Dostoyevsky and Bibliotherapy

Could One Say Dostoyevsky Understood Human Beings Better Than Freud?

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Welcome back to Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah, the podcast where we explore how literature acts not only as a mirror to our inner worlds but also as a valuable healing tool.

Today’s episode poses a potentially provocative yet intellectual question: Could one say Dostoyevsky understood human beings better than Freud?

Dostoyevsky’s work is often considered bibliotherapy because his novels explore deep psychological and existential themes that resonate with readers on a personal level, offering both intellectual and emotional healing. Bibliotherapy refers to the use of literature to promote emotional well-being, self-understanding, and psychological growth, and Dostoyevsky’s writing does exactly that in several ways:

1. Exploration of the Human Condition: Dostoyevsky delves deeply into the complexities of the human psyche, addressing themes such as guilt, suffering, redemption, and existential despair. His characters often grapple with intense inner conflicts, which can be cathartic for readers who may be going through similar emotional or psychological struggles. Reading about these struggles and seeing characters confront their darkest thoughts can help readers feel less isolated and more understood.

2. Moral and Spiritual Growth: Many of Dostoyevsky’s characters experience moral and spiritual crises that lead to personal transformation. His works, such as Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov, explore the potential for redemption and forgiveness. This can provide comfort and encouragement to readers facing their own moral dilemmas or seeking meaning in their lives - and that we are not alone in any possible moral transgressions. Dostoyevsky’s focus on the possibility of moral growth through suffering resonates with the idea of personal healing and growth.

3. Emphasis on Self-Reflection: Dostoyevsky’s novels encourage deep self-reflection, often through characters who engage in intense introspection. The psychological depth of characters like Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment) or Ivan Karamazov (The Brothers Karamazov) challenges readers to examine their own values, beliefs, and fears. This kind of self-exploration can be a therapeutic process, allowing readers to work through their own emotions and thoughts by confronting them through the lens of the characters' experiences.

4. Catharsis and Empathy: Dostoyevsky’s intense portrayal of suffering, mental anguish, and the search for meaning allows readers to experience catharsis. This emotional release through literature can lead to a sense of relief or understanding. The empathy fostered by Dostoyevsky's characters—who often undergo severe trials—can also help readers feel a sense of connection, even if their own struggles are different.

5. Existential Themes: Dostoyevsky was ahead of his time in exploring existential questions, such as the meaning of life, the existence of God, and the nature of free will. For readers who are struggling with similar existential concerns, his works offer a space to explore these big questions, providing a kind of intellectual and emotional support. His novels encourage readers to confront life’s uncertainties and find personal meaning, which is at the heart of bibliotherapy.

In essence, Dostoyevsky’s work can serve as a form of bibliotherapy because it offers a way for readers to explore deep psychological and philosophical issues in a therapeutic manner, fostering healing, self-understanding, and emotional resilience.

Could One Say Dostoyevsky Understood Human Beings Better Than Freud?

1. The Unconscious Before Freud

Freud is credited with naming and systematising the unconscious, repression, the Oedipus complex, and defense mechanisms. But Dostoyevsky, decades earlier, portrayed these psychological realities in ways so raw and vivid that they often prefigure Freudian concepts.

"Dostoyevski personally is the only psychologist from whom I had something to learn."
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

This is a well-known remark Nietzsche made about Fyodor Dostoyevsky, expressing deep admiration for the Russian novelist's psychological insight.

Nietzsche’s quote—“Dostoyevski personally is the only psychologist from whom I had something to learn”—comes from Twilight of the Idols (1888), specifically the section titled Skirmishes of an Untimely Man (§45). It reflects Nietzsche’s deep respect for Dostoyevsky’s understanding of the human psyche, which he found more profound than that of any academic psychologist or philosopher.

So why did Nietzsche admire Dostoyevsky:

• Exploration of Inner Conflict:
  Dostoyevsky delves into the psychological and moral struggles of his characters, often portraying intense inner turmoil, guilt, and contradictions—something Nietzsche saw as crucial to understanding human nature.

• Depth of Moral Ambiguity:
  Nietzsche appreciated Dostoyevsky's rejection of simplistic moral binaries. Characters like Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment) or the Underground Man challenge both religious and rationalist moral frameworks, echoing Nietzsche’s critique of traditional morality.

• The Will and Freedom:
  Both thinkers explored the idea of freedom in a radical way—freedom not just from societal rules, but from the constraints of one’s own psyche. Dostoyevsky’s characters often strive to assert their will in irrational or self-destructive ways, paralleling Nietzsche’s ideas on the "will to power" and the role of agency that we discuss in therapy, counselling and bibliotherapy.

• Shared Critique of Enlightenment Rationalism:
  While Nietzsche was critical of Christian morality, he still admired Dostoyevsky’s challenge to modern secular rationalism, particularly the idea that reason alone can guide human life. This is seen vividly in Notes from Underground.

In short, Nietzsche didn’t admire Dostoyevsky as a novelist in the conventional sense, but as someone who understood the abyss of human psychology. Their shared interest in suffering, contradiction, and existential freedom formed a powerful philosophical bridge. Take the Underground Man, from Notes from Underground: "I swear to you, gentlemen, that to be overly conscious is an illness, a real, thorough illness." This narrator self-sabotages, delights in his own humiliation, and clings to pain as proof of his existence. In Freudian terms, we might call this a mix of masochism, resistance, and unresolved trauma—but Dostoyevsky doesn’t diagnose. He embodies. Another example: Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. He rationalises murder through abstract philosophy, but his breakdown afterward reveals layers of unconscious guilt and self-punishment. His journey is one of psychological disintegration and rebirth—a therapeutic arc, not unlike the modern psychoanalytic process. Dostoyevsky’s genius is that he makes us live the unconscious, not just understand it.

2. Moral and Existential Psychology

Freud viewed guilt as a byproduct of internal conflict—id versus superego, desire versus taboo. Dostoyevsky, in contrast, presents guilt as a spiritual crisis, a moral reckoning, often existential in nature.

Raskolnikov doesn't just fear punishment. He feels he has ruptured something sacred:

"Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart."

Dostoyevsky’s characters sin not just against law but against God, conscience, and meaning itself. This makes his work profoundly resonant in bibliotherapy for those facing spiritual despair or moral injury—experiences that clinical language sometimes fails to fully hold.

Ivan Karamazov, from The Brothers Karamazov, rejects a world where innocent children suffer. His crisis is intellectual, emotional, and moral:

"If there is no God, everything is permitted."

Ivan doesn’t “break down” in the Freudian sense; he dissolves into philosophical anguish. Dostoyevsky here explores the unbearable burden of human freedom—something deeply relevant for readers navigating existential depression.

3. Characters Who Live Their Psychology

Freud’s theories offer structure; Dostoyevsky’s characters offer experience. They live through contradiction. They are not case studies—they are us.

• The Underground Man clings to bitterness as identity.

• Raskolnikov seeks moral superiority, only to be destroyed by inner shame.

• Ivan Karamazov intellectualizes suffering until he collapses under its weight.

• Smerdyakov, also from The Brothers Karamazov, is a chilling example of internalized nihilism and suppressed rage—what Freud might call a manifestation of the death drive.

These characters make Dostoyevsky’s novels emotionally immersive. In bibliotherapy, they serve as mirrors for clients struggling with shame, guilt, spiritual loss, or fractured identity.

4. Freud on Dostoyevsky

Freud was fascinated by Dostoyevsky. In his 1928 essay Dostoyevsky and Parricide, he praised him as a "great psychologist," though he also critiqued him as a neurotic figure himself.