Amnesia as a state of divine unknowing and innocence in Dostoevsky's The Idiot

Perhaps since ancient men had shamans to intercede in their fate, there have been special individuals, holy men. In medieval society, epileptics were often regarded as holy fools, possessed with some special access to the divine. These men would have light auras prior to the onset of the seizure and would sometimes report vision of God or of heaven appearing at these moments. Epileptics have a special aura about them. They seem to be out of control of their bodies, in a trance, and lost to memory during the duration of their seizures.

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Myshkin is an epileptic, an innocent and a holy man. During the times he is most acutely ill, he can recall nothing that happens around him. Myshkin becomes gravely ill and is treated by a doctor named Schneider in Switzerland. He slowly emerges from an amnestic state and, seemingly well again, travels back to his home in Russia looking to connect with his only surviving relative. The family, almost everyone in fact, welcome him with open arms. Many of them are suspicious, greedy, or ruthless people themselves. But, they are entranced my Myshkin who always tells the truth, who is Christ like in his ability to forgive insult and injury. Myshkin is like oil on this watery background of squabbling, hatred and rage and he floats above it. Myshkin feels a deep sense of pity toward Nastasya Filippovna, a woman filled with self-hatred, who has become the mistress of Rogozhin. Rogozhin loves her but is so bad-tempered and jealous he hounds her. She belittles and provokes him. Dostoevsky portrays these characters with sympathy. The pain they feel, the hopelessness, the powerlessness are filtered through Myshkin's pity. Myshkin tries to save Nastasya Filippovna but she will not allow anyone to save her.

Freud speculated that there are "criminals from a sense of guilt" (p. 342) in an essay from his Collected Papers (Volume 4, 1959). Believing they are bad, they commit crimes to justify their belief in their own worthlessness and in doing so they attempt to elicit the punishment they think they inherently deserve. Nastasya Filippovna has the sense of worthlessness but engages it by becoming a man's mistress eliciting the condemnation of nineteenth century society. Rogozhin is her punishment for her wickedness. When he kills her, people are not really surprised. Myshkin finds Rogozhin and the dead woman. He comforts Rogozhin. Dostoevsky says, "Then Myshkin stretched out his trembling hand to him and softly touched his head, his hair, stroking them and striking his cheeks . . . he could do nothing else!" Then he says, "at last he lay down on the pillow as though utterly helpless and despairing and put his face close to the pale and motionless face of Rogozhin; tears flowed from his eyes on to Rogozhin's cheeks, but perhaps he did not notice then his own tears and was quite unaware of them." (p. 594).

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