Dostoevsky_and_Parricide
Dostoevsky and Parricide
1928 essay by Sigmund Freud
"Dostoevsky and Parricide" (German: Dostojewski und die Vatertötung) is an introductory article contributed by Sigmund Freud to a scholarly collection on the 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The collection was published in 1928.[1] The article argues that it is no coincidence that some of the greatest works of world literature – including Oedipus Rex, Hamlet, as well as The Brothers Karamazov – all concern parricide, which in Dostoevsky's case Freud links to his epilepsy.
Ernest Jones termed the piece “Freud's last contribution to the psychology of literature and his most brilliant”;[2] Freud himself however called it “this trivial essay. It was written as a favour for someone and written reluctantly”.[3]