Epilepsy
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky endured epilepsy through most of his adult life. There is no concrete account of when Dostoevsky’s epileptic seizures first began. Some authors state Dostoevsky’s seizures occurred as early as the age of 10 while others state his first seizure happened after the murder of his father [1]. While the exact form of Dostoevsky’s epilepsy remains unknown, modern scholars and neurologists agree Dostoevsky had a rare form of temporal lobe epilepsy.
From Dostoevsky’s own account, moments before a seizure, “I would experience such joy as would be inconceivable in ordinary life… I would feel the most complete harmony in myself and in the whole world and this feeling was so strong and sweet that for a few seconds of such bliss I would give 10 or more years of my life, even my whole life perhaps.” Experts would describe this as an ecstatic seizure. According to a study by neurologist Fabienne Picard[2], patients “Subjective perception of time, space, and the self may be strongly altered, and the experience can permanently change an individual’s world view.” Dostoevsky’s epilepsy is well recorded through his writing, from literary novels to his documentation of his seizures. His most famous depictions of epilepsy are Prince Myshkin in The Idiot and Smirdyakov in The Brothers Karamazov. The writing style employed by Dostoevsky is nervous, tense, and impulsive. Some critics view his work, such as The Idiot, as incoherent and challenging to keep up with the plot. Dalton suggests that if one looks at the format of The Idiot, one will find a novel that is a characterization of life as an epileptic.[3]
Being nearly a lifelong epileptic, epilepsy had a profound impact on Dostoevsky’s life. Modern studies of temporal lobe epilepsy show the condition will affect an individual on multitude of levels, including cognitive impairment, memory changes, religiosity and more.[1] Prince Myshkin can be seen as an autobiographical account of epilepsy in Dostoevsky’s life. Throughout The Idiot, Prince Myshkin will point many of his difficulties to his illness. These eccentricities can now be attributed to be caused by temporal lobe epilepsy.
Dostoevsky’s epilepsy allowed him to understand and feel things at a level that would not be possible otherwise. He was able to use his epileptic condition and integrate his suffering into his work. Despite turning his disease into a positive influence on his literary pieces, epilepsy still greatly negatively affected Dostoevsky’s life. The Idiot encompasses many of Dostoevsky’s struggles with memory inconsistencies, paranoia and long recovery times from epilepsy.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rayport, Shirley M. Ferguson, Mark Rayport, and Carolyn A. Schell. “Dostoevsky’s epilepsy: A new approach to retrospective diagnosis.” Epilepsy & Behavior, Vol. 22, no. 3, 2011, pp. 557-70.
- ↑ Picard, F., A. D. Craig. “Ecstatic epileptic seizures: A potential window on the neural basis for human self-awareness.” Epilepsy & Behavior, Vol. 16, no. 3, 2009, pp. 539-46.
- ↑ Dalton, Elizabeth. Unconscious Structure in "The Idiot": A Study in Literature and Psychoanalysis. Princeton University Press, 1979, pp. 123-130
Further Reading
Baumann, Christian R., Vladimir P.I. Novikov, Marianne Regard, Adrian M. Siegel. “Did Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky suffer from mesial temporal lobe epilepsy?” European Journal of Epilepsy, Vol. 14, no. 5, 2005, pp. 324-30.
Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849. Princeton University Press, 1979.
Iniesta, Ivan. “Chapter 14 – Epilepsy in Dostoevsky.” Progress in Brain Research, Vol 205, 2013, pp. 277-93.