Demian

As a novel in the tradition of the German Bildungsroman (like Hesse’s first novel and literary breakthrough, Peter Camenzind), Demian offers a figure of identification to his readers, and not only the young ones, although (an aspect rather ignored by scholars so far) its protagonist, Emil Sinclair, is definitely a young man, an adolescent with psychological specificities of his age, who is attracted more and more to the symbolic figure of Demian, who initiates and determines the individuation of the young soul until he reaches the final stage of maturity (German Reife). On the other hand, the novel can also provide a revelatory reading for adults interested in processes of psychological development. The psychological and pedagogical “output” of such a reading is the insight it affords the reader into the process of individuation, its stages and obstacles, and the reader’s own inner struggles and desires. This process is not a self-­evident one, it can remain “hidden” even for adults, like many contents and aspects of the subconscious. It is also not always a successful process, as it may involve “ruptures” or missteps that can hinder a “normal” or mentally healthy psychological development, with alarming consequences. However, an attentive reading of a novel like Hesse’s Demian can cast light on the shadows of individuation and emotional disturbances2For emotional disturbances of young people see, for instance, A. Rosenblatt, “Assessing the child and family outcomes of systems of care for youth with severe emotional disturbance,” in Outcomes for Children and Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Their Families: Programs and Evaluation Best Practices, ed. M. H. Epstein, K. Kutash, and A. Duchnowski (Austin, TX: PRO-ED Publishers, 1998), 329–62. and it should perhaps be recommended reading for young people.

A Bildungsroman generally has a young protagonist at its center, who undergoes a process of development until he or she reaches a final stage of maturity. In the “original” Goethean model, Wilhelm Meister eventually becomes an integral and valuable member of civil (bürgerlich) society. Such a social integration of the protagonist is not evident in Demian, but his psychological integration is. From an autobiographical point of view, the maturation process of Emil Sinclair can be seen as a psychological confession by the author himself, a poetic testimony to his overcoming of his own individual crisis. In the years that followed he published Siddhartha (1922), another novel of development. Here, individual development took on cultural-religious dimensions; however, the text offers psychological insights as well, if only indirectly. The story begins with the young Siddhartha deciding to leave his family to find “enlightenment.” The stages of his journey leading through the castes of the Indian society correspond to the “steps” (Stufen—a recurring symbol in Hesse’s work) in Siddhartha’s development, ending in his “listening silently to the water” as “the voice of life, the voice of what exists, of what is eternally taking shape”3Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha: An Indian Tale, The Gutenberg Project eBook, 2001, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2500/pg2500-images.html (accessed June 24, 2024). Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, in Sämtliche Werke, ed. Volker Michels, 20 vols. (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001–2007) [=SW], vol. 3, 444.: an individual development paradoxically leading beyond the individuum itself to the consciousness of his deep connection with all beings. Reading the story of Siddhartha is comparable to a sort of meditation: the reader is guided step by step to the wisdom of old (Asian) cultures, overcoming the hypostases of loneliness and fear, including the depression they can produce, by reaching an awareness of being part of a sympathetic universe. Hesse tells us that there is no depression where love prevails.

With Siddhartha, Hesse’s art of writing reached an emotional maturity that has been appreciated by millions of readers across the globe ever since.4By 1976 Volker Michels had already registered eighty-eight translations of the novel worldwide. See Volker Michels, ed., Materialien zu Hermann Hesses “Siddhartha,” vol. 2 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1976), 384–85. Contemporary critics and readers were impressed by the clarity and wisdom of this small book, which was called by Hesse himself “an Indian Tale,” the German subtitle (indische Dichtung) alluding to its poetic, even lyric character. Hesse appeared to regain his psychical balance in the 1920s, so much so that his readers expected him to continue to write rather exotic, (neo)romantic stories full of serenity and harmony, to enchant his growing audience. In fact, Hesse managed to surprise his readers again with the gloomy story of Harry Haller in Steppenwolf (1927). The shining sun of Siddhartha was suddenly occluded by the dark clouds of depression in the latter novel. His readers were now appalled: how was it possible to fall from the heavens of Siddhartha to the hell of the Steppenwolf? Can depression, once transcended in a marvelous way, healed in the purgatory of consciousness and wisdom, again take possession of the soul? Human existence can be (as it has often been) compared to the movement of the waves, showing ups and downs, crises and recoveries in a continuous interplay, swaying the human psyche on the swings of mood. Recurrence of or relapse into depression is not a rare phenomenon.5See Stephanie L. Burcusa and William G. Iacono, “Risk for Recurrence in Depression,” Clinical Psychology Review 27, no. 8 (2007): 959–85. In the years between writing the two novels, Hesse himself repeatedly fell back into bouts of depression. His weak physical health also affected his mental and psychical status: we know from his biography that he underwent psychoanalytic treatment in Baden (near Zürich), in June 1923 and then again in the autumn of the same year, he was also suffering from sciatica and gout. In between, he divorced his first wife, Maria Bernoulli. Their marriage ended rather disastrously, with his wife’s mental health problems deeply affecting his own mental health. In fact, marriage and familial problems are also reflected in some of his early works such as Rosshalde and Klein and Wagner. On the advice of his psychoanalysts, Hesse turned to the practice of painting (like Veraguth in Rosshalde) as a creative form of therapy, depicting the landscapes of Ticino, the southernmost canton of Switzerland bordering Italy, where he moved in 1919. But physical and psychical diseases continued to affect him; in December 1923, for instance, he was hospitalized in Basel with acute enteritis.