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PARTISAN REVIEW
fantasies and fears and is momentarily released from structure and
limitation. The unconscious fantasy , in which the sexua l wish towards
the fa ther leads to castration and dea th , is an extraordi naril y powerful
and dangerous one. Its sudden rel ease and symbo li c enactment leads to
an ecs tatic sense of harmony and freedom-th e " highes t form of
being" -but also to the opposi te sta te-terror, gu ilt, and final coll apse.
In the compulsion towards such extreme and opposed mental
states li es much of Dostoevsky'S extraordinary power and tension . Each
of the novels is a sort of spiritual experiment with the darkes t forces of
the psyche; in the outcome the protagonist hovers for a time between
omnipotence and annihilati on, then falls to annihil at ion . In
The Idiot
the connections between that conception of the sp iritual life and the
dangerous excitements of ep il epsy are cl ear.
It is into the darkness that li es beyond the controls of the ego, the
perilous region of unmodified in stin ct and savage retaliation , that we
are invited by the great scenes of mounting tension and final frenzy and
co llapse. In
Th e Idiot
more than anywhere else in Dostoevs ky we are
taken beyond intellectual speculation about and description of these
states into the actual experience itse lf. Again and aga in the novel leads
us out onto this treacherou s ground; beyond this precipice is the abyss
of total abandonment in frenzy o r stupor-the loss of the ego and all its
compli cated negotiation s between the inn er world of in stinctual drives
and the outer world of external rea lity. In the compu lsion
to
lean out
over tha t abyss the novel also risks its own ex istence as an aesthet ic
object. In their exp losive force, the grea t scenes threa ten to escape the
control of the plot, to disrupt the continuity o f th e na rrative and drive
it into incoh erence. This flirta tion with loss of form is the ana logue in
the structure of the novel to the courtin g of loss of ego control in the
protagonists, especiall y Myshkin . Thus the novel, in its terrible fid elity
to psychologi cal experience, almost loses itse lf in the gamble.
Almost, but not quite. Form and meaning are sa lvaged perilously,
although
Th e Idiot
does not always give its meanings their true names.
Like all dark forces, they must sometimes be call ed ho ly, as th e Furi es
were named Gracious Ones. Th e knowl edge of those forces is in some
way bound up with the profound ambi gu ities of epil epsy: in th e
representation of the epil epti c seizure the most primitive energies of
psychi c life, its oldest and most forbidden meanings, are symbo li ca ll y
enacted, animating with their tremendous power a vision in whi ch
degrada tion and sanctity are inextricably mingl ed. In
Th e Id iot
th e
experience of epil epsy is not onl y illness and in capacit y, but tragi c and
dangerous revelation.
