Pathological Elements Created by the Father Factor in Franz Kafka

Abstract

The novels, stories, letters and aphorisms of Franz Kafka, one of the most famous writers of modern German literature, bear the traces of childhood trauma. Through his writing, Kafka revealed a system of thought that he was unable to express during his childhood. Franz Kafka grew up in a patriarchal family dominated by authority and misunderstanding. The sense of marginalisation he experienced within the family, combined with exclusion and misunderstanding, created an insensitivity, first to his immediate environment and then to the outside world, and restricted Franz's emotions from childhood. Unable to establish a positive relationship with his father, Kafka reflected in his works the feelings of alienation, hatred, inadequacy, complexes and insecurity that he had repressed in his unconscious because of his father's oppressive structure and exploitative behaviour. To date, research on Franz Kafka has focused on his works, but the unconscious behind these works has not been evaluated. The aim of this study is to examine the traumas created by the father phenomenon in the background of Franz Kafka's works, and the psychopathological elements created by these childhood traumas.