August Strindberg: The Autobiographies

Thanks to an almost unique series of autobiographical novels, the psychiatrist is placed in an unusually happy position, when attempting an investigation of August Stringberg's mentality. This analysis is based almost entirely upon the four novels, “Son of a Servant,” “Confession of a Fool,” “Inferno “and its continuation “Legends.” Only an occasional reference is made to the plays, short stories, etc.

It should be mentioned here that August's autobiographical works suffer to a marked degree from a defect seldom absent in any autobiography. They present a very one-sided and biased view of the facts. Again they are very definitely written with a purpose and August never had any hesitation in distorting the facts to fit in with his aims.

In order to correct for this and in order to be able as far as possible to put the other side of the case, the present writer has made free use of Campbell's “Strindberg,” and V. J. McGill's “August Strindberg.” The latter author's work has also been of special service on account of the elaborate abstracts of those of Strindberg's works not directly accessible.

As far as the writer is aware, the only previous psychoanalytic study of August Strindberg is the monograph by Upvall. This psychologist stresses above all as the causal factor of August's mental disorder, a positive Oedipus complex. He emphasizes the hostile attitude towards the father and father-surrogates and the ambivalent feelings towards the mother. Regarding the latter, he states that “On the one hand she was the flawless mother, the source of love and consolation to whom the child gravitated. But later on she also became the sensual, impure woman, who had violated both laws and conventions and so to speak became the concubine of his father. Theoretically he (Strindberg) was born in wedlock, but practically he was an illegitimate child. Moreover, he had another serious grievance against her. He owed his slave blood to her and those traits of servility and lack of individual