Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst

by George Santayana, Louis Breger

Overview

Andrï Gide once said that Feodor Dostoevsky "lost himself in the characters of his books, and, for this reason, it is in them that he can be found again." In Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst, Louis Breger approaches Dostoevsky psychoanalytically, not as a "patient" to be analyzed, but as a fellow psychoanalyst, someone whose life and fiction are intertwined in the process of literary self-exploration.Raskolnikov's dream of the suffering horse in Crime and Punishment has become one of the best known in all literature, its rich imagery expressing meaning on many levels. Using this as a starting point, Breger goes on to offer a detailed analysis of the novel, situating it at the pivotal point in Dostoevsky's life between the death of his first wife and his second marriage. Using insights from his psychological training, Breger also explores other works by Dostoevsky, among them his early novel, The Double, which Breger relates to the nervous breakdown that Dostoevsky suffered in his twenties, as well as Notes from Underground, The Possessed, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, and so forth. Additionally, details from Dostoevsky's own life - his compulsive gambling, his epilepsy, his philosophical, political, religious, and mystical beliefs, and the interpretations of them found in existing biographies - are analyzed in detail.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781412808439
Publisher:	Transaction Publishers
Publication date:	01/15/2009
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Louis Breger is professor emeritus of psychoanalytic studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He has been a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, and he is the founding president of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. He has written a number scholarly articles and books—including the acclaimed biography, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision, Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst (Transaction, 2008), and A Dream of Undying Fame. Louis Breger is professor emeritus of psychoanalytic studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He has been a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, and he is the founding president of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. He has written a number scholarly articles and books—including the acclaimed biography, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision, Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst (Transaction, 2008), and A Dream of Undying Fame.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The Horse, the Courier; 1: The Author as Psychoanalyst; 2: Crime and Punishment: The Author’s Life; 3: Crime and Punishment: The Novel; 4: Associations to the Novel and the “Scene”; 5: The Dostoevsky Family; 6: The Engineering Academy: Poor Folk; 7: Nervous Crisis: The Double; 8: Political Conspiracy: The Possessed; 9: Prison, Exile, the Second Maria; 10: Return to Petersburg: Journalism, Women, Gambling; 11: The Death of Maria: Notes from Underground; 12: Death and Rebirth

Editorial Reviews

"A riveting and brilliant analysis of an artist in the process of healing himself. I loved it and so will anyone interested in Dostoevsky, in literature, in the human condition." —Judith Viorst, author, Necessary Losses "Breger moves comfortably between biography and interpretation of Dostoevsky's major works, with brilliant chapters on Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, and the significance of Dostoevsky's gambling. His Appendix on epilepsy is likely the most concise and lucid statement . . . in the applied psychoanalytic literature of the past decade." —Murray M. Schwartz, The Psychoanalytic Quarterly

From the Publisher