The Theory of the Unconscious in Russian Philosophy and Psychoanalysis

The article presents a comparative analysis of the theories of the unconscious in Russian religious philosophy and Western psychoanalysis. The author describes the ontological, moral and spiritual aspects of the unconscious, reveals the sociocultural and value-ideological differences in the understanding of the unconscious in the theories of Russian religious philosophers Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Solovyov and Western psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Erich Fromm, shows the shortcomings of the scientific analytical approach to the unconscious, and considers the specificity of the metaphysical and religious understanding of the unconscious. The main problem of the article is that today, against the background of the popularity of the psychoanalytic approach to the unconscious, the value of the philosophical approach remains insufficiently clarified and recognized. In the context of this problem, Russian religious philosophy, which has a deeper understanding of the essence and nature of the unconscious, acquires special relevance. To solve this problem, the author refers to historical, logical, comparative methods and to philosophical and cultural analysis. The comparative analysis of Dostoevsky's philosophy and Freud's psychoanalytic concept showed that the scientific psychological approach to the unconscious that Freud founded is limited by the worldview of physicalism and materialism. The religious aspect of the unconscious that Dostoevsky and Solovyov discovered made it possible to understand the unconscious in a broader and more diverse context of the spiritual world of man, which includes all possible aspects of human life. The comparative analysis also helped to find differences between Russian philosophers and Western psychoanalysts in their theories about love. The physiological aspect of love revealed by Freud, as well as the social and creative aspects of love revealed by Fromm, showed their insufficient character in comparison with the spiritual context of love proposed by Dostoevsky and Solovyov. The spiritual context of love allowed Russian philosophers to understand the unconscious at all levels of human existence, not limited to specific aspects, as well as to show its metaphysical and spiritual depth. This point leads to the conclusion that, in the understanding of the unconscious, Russian philosophers were able to overcome the fragmentation, physicalism and reductionism inherent in Western psychoanalysts. Thus, they made a great contribution to the cognition of the unconscious and once again proved the scientific value and creative fruitfulness of Russian philosophical thought.

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