Captain Post 6

As the book comes to a close, Dostoyevsky haunts the reader with questions such as: “Which is better – cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Why, we have come almost to looking upon real life as an effort almost as hard work, and we are all privately agreed that it is better in books. And why do we fuss and fume sometimes? Why are we preserve and ask for something else?”  These questions bring the book full circle. What I found very interesting about this book is that it introduces the very beginnings of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective (Book was written in 1864, Freud was born in 1856). In more ways than one, his ideals of defense mechanisms such as repression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization and denial are thoroughly conveyed throughout the story. Another idea of Freud’s that I saw in the novel was his theory of our subconscious and tendency to hide unpleasant truths. To me the narrator is the product of free association and some of our most clandestine characteristics.  Dostoyevsky reiterates this by claiming that we don’t know ourselves. In many respects, he has a valid point. It is extremely difficult to pronounce who we are when we a constantly molded and influenced by society and the people around us. If Freud was right about anything it was that humans tend to rationalize their choices and decisions, while hiding the things that society and ourselves are ashamed of. Dostoyevsky truly captures this aspect of human life in NFTU.