Epilepsy in Dostoevsky's Novels

Abstract

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) suffered from epilepsy. Some type of psychopathology can be found in about 25% of the characters of his novels. Some of them have seizures. In at least five of them Dostoevsky clearly intends them to have epilepsy. Others are more likely to be created as people with hysteria or sometimes, for instance, possession. In this essay an inventory is given by more or less comprehensive quotes of different types of seizures in five novels. The seizures are named in the novels with a varying vocabulary based on the concepts of nosology in the 19th century, the knowledge of Dostoevsky of these concepts, his own experiences, and problems in translation and transliteration. In the discussion, analysis of the role these factors played in the understanding of what Dostoevsky really expressed is given attention. Special attention is given to the so-called ecstatic aura. This element of focal epileptic seizures is so rare that in the past the description of it raised doubts on its existence as such and therefore the embellishment by Dostoevsky, describing his own experience and/or that of his epileptic characters Kirillov and Myshkin. The consequence of this analytic approach, however, should not be losing one's amazement of the genius polyphonic creativity of Dostoevsky to integrate so many profound aspects of the human and especially the Russian soul in the characters of his novels.