Nabokov Contra Freud

Abstract In 1973 I wrote a letter to Vladimir Nabokov. What I wanted, I told him, was “information which may assist me in writing a fairly serious essay, tentatively titled ‘Nabokov’s Anti-Freudianism.”‘ I then explained, in what I thought of as a semi-Nabokovian style: I have admired your work intensely since my first reading, as a college freshman, of that racy novel Lolita. I have admired Sigmund Freud’ work intensely since my first reading, at about the same time, of the equally racy Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. I am well aware of your extreme distaste for Freud and his followers; and according to the currently popular psychological theory of “cognitive consistency,” such an imbalanced situation (Elms admires Nabokov; Elms admires Freud; Nabokov abhors Freud) will not permit me to rest until I somehow convert the perceived inconsistency into consistency.