Beyond religious neurosis. Semyon Franks thoughts about madness

Sa？etak The Russian philosopher of Jewish origin and Christian faith Simon (Semyon) Frank (1877–1950) has published in 1938 his religion philosophical work The Unfathomable (rus. Непостижимое ) There he explores, among others, the limits of our consciousness. According to Frank, our world is just a part of an infinite and to us unknown world; if man is against the nature, stays sealed in its own being senselessly, and if his subjectivity does not seek a path to objectivity, we are talking about the delusion. To the nature of our selfhood belongs the moment of transcending ourselves by rising to the sphere beyond the selfhood. Man is essentially a person for others, whereas it is the self-limitation that is a constitutive feature of madness, mania and self-loss. With an insight into the unfathomable depths of being, we define the everyday reason as merely restricted. Without this experience, man is even more convinced of the logic of reason. Finally, there is a question of freedom involved