Poetry and Psychiatry: Essays on Early Twentieth-Century Russian Symbolist Culture

A century ago the Symbolists in Moscow and St. Petersburg dreamed of a fundamental transformation of life in Russia. From their reading of signs in the heavens, these poets, philosophers, and mystics sensed that tsardom was on the threshold of an apocalyptic upheaval. They were influenced by Vladimir Solovyov and Friedrich Nietzsche, but under the impact of the 1905 Revolution they later also subscribed to current radical political ideas. The eventual collision between these dreams and tsarist reality generated enormous intellectual turbulence and the need for substitutes. Not least psychoanalysis came to the rescue of these stranded dreamers. The present collection of essays is intended for readers interested in Russian literature or the early history of Eastern European offshoots of psychoanalysis.

Magnus Ljunggren defended his doctoral thesis The Dream of Rebirth. A Study of Andrej Belyj’s novel ’Peterburg’ at Stockholm University in 1982. He is presently Professor Emeritus of Russian Language and Literature at the University of Gothenburg. His most important monograph is The Russian Mephisto (1994).