Dostoyevsky is of interest for another reason that has only recently come to the attention of medical science. Based on the notes in his diaries, Dostoyevsky may have had the very unusual neurological condition known as temporal-lobe epilepsy. This form of epilepsy produces no motor convulsions or seizures as in the classical Jacksonian epilepsy that is so well known. Rather, the effects are on the person's mental and emotional state.
In his notebooks Dostoyevsky reported experiencing visions and emotional states of such an intense nature, saying that that were so ecstatic that one would be willing give up one's life to experience it one more time, that it seems likely he did indeed have this rare neurological syndrome. It can produce intensely vivid imagery and visions, and ecstatic and euphoric emotional states. However, in some cases, it also produces uncontrollable rage and violence, but it appears that Dostoyevsky had the more pleasant and benign form of this disease.
Having studied the excerpts from his diaries describing these experiences and compared them to contemporary patients who have been diagnosed with the disease, the evidence seems compelling to me too that he did indeed have this condition. How it ultimately affected his writing I don't know, but perhaps this will be something that will enable us to gain further insight into his writings in the future.
Perhaps Nabokov's dismissal of "Notes from Underground" is appropriate from a purely literary point of view, but the novel is of interest from a philosophical point of view. In the first part of the novel, the narrator is speaking to an imaginary audience. The narrator is obsessed with free will and is at pains to argue against the Enlightenment view that freedom and happiness are complementary. He is spiteful, not from some personality disorder, but rather from his philosophy. The second part involves detailed, and at times humorous, remembered humiliations. And then the noble prostitute. As Nabokov says at this point, "The conversations are very garrulous and very poor, but please go on to the bitter end. Some of you may like it more than I do."
