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PARTISAN REVIEW
of doubts and confli cts and a sense of on eness with something outside
himself, with the " highes t synthes is of life." This sense of oneness with
the uni verse seems
to
be the "oceani c feeling" described by Freud in
Civi lization and Its Discontents,
where he expl ains it as a di ssolution
of the boundaries of the ego, a regress ion to the primordi al sta te of the
infant a t the breast, who " does no t as yet di stingui sh hi s ego from the
external world as the source of the sensa tion s fl owin g in upon him."
The "extraordina ry qui ckenin g of self-conscio usness" in the au ra
may seem incon sistent with the loss of the sense of an indi vidualized
self suggested by th e oceanic feelin g and by Myshkin' s sen se o f ecstatic
mergin g. However, th e "self" in thi s passage seems
to
be not Myshkin 's
everyday self, whi ch is often beset by doubt and guilt , but a quite
different self free of an y sense o f limita ti on , open
to
" the direct
sensa ti on of exi stence in the mos t intense degree." T hi s euphori c sense
of self is quite compa tibl e with the oceani c feeling . Freud writes,
Originall y th e ego in cl udes everythin g, la ter it separa tes off an
extern al world from itself. Our present ego- feeling is, th erefore, onl y
a shrunken res idue of a mu ch mo re inclusive-indeed an all –
embracing-feeling whi ch corresponded to a more il1lima te bo nd
between the ego and th e wo rld a bout it. . .. There are man y p eople
in whose mental life thi s prima ry ego- feeling h as persisted . .. side
by side with th e n arrower and mo re sh arpl y dema rca ted ego-feeling
of maturit y. ... T he idea ti onal contents appropri a te
to
it would be
precisely those of limitl essn ess and of a bond with the universe. .. .
Myshkin 's q uickened consciousness of self in th e ep ilepti c aura is not
the " sharpl y demarca ted ego-feelin g of ma turity," but ra ther a return
to the all-embracing " primary ego-fee lin g. "
Thi s di sso luti on of bounda ri es affects not onl y the ego's relati on–
shi p with th e external world , but also the ba lance of forces within the
mind . With the decrease in repress ion comes increased access to th e id.
In
New Int roductory L ectu res on Psycho-Analysis,
Freud writes,
certa in mysti cal practi ces may succeed in upsetting the normal
rela ti ons between th e different region s of th e mind , so th a t, fo r
in stance, percepti on may be a ble to grasp ha p penings in th e depths
of th e ego and in the id whi ch were oth erwise in access ibl e to it.
Thi s change in the fun cti ons and re lati o ns o f the different parts of the
mind in mys ti cal experi ence can be compa red with wha t happens in
manic-depress ive illn ess. Altho ugh the mys ti c and the manic–
dep ress ive are different in obvious ways, there are interes tin g resem–
blances whi ch suggest th at th e underl ying pa ttern o f sudden ch anges
