The Psychoanalysis of Franz Kafka's Letter to My Father

Psychoanalyst Paulo Marchon analyses the iconic Letter to My Father by Franz Kafka, a contemporary of Freud and fellow subject of the Austro-Hungarian empire, through a dialogue with the author, stimulating the reader's thinking on the various psychoanalytic questions raised by Kafka's reflections on humans and their souls.

Marchon begins by telling us the history of Franz Kafka’s Letter to my Father and follows the complete text, from beginning to end, analysing it as if it were Kafka’s free association of ideas; in effect, an attempt to put Franz Kafka on the couch. Marchon tries to show and interpret the unconscious motivation throughout the Letter, following the theories of Freud, Klein, Bion and Britton. He shows that Kafka's text is the consequence of several dramas in his extraordinary life.

Marchon also searches for the man called Franz in the writer Kafka. He attempts a dialogue with Kafka, to understand his motivation, his reasons and unconscious fantasies. He shows his attempts to get to know Kafka, breaking barriers of time and temporality, to talk and, as friends sometimes do, to argue with him. Marchon tries to find the unconscious meanings by dedicating himself completely to this task, frankly and with no limitations and, it has to be said, with passion.

In addition, Marchon studies some of the-best-known biographies, such as those written by Pawel, Brod, Begley and Lemaire, analysing facts that can be associated and confronted with the secrets of Kafka the author.