Ernst Neizvestny Painting
Dostoevsky as
Psychologist: Insights into the Dark Side of the Human Soul
Some of Dostoevsky’s insights into the darker side of our
nature are hard for us to accept; he often sees things we would prefer not to
look at. Here are some examples from Crime
and Punishment.
On the morbidity of the human psyche as a
relative conception. Dr. Zosimov: “All of us are frequently more or less deranged,
with the slight difference that the ‘sick’ are a little more deranged than we,
and therefore we must inevitably draw the distinction. But a completely
harmonious person, it is true, is hardly to be found; in tens, or perhaps
hundreds of thousands you will meet with only one, and then not a very good
specimen” (Part 3, Ch. 3).
(
On Schadenfreude (злорадство), the taking of joy in the
misfortunes of others. After the dying Marmeladov—run over by a carriage and
trampled by horses—is carried back to his miserable lodgings, all of his fellow
miserable lodgers gather around to watch the spectacle, which stars, as usual,
the frenetic Katerina Ivanovna. “The lodgers, one after another, began to press
back towards the door, with the strange inward glow of satisfaction that is
always there, even among his nearest and dearest, when disaster suddenly
strikes our neighbor, and from which not one of us is immune, however sincere
our pity and sympathy” (Part 2, Ch. 7).
(
On masochism. Svidrigailov is telling
Raskolnikov how he hit his wife, Marfa Petrovna, with a riding switch, and how
she reacted with righteous indignation, ordering the carriage to be made ready,
so that she could spread her sad tale about the town. “The first thing she did
was to order the carriage… Not to mention the fact that it sometimes happens that
women are highly gratified at being insulted, in spite of their apparent
indignation. It happens with everybody; mankind in general loves to be
affronted, have you noticed? But especially women. You might almost say it’s
their only amusement” (Part 4, Ch. 1).
(
On flattery. Svidrigailov explains how he went about
attempting to seduce Dunya. “I put the blame for everything on my destiny, made
out that I was avid and greedy for light, and finally brought into play the
greatest and most reliable means of subjugating a woman’s heart, which never
disappoints anybody and always produces a decisive effect on every single
woman, without exception. I mean, of course, flattery. There is nothing in the
world harder than straightforwardness, and nothing easier than flattery. In
straightforward dealing if there is one hundredth part of a false note, the
result is immediate dissonance, and, in consequence, trouble. But in flattery
every single note can be false and the effect will be agreeable, and it will be
listened to with some pleasure. The pleasure may indeed be somewhat crude, but
it is still pleasure for all that. And however gross the flattery may be, at
least half of it will certainly seem to be true. This holds for every stage of
development and every social level. Even a vestal virgin can be seduced by
flattery, not to mention ordinary people” (Part 6, Ch. 4).
(
On human “broadness of mind.” Svidrigailov again
is speaking. “The minds of the Russian people in general are broad, Avdotya
Romanovna, like their country, and extraordinarily inclined to the fantastic
and chaotic; but it is disastrous to have a broad mind without special genius”
(Part 6, Ch. 5). The idea is that human beings can hold both noble and perverse
impulses simultaneously in their souls. You may, for example, feel sympathy for
the sufferings of your neighbor, while, simultaneously wallowing in
Schadenfreude (see # 2 above). In a famous passage from The Brothers Karamazov, Mitya K. declares that “Man is too broad; I’d
have him narrower.”
