Search

Abstract: Much has been said by French and international psychoanalytical movements about Freud''s introduction to a Brothers Karamazov''s study. More obscure is the way the founder of psychoanalysis happened to learn important details about Dostoevsky''s personality and biography. The publication of Dostoevsky''s posthumous works and biographies about the author, in German, by Friedrich Eckstein and René Fülöp-Miller, provided Freud with main references for his essay, Dostoevsky and Parricide. These two Freud''s acquaintances, close to the Viennese artistic movement, took an interest in Russian novelists like Dostoevsky. René Fülöp-Miller, helped by Friedrich Eckstein, older brother of the famous Emma Eckstein, collected and bought many hitherto unpublished manuscripts of Dostoevsky. The novelist was not in favour with leaders of the Soviet Union, so in a context of literary censorship, they managed to negotiate exclusive rights for a first publication. Freud will not only base his essay on this previously unpublished works but also contribute to the spreading of Dostoevsky''s works in German between the two World Wars. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]