Dear Carolyn,
 
Dream interpretation is as old as mankind ( or, without traveling so far, we can find lovely instances in the Biblie...).
Terms like "unconscious" and "narcissism" were not created by Freud and you are absolute right to remind us that medical interest in all sorts of mental disorders pre-dates Freud  - who, by the way, had to go to Paris to meet Charcot and learn more about hysteric phenomena.
Freud's importance lies in the innovative frame for  his conceptualizations and is to be found in the corpus of his work and not by popular bits and pieces about dream-symbols or "id,ego and superego". 
The connection he found bt dream-thoughts and waking-thoughts, the apparent disorder of dreams having the same structure  as the one underlying symptom formation...
Multiple personality disorders are a constant source of all sorts of literary and movie thrillers. 
I have the impression that your hypothesis concerning the identity of CK and JS would become richer and more workable as a thing Nabokovian, if RLS's novel and allegories were less emphasized. 
Jansy
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 8:50 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Freudian or Nabokovian?


I had not thought Nabokov would deliberately apply Freudian "repression " and "unconscious motivations" as essential elements for the unraveling of any novelistic plot, independently of his fascination with neurological and psychiatric disturbances and his almost too frequent references to them.

Dear Jansy,

My theory lead me to assume that the genesis of Pale Fire was VN's desire to recreate for the modern reader the mystery and thrill that Jekyll and Hyde had for its first readers. The success of the tale especially in theatrical and filmed dramatizations has meant that the mystery can no longer be experienced with the original, since Jekyll-and-Hyde has entered the language.

By the way, medical interest in multiple personality disorders pre-dates Freud. The names Charcot and Janet come to mind. I highly recommend Ian Hacking's book, in part on the history of pre-Freudian psychology, "Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory."

Carolyn

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