Arthur Koestler's Arrival and Departure

“Arrival and Departure” is the symbolic title of Arthur Koestler's recent book, one of the most conspicuous novels published of late. It is not here intended to give any literary evaluation, although it is unquestionably a brilliantly written book by an author with artistic ability. Discussion by an analyst is justified only by the fact that psychoanalytic concepts are used extensively and their application leads to conclusions which not only give a deceptive and harmful picture of psychoanalysis but, what is even more harmful, served to bolster a defeatist attitude toward the war.

Koestler's book is the significant expression of an intellectual and emotional confusion which everyone raised in our civilization can hardly avoid and which is, therefore, to some degree shared by everyone. It is the merit of the author that he does not accept slogans and catchwords, but tries to raise the fundamental question—“what are we fighting for?” He is not to blame that he finds no answer, but his vague mystical faith that a “new god is about to be born” will not be shared by many. He predicts an end of scientific reasoning, “Salvation will not come by an improved laboratory formula; the age of quantitative measurements is drawing to its close”. Koestler warns us not to ask any questions about the unborn god. “Don't try to divine his message or the form of his cult—this will be after our time.”

The novel concerns Peter Slavek who, like the author, is an anti-Fascist intellectual. The story is simple and about as follows: Peter had been living in a university city, between the Danube and the Balkans, where he played a leading role in the Communist student movement. His family belonged to the non-Jewish bourgeoisie; his father had died when Peter was three, and when he was five his only brother (who was two years younger) was killed in a freak accident. While the brothers were wrestling, the younger fell down and a boat-hook penetrated his eye. When Peter was eighteen, his country wa