DOI: https://doi.org/10.36719/2789-6919/61/26-32
Traces of Sigmund Freud’s Psychology in
Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus
Khalida Bayramova 
Abstract. This article explores the influence of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory on Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus. The study aims to analyze the psychological portrait of Adrian Leverkühn through Freud’s concepts of the unconscious, repression, sublimation, Eros and Thanatos, guilt, and the uncanny (Das Unheimliche). The novel is examined not only as a modern reinterpretation of the Faust myth but also as a psychological representation of the individual’s inner conflicts and the moral crisis of twentieth-century Germany. The research employs hermeneutic analysis, psychoanalytic literary criticism, and close reading to interpret the novel’s symbolic imagery and narrative structure. The findings suggest that Leverkühn’s pact with the devil functions as a symbolic expression of repressed desires, creative ambition, inner conflict, and the death instinct rather than as a purely metaphysical event. Motifs such as emotional isolation, illness, guilt, and the renunciation of love reveal the protagonist’s psychological fragmentation while reflecting broader cultural anxieties. The study concludes that Thomas Mann transforms Freudian concepts into a sophisticated artistic framework, presenting the complexities of the human psyche, the creative process, and cultural decline. Consequently, Doctor Faustus represents a significant contribution to psychoanalytic literary criticism and modernist literary studies.
Keywords: Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus, Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis, unconscious, repression, sublimation, Eros and Thanatos, the uncanny (Das Unheimliche), modernism