Philosophical and Psychological Studies of Representatives of Kyiv Theological Academy (1819–1924) in the European Intellectual Context: Reception of Unconscious

Abstract

Prior to the emergence of psychoanalysis, in Western philosophy, psychology, and culture there were various processes that could be considered as the elements of its prehistory. The author tries to show that some of these “proto-psychoanalytical” processes are reflected in the works of alumni and lecturers of the Kyiv Theological Academy. In particular, some interest to the concept of the unconscious can be traced in some works of Orest Novytskyi, Petro Linytskyi, Hryhorii Malevanskyi, Markellin Olesnytskyi, Fedir Ornatskyi, Oleksii Kyrylovych. It has been shown that such regard to unconscious was influenced by the ideas of such Western philosophers as Friedrich Schelling, Arthur Schopenhauer, Eduard von Hartmann, Immanuel Fichte, Paul Janet, and others. It is noted that the Kyiv Theological Academy alumnus and lecturer Matvii Troitskyi came as close as possible to the definition of such an important psychoanalytical phenomenon as transference. A great deal of attention in the article is focused on the works of the Kyiv Theological Academy alumnus Mykhailo Verzhbolovych. In his books and articles, we can find an examination of a whole series of concepts, ideas, considerations, attitudes, and practices that played an important role in shaping different versions of psychoanalysis. Verzhobolovich dealt with those issues, analyzing the views of the already mentioned and several other philosophers, as well as a number of leading European psychologists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as Johann Herbart, Hermann Ulrici, Wilhelm Wundt, Theodore Flournoy, etc. In the series of Verzhbolovych’s works on various occult phenomena, the author unveils many parallels with the formation of Carl Jung’s analytical psychology. The above helps to avoid a narrow view on the development of science in the Kyiv Theological Academy. Although it was primarily a religious institution, specialists with a broad outlook studied and worked under its roof. They conducted up-to-date researches based on the knowledge of both philosophical origins and new trends within various disciplines, including psychology. Article received 15.01.2019