CLT 361
Prompt 2
Annotation of Lawrence Kohlberg’s “Psychological Analysis
and Literary Form: A Study of Doubles in Dostoevsky.”
Kohlberg
opens his article with an introduction to psychoanalysis and its impact on
literary forms. Psychoanalysis revivifies old myths by focusing on internal and
external forces as exemplified in its application in tragedies. In Athenian
tragedy, moral external forces are behind the predestined crime that is
committed and the self-discovery of evil that is the punishment. The modern
psychoanalytic tragedy on the other hand, states that uncontrolled and
unconscious internal forces cause crime and punishment. Despite
psychoanalysis’s impact on such literary forms, it is believed that it only
diverts attention away from the comprehension and appreciation of the piece of
work. Other critics think that it serves a constructive purpose by helping the
reader understand the meaning of the text. For the scientific psychoanalysts,
the meaning of the text is not as important as what it shows about the author.
Psychoanalysis for them is a means of diagnosing the writer and judging whether
it be true or false. Often times, Dostoevsky has been the subject of this type
of psychoanalysis.
The
rest of the article uses psychoanalysis to explain two critical aspects of
Dostoevsky’s novels. One is his use of Doubles, and the second is his moral
ideology. The definition and concept of Doubles is explored by associating it
to a few known psychological disorders such as paranoia, split personality
disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Kohlberg rejects these as accurate
portrayals of what a Double is and instead, claims the autoscopic syndrome as
having more parallels. The autoscopic syndrome is characterized by a
hallucination of the projection of one’s body into space. One is aware and able
to see this self-projection. The autoscopic phenomena is associated with severe
epilepsy which Dostoevsky had. Autoscopic did not entirely define Doubles but
provided a basis. Dostoevsky’s use of doubles involves two characters who
represent a type of person and who are complete opposites from each other. Both
are aware of the other and one serves to be a projection or an alter ego of the
other person. Examples of Dostoevsky’s Doubles include the Christ figure and
the impulsives, and bad doubles and will murderers. Kohlberg does a fine job of
categorizing and quantifying what double each character represents and how
strongly they fit that category as shown in the table below.
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