The Dance of Freedom and Destruction
The interpretations of these great thinkers reveal a multifaceted picture of how inner contradictions and repressed impulses lead to deep fears and even self-destruction.Dostoevsky sees in human freedom not only a source of strength but also a threat of ruin. He asserts that an excessive striving for self-determination and willfulness—which detaches a person from established traditions and reality—can weaken an individual and lead to spiritual disintegration. As he expressed this thought: "Very early Dostoevsky discovered the mysterious antinomy of human freedom. The entire meaning and joy of life for a person lie precisely in his freedom, in his freedom of will, in this ‘willfulness’ of man. Even humility and submission are possible only through ‘willfulness’, through self-denial.
And yet, does not this man’s ‘willfulness’ too often result in self-destruction?... The dreamer becomes an ‘underground man’, and a dreadful decay of the personality begins. Lonely freedom turns into obsession, the dreamer becomes captive to his own dream..." (source: link txt)Freud, in turn, investigates the nature of fear through the lens of repressed impulses and the theory of the Oedipus complex. He emphasizes that the retention of libido, its partial ‘mortification’, is the genetic source of phobias and deep-seated fear. This is manifested, for example, in anxieties about loneliness or public condemnation, which lead to destructive symptoms in the psyche: "In the retention of ‘libido’—in the partial ‘mortification’ of impulses—Freud rightly identified the genetic source of phobias and fear. These include, for example, the fear of large spaces, the fear of crowds, the fear of loneliness, the fear of ‘losing face’, shyness when speaking before an audience, the fear of being buried alive, the fear of a woman—and these are among the most ‘natural’, the most standard types of phobias." (source: link txt)At the same time, another facet of Freud’s interpretation touches upon the Oedipus complex, which—despite an exaggeration of its significance—exposes the ancient problem of the mystical fear of violating familial taboos: "Representations of the Oedipus complex are deeply rooted in Freud’s theory. Freud attributed a universal significance to the Oedipus complex... He saw the crime of Oedipus as lying at the root of all human societies and primitive religious beliefs." (source: link txt)Pushkin, through aesthetic imagery, allows us to sense this inner existential horror. In his “Hymn to the Plague” the images of despair, fear, and self-destruction intertwine; alongside vivid artistic colors, subtle notes of terror against emptiness and the loss of vital force resonate: "'Hymn to the Plague' is also an improvisation. And it is also incomprehensibly, inhumanly brilliant. All the passionate similitudes employed by Tsvetaeva against the pathos of the hymn in the article ‘Pushkin and Pugachev’ can be squared, and there would be no exaggeration... But Pushkin—in the voice of the Chairman of the feast—also ‘listed’ something else: both despair and fear (‘with a terrible recollection…’), and a ‘consciousness of lawlessness’, and ‘the horror... of dead emptiness’..." (source: link txt)Thus, Dostoevsky’s interpretations emphasize that excessive freedom and willfulness can lead to isolation and internal disintegration, laying the groundwork for self-destruction. Freud, by analyzing the repression of impulses and the role of the Oedipus complex, shows how inner tension and suppressed instincts can turn into painful phobias that threaten the integrity of the personality. And Pushkin, through his artistic images, demonstrates how these inner contradictions are embodied in poetic imagery, imbued with fear and a sense of inevitable collapse. Together, they provide us with a comprehensive understanding of how the limits of freedom, repressed desires, and aesthetically expressed emotions can contribute to the emergence of a dreadful internal conflict and self-destruction.