskolnikov’s psyche gives readers a clear picture of his character within the context of the events that take place in the novel. Yet we know little of Raskolnikov outside of this context. How, for instance, does Raskolnikov come to develop those beliefs and characteristics that impel him to commit his crime? We know only that he embodies these beliefs and characteristics from the outset of the novel. In order to fully comprehend the whys and hows of Raskolnikov as a character, then, we must examine him outside the framework of this novel. But how, we might ask, are we to move beyond the narrative context in which Raskolnikov exists? The answer is simple: we must place Raskolnikov within a different context and analyze him in light of this new context. How do we know which context to choose? It depends on what we hope to discover by such an analysis. In this case, we want to expand our knowledge of Raskolnikov’s characteristics and psyche. From Dostoevsky’s explicit narration, we already know Raskolnikov is a neurotic character who exhibits a number of neurotic tendencies throughout the novel. We must therefore locate a context that will help us discover the meaning behind these neurotic tendencies. The logical backdrop to choose is a Freudian context, since Freud deals extensively with human psychology and neurosis. How exactly will Freud’s writings help us? For an answer, let us compare what an ordinary reader would conclude about Raskolnikov with what Freud would conclude. Let us begin with a short summary of the novel: Raskolnikov is a twenty- three- year- old student living in mid- 1. St. His extreme poverty has recently caused him to drop out of the university; moreover, he has ceased working or attending to practical matters. He is a proud, contemptuous, bitter, and irritable character, often remaining alone in his box- like room for days at a time. It is during these periods of isolation that he devises a theory that divides humankind into two categories: those ordinary and those extraordinary. Extraordinary individuals, he believes, have an inner right to transgress the law in order to make their great ideas and/or discoveries known to humanity. Believing himself to be an extraordinary individual, he decides to test his theory by deliberately murdering an old woman pawnbroker. Upon committing this crime, however, he is immediately tormented by guilt and the constant fear of being found out. This torment drives him to confess his crime, and he begins serving eight years of penal servitude in Siberia as punishment. Freud non afferma senza esclusioni che Dostoevskij fosse un nevrotico, come non accetta la diagnosi di epilessia come definitiva perch In part I of the novel, Dostoevsky describes Raskolnikov as . When out in public, he is almost always preoccupied with his own agitated thoughts or muttering to himself in a state of feverish confusion. These irregular characteristics indicate Raskolnikov’s nervous anticipation of the murder that he plans to commit. The guilt that he experiences after carrying out the murder further amplifies his irritable condition, thus plunging him into a period of illness and delirium. A reader would conclude, therefore, that Raskolnikov’s mental state is directly linked to the guilt about the crime. Although Freud would most likely agree with this conclusion, it would constitute only a small point in his analysis if he were to explore Raskolnikov’s psychic condition. The psychoanalyst has much loftier goals, namely to discover . This description indicates that neurotic characteristics are deeply rooted in the human psyche, and a complete Freudian analysis of Raskolnikov’s neurotic characteristics would therefore have to extend far beyond the context of his crime. In order to engage in such an analysis, it is necessary to bring in Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, a text that lends itself well to an exploration of Raskolnikov’s character. By systematically analyzing Raskolnikov against Freud’s arguments in this text, we can fully answer all of Freud’s psychoanalytic questions (as listed in the previous paragraph). Moreover, we can gain a deeper and more critical understanding of Raskolnikov’s character, while examining to what extent the constructs of civilization influence his behavior and actions. Let us begin by examining Raskolnikov within the context of Freud’s theory of the two- sided pleasure principle. Freud maintains that all human beings live under the auspices of this principle, which is perpetually . In order to cope with this incompatibility, humans engage in three primary palliative measures—deflections, substitutive satisfactions, and intoxication—which aid us in either avoiding displeasure or achieving a moderate sense of pleasure from other sources. Raskolnikov, however, is unable to make proper use of these palliative measures. Although he makes use of deflections and substitutive satisfaction, he never experiences the pleasure that these techniques are supposed to produce. In order to determine the reasons behind Raskolnikov’s faulty employment of these palliative measures, we must first understand the connection between our palliative measures and our instincts. One may therefore hope to be freed from a part of one’s sufferings by influencing the instinctual impulses. In other words, deflections, substitutive satisfactions, and intoxication are actually control mechanisms that serve to limit the force of our instincts. We can draw the conclusion that these palliative measures are only effective insofar as one’s instincts are suppressed. It is in this relationship that Raskolnikov’s problems lie. As a neurotic, Raskolnikov is unable to suppress his instincts as effectively as a regular person. He engages in these palliative measures for the same reasons as everybody else does, yet is unable to achieve the same results due to the abnormal strength of his instincts. When the instincts of regular people come into contact with their palliative measures, they are instantly subdued. But when Raskolnikov’s powerful instincts come into contact with his palliative measures, they combine with the palliative measures, thus turning them into extreme and distorted mental obsessions. Raskolnikov’s deflections and substitutive satisfactions start out normally, but soon expand beyond the realm of normal mental preoccupation. His primary deflection, for example, is to engage in long periods of solitary thought. He uses these thinking sessions to develop his theory of extraordinary and ordinary individuals. We can assume that he begins with innocent enough intentions—as a student, the development of an insightful new theory would help him gain distinction in intellectual circles. Before long, however, his theory begins to take hold of him completely and consumes more and more of his time. I preferred lying still and thinking. His preoccupation with his theory eventually leads him to his most distorted and dangerous deflection: the plan to murder the old woman in order to prove himself an extraordinary individual. Raskolnikov’s substitutive satisfactions, taking the form of fantasies, are closely related to his deflections. As his deflections expand in size, his fantasies follow suit. In the days immediately preceding his crime, Raskolnikov spends almost all of his time imagining the murder in vivid detail. Tied up with this fantasy is his view of himself as a larger- than- life heroic individual. Raskolnikov’s preoccupation with this fairy tale character shows that his desires and instincts have overwhelmed him completely. Instead of his palliative measures controlling his instincts, his instincts have joined forces with and amplified the palliative measures. Obviously, Raskolnikov’s stronger- than- normal instincts are a key component of his neurotic character. But which instincts are influencing him the most and how did they become so powerful? Freud’s Civilization text once again provides us with the key to finding an explanation. In tackling the question of why it is difficult for human beings to be happy, Freud identifies three sources of human suffering: the human body, nature, and social relationships. While we cannot change the first two sources, he says, it seems that we should be able to influence the third. It is the existence—not the conflict—of these two instincts that is important for our purposes here. And in this context, the aggressive instinct plays the larger role in Raskolnikov’s life (even though his libidinal instinct is no doubt present). This is the instinct that most frequently takes hold of Raskolnikov and directs his thoughts and actions, as evidenced by his development of a theory that advocates crime and his actual perpetration of murder. Since Raskolnikov is still quite young, we can assume that the unusual ferocity of his aggressive instinct stems from a traumatic childhood event or a difficult passage through a childhood phase of development. At this point, a problem arises. How is it that Raskolnikov’s aggression still exists, when the conditions of civilization are supposed to repress such instincts? Freud maintains that civilization . In order to answer our question, we must again remind ourselves that Raskolnikov is a neurotic character with instincts that cannot be repressed as readily as those of normal people. He maintains his aggressions, therefore, while others find their aggressions limited by civilization. Does this mean that Raskolnikov doesn’t have the ? No, because his powerful instincts render him much more aware of the repressive nature of civilization. Unlike the general public, his instincts give him more sensitivity to what is going on around him.
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