Narrazione e “tempo vissuto” nelle alterazioni psichiche dell’epilessia. L’Idiota di Dostoevskij alla luce della Psicopatologia di Jaspers

For the analysis and understanding of an illness it is very important in Karl Jaspers’ Psy- chopathology to listen to the patient’s own state of mind and conditions of existence. This has therefore become particularly interesting in the lives and stories of those great artistic personalities whose suffering and pathologies are an integral part of the beauty of their works. Among them is the great Russian writer Fëdor Dostoevskij who describes the com- plexity of the human soul with great insight, especially when dealing with the constituent elements of the illness that had afflicted him: epilepsy. In Prince Myškin, he described it as a feeling of ecstasy and harmony that came a few seconds before the seizure, like a deep cri- sis and mental impairment which manifests its conclusion. Epilepsy is often accompanied, in fact, by the perception of pain and anguish. These elements fuel the ability of the writer to represent the infinite range of emotions and upheavals that capture the suffering of the human soul. The “lived time”, between the onset of the crisis and its conclusion is of par- ticular interest: a disjointed time with respect for objective time. In the “lived time”, the Psychopathologist can sharpen the tools for understanding these sick and frail existences.