THE INFERIORITY / SUPERIORITY COMPLEX IN THE PSYCHOWORLD OF TODOS OSMACHKA

Abstract

Comprehensive exploration of the extraordinary personality of Todos Osmachka remains relevant to this day. The article delves into the personal and artistic manifestations of the writer's inferiority/superiority complex. Based on the megatext, an analysis of the artist's relationship with his mother reveals that a profound impact on Todos Osmachka's psyche was exerted by the author's guilt over his mother's deafness. During the study of the functioning of guilt within the individual's psychostructure, it was observed that representatives of analytical psychology (A. Adler) and psychoanalysis (S. Freud) do not separate guilt from the inferiority complex, since both psychological phenomena arise from the conflict between the Ego and the Superego. Psychoanalysts also argue that human inferiority contributes to the development of an individual's abilities and their creative energy (A. Adler). We adhere to this view because guilt shapes a well-developed Superego, under whose influence the energy of affective impulses is consciously directed towards productive creative activity. The analysis of Todos Osmachka's psychoautobiographical novella «The Rotunda of murders» provided an opportunity to examine the microsocial dynamics of the author's own personality development since the psychological world of the main character Ivan Brus serves as a projection of the author's own psyche. Through the extensive monologues and recollections of the main character, we learn that the domestic overload imposed by his mother correlated with the strictness in child-rearing. According to S. Freud, such upbringing contributes to the development of a strong Superego, which is constructed not based on the father-mother model, but on the parental Superegos. However, a unique aspect of the mother's approach to her children was the absence of coercion into any activities, which, according to psychoanalytic concepts, is a sign of the formation of a superiority complex. The writer's megatext suggests that in Todos Osmachka's psyche, the inferiority complex, initially triggered by guilt over his mother's deafness and later intensified by guilt over his brother's death, transformed into a superiority complex, significantly influencing the formation of Osmachka as an artist.