11.01.2023
Few people know that the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was a connoisseur of the work of the great Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
Freud was well acquainted with the work and biography of Dostoevsky and put his work on a par with the works of Shakespeare.
Sigmund Freud analyzed Dostoevsky’s work in his psychoanalytic work entitled Dostoevsky and Parricide (1928).
Below are some quotes that reflect the attitude of Sigmund Freud to the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” and, in general, to the work of Dostoevsky.
Sigmund Freud on Dostoevsky
“Tolstoy was an epic writer who painted wonderful pictures of the life of the upper strata of Russian society of the nineteenth century, but as a psychologist he could not penetrate as deeply as Dostoevsky managed.”
“The Brothers Karamazov is the most grandiose novel ever written.”
“…there is clearly an egoistic desire to get rid of an intense need through at least symbolic satisfaction, and at the same time he does not neglect the opportunity to frighten and torment the reader.”
“… for all my amazement at Dostoevsky’s power and mental superiority, I just don’t like him. This is due to the fact that I expend all my tolerance towards pathological natures during the analysis. In art and life, I can’t stand them.”
