{Circle of Epilepsy}[25th August 1990]

[Redbook7:239-243][19900825:1212c]{Circle of Epilepsy}[25th August 1990]

.1212

[continued]

‘“My first impression was a very strong one,” the prince repeated. “On my way from Russia, passing through many German towns, I just looked about me in silence, and, I remember, I never asked questions. This was after a long series of violent and painful attacks of my illness, and I always relapsed into a state of complete stupor when my illness became worse and I had several attacks on the same day. I lost my memory, and, though I was fully conscious, the logical sequence of my thoughts seemed to be broken. I could not follow the course of events consecutively for more than two or three days. That’s how it seems to me. But when my attacks abated I became well and strong again, just as I am now. I remember I felt terribly sad. I even felt like crying. I was in a state of constant wonder and anxiety. The thing that affected me most was the thought that everything around me was foreign. I realised that. The fact that it was foreign depressed me terribly. I completely recovered from this depression, I remember, one evening at Basel, on reaching Switzerland, and the thing that roused me was the braying of a donkey in the market-place. I was quite extraordinarily struck with the donkey, and for some reason very pleased with it, and at once everything in my head seemed to clear up.”’

– Fyodor Dostoyevsky, ‘The Idiot’ Part I Ch[apter] 5 [See next journal entry, fn=***]

(cf earlier Dostoyevsky extracts re epilepsy,

ref III [[Redbook3:181][19870413:1450](FITS)[13th April 1987],] 181)

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