![]() Dostoyevsky himself states that he had his first seizure one Easter night during the period of his banishment (on account of his contacts with revolutionary circles, the writer was sentenced to death in 1850, but was reprieved just before the sentence was carried out and banished to Siberia for four years). He was then aged about 30. |
The seizures were of the dramatic grand-mal type:
'He faltered for a moment, as if he were searching for words, opened his mouth ... suddenly there came a long, strange, meaningless cry from his wide-open mouth, and he fell to the ground unconscious ... His body twisted and jerked in convulsions and he foamed at the mouth.' These types of seizures were probably secondary generalised grand-mal seizures triggered by focal activity as Dostoyevsky's seizures were generally preceded by an aura which was apparently accompanied by a feeling of happiness. |
![]() It is this euphoric feeling, this 'terrible gift of mercy from his epilepsy' which Dostoyevsky describes in detail in Prince Myshkin, who is clearly an autobiographical figure. |
There is no doubt that Dostoyevski's own perception of his epilepsy left a deep impression on his life. It had a great influence on many aspects of his work and enabled him to understand and feel things in such depths which would not have been possible had he not suffered from the disease.
Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die folgende, etwas pointierte Aussage sicherlich ihre Berechtigung: |