VELF - "Akhmatova" or "The Harbringer"

Psyche Yoga Version:

written by A. Afanasyev on ❝Syntax of Love❞

ANNA AKHMATOVA (VELF)

1) WILL ("King")
2) EMOTION ("Actor")
3) LOGIC ("Skeptic")
4) PHYSICS ("Slacker")

Akhmatova was still a little girl, had not yet written a line, and her father already called her a "decadent poetess". That is, in the case of Akhmatova, the psychotype declared itself so early and openly that it became read by those close to her long before it became her destiny. The sadness, coldness, despondency, and lifelessness inherent in decadent poetry were organic to Akhmatova's 4^th Physics, as were the precision and expressiveness of the word (2^nd Emotion) in conveying these states. So, the early recognition of Akhmatova's future by those close to her is not particularly surprising. When little Anna sat down to write, her poetic experiences only confirmed her father's long-standing diagnosis.

Akhmatova's psychotype is programmed for tragedy, and external circumstances have no power to change anything in this program. Knowing Akhmatova in the days when her position would have been the envy of any woman, her first husband wrote:
In prose Gumilev said the same thing: “Anna Andreevna for some reason always tried to seem unhappy, unloved. And in fact—Lord!—How she tormented me and how she made fun of me. She was devilishly proud, proud to the point of self-abasement. But how lovely she was, and how I was in love with her!”

And it seemed that who else but her should be happy? She had everything others could only dream of. But she spent her days lying on the couch, languishing and sighing. She always managed to pine and grieve and feel miserable. I jokingly advised her to sign her name not Akhmatova, but Grief—you can't think of a better one."

Fifty years from now, our contemporaries will be describing the same proud woman lying on the couch, languishing and sighing. They will think that the source of her grief lies in her tragic fate, and they will be wrong in doing so. She was born that way. With that psychotype. Akhmatova's only doubtful luck is that her psychotype tragically "collapsed" with fate, life has confirmed the correctness of her innate worldview. There were shootings of husbands, expulsion of lovers, hard labor of her son, persecution by the authorities, poverty, and all this naturally influenced the perception of the reader accordingly. But these tragic circumstances had no effect on the muse Akhmatova, her perception of the world has always been catastrophic and external prosperity or disadvantage did not add anything to the sown by nature.

At the same time, Akhmatova, like no one else, knew: what a powerful resonator of poetry is the fate of the poet. She herself almost exploited the horror of her life, initiating even barely acquainted people into it from the threshold, and the venomous Isaiah Berlin, stunned by her frankness on her first visit, wrote: "The account of the continuing tragedy of her life went far beyond anything I had ever heard." Yet the effect of such a frightening preface was not inconsiderable. Another pilgrim to Akhmatova admitted: "She attracted to her not only her poems, not only her mind, knowledge, memory, but also the authenticity of destiny. First of all, the authenticity of destiny.

If we're talking about the 4th Physics (which, as we remember, is the source of chronic sadness), then we can trace, on the example of Akhmatova, all of her turns in the different planes of physical existence.

In her disregard for everyday life, Akhmatova could have rivaled the most fanatical hermits. Here is one of the testimonies: "Akhmatova lived then—you can't even say: poor. Poverty—it is a little something, she had nothing. In an empty room stood a small old bureau and an iron bed, covered with a bad blanket. You could see that the bed was hard, the blanket cold. The readiness to love, with which I crossed that threshold, mingled with a mad longing, with a sense of the proximity of disaster... Akhmatova invited me to sit down on a single chair, she herself lay down on the bed with her hands behind her head (her favorite pose) and said: "Read a poem."

Although in this case Akhmatova's ascesis can be considered forced, the appearance of money did not change much in her life. Let us continue quoting: “After Stalin's death Akhmatova immediately felt better, at least in terms of money. Was released her translation of the play "Marion Delorme" in the collected works of Victor Hugo, she received the first big money - they gave her a lot of pleasure. True, she did not change her life in any way and did not indulge in life. Having lived homeless all her life, she did not start a household in her later years. I once asked Anna Andreyevna: "If I became rich, how much time would I get out of it?” - She answered with her usual clarity: "Not long. Ten days."

It is interesting to note that impracticality, helplessness Akhmatova in the face of pressing problems played a double role in her life: often put her on the brink of death and just as often saved. For example, during the war, Lydia Chukovskaya, Akhmatova's closest friend, when she came to Tsvetaeva in Elabuga, said, wading through the local mud: "Thank God, Akhmatova is not here, here she would have died... Here, life would have killed her... she can't do anything”. And at the same time, during the escape to Tashkent together with Akhmatova, the same Chukovskaya “could not help but be amazed at Akhmatova's ability to be above the physical hardships of travel.”

“Other men's most faithful friend”, Akhmatova said of herself, and she did not lie. Although, on the other hand, faithfulness to a man did not cost her much trouble. The “Slacker”, i.e. holders of the 4th Physics, are not inclined to cheating at all out of simple indifference to sex.

The only things that can drive the 4^th Physicist to adultery are vanity, revenge, dependence, and political considerations. The VELF, like any 1^st Will, has politics in her blood, so sex for her is not so much a carnal pleasure as a political instrument of family or social purpose. Quality, quantity of candidates for possession, flashiness of gestures in courtship plays for VELF a dominant role and, if successful, are worn like orders on her chest and for life. Akhmatova herself liked to tell that when she had an affair with Gumilev, “She went to the Crimea. Gumilev went there to see her. He arrived at the cottage, went to the fence and looked into the garden: she was sitting in a white dress, reading a book. Gumilev stood, didn't dare to call out to her, and left for St. Petersburg. She told me this expressing bitterness with pride undertones”.

Akhmatova's sex itself is passionless, and Zhdanov was very close to the truth when he stigmatized Akhmatova with the stolen phrase about the half-adulteress-half-monk. Although usually the nun prevails in "Akhmatova" over the harlot, and if the qualitative side of intimacy does not cause the partners any reproaches, the quantity often does.

Another shocking detail of "Akhmatova's" intimate life is her tendency to, as they say, "spin the dynamo", that is, to provoke sexual excitement without calculating how to satisfy it. Moreover, unlike other types, VELF often provokes such situations unintentionally, unconsciously, "dynamos" purposefully and deliberately. The aim—common for the "royal" persons—is politeness, the desire to form an entourage around themselves, without which playing the monarch is unthinkable. It must be said that Akhmatova almost always succeeds in "Dynamo", and it is clear why: subtle, refined beauty, ease of discussion of the most delicate topics (4^th Physics), the strength and richness of her emotional system (2^nd Emotion) can seduce even a saint.

What aggravates the situation in Akhmatova's love games is that no matter how much she talks in the full force of her 2^nd Emotion about love, she, like any "tsar," is not given to truly love. And the objects of passion feel this.

About the natural royalty, majesty, Akhmatova did not write only decadently (4^th Physics). Here are just a few of the many such descriptions:
“[...] In her eyes and posture, and in her treatment of people there was one major feature of her personality: majesty. Not arrogance, not arrogance, not arrogance, but the majesty: Imperial"
"A monumental and important step, an inviolable sense of respect for themselves";
"[...] something royal was in all that touched her. She unambiguously gave an audience, for how else can you describe the way she patiently took the flow of endless visitors"
"[...] the most important feature to her—aristocratism. Both the appearance and her mental structure was characterized by an extraordinary nobility, which gave a harmonious majesty to everything she said and did. Even the children felt it. She used to tell me how little Leo used to ask her: "Mother, don't be king!"

I think it is superfluous to say that this way of holding oneself is a direct derivative of Akhmatova's 1^st Will. But. Not every "Akhmatova's" First Will is to be expected to demonstrate such obvious superiority. But only from that First Will which achieved the result—a result for the "King" is when his entourage is formed, his subjects appear, the "Monarch" creates a "monarchy", and only on this basis can he successfully play at being superior, at being a charismatic leader. The circle of certain people around Akhmatova never ceased, the retinue, carelessly called "Akhmatovka" by Pasternak, never left her even in the harshest years, so that she had someone to exercise her 1^st Will on. Speaking of her subjects, she sometimes even used a vocabulary borrowed from the Soviet nomenclature. For example, she called her search among her admirers for the person she needed at the moment "digging through the frames". Nonetheless, it was the achievement of the 1^st Will Akhmatova noticeably spoiled the organic stately image of the poetess pettiness, resentful, vain, looking back at others' opinions, “she was capricious, despotic, unfair to people, at times behaved selfishly”.

Although Emotion, in this case the 2^nd Emotions, is responsible for the disposition of poetry, Akhmatova's style of poetry is dictated by the 1^st Will. Her verse is characterized by majesty, classical simplicity, laconicism, clarity, “fear of unjustified poetic exaggeration, excessive metaphors, and worn-out tropes” (Zhirmunsky), “imperious restraint... Sometimes she would drop a syllable or two in the last or penultimate line of a quatrain, which creates the effect of a throaty throat or involuntary discomfort caused by emotional pressure” (Brodsky), “Akhmatova's vocal delivery itself, firm and rather self-assured... Akhmatova's voice itself, firm and rather self-assured, testifies not to tearfulness... but reveals a lyric soul which is hard rather than too soft, cruel rather than tearful, and clearly  dominant rather than oppressed...” (Nedobrovo). Akhmatova's word is a “regal word”, and she captures almost her entire order of functions in four very expressive lines:
“Gold rusts and steel decays,
Crumbling marble - everything is ready for death.
All that is strongest on earth is sorrow.
And more lasting is the royal word.”

The processionality of Emotion and Logic, i.e. the functions of speech, suggests that Akhmatova must have been verbose. However, this was not the case; according to contemporaries, “she was taciturn”. And besides the natural fearfulness of the 3^rd Logic, this circumstance is also conditioned by the “regal” 1^st Will, "the stately behavior restrained the free outpouring of thought"—talkativeness is not a monarchic trait.

In general, in the example of Akhmatova, one can observe with laboratory clarity the tragedy of self-destruction under the press of the 1^st Will. Korney Chukovsky, who saw Akhmatova up close, but not from the crowd, wrote: “I felt terribly sorry for this hardliving woman. She is somehow all focused on her fame—and barely lives for others.”

Akhmatova loved to play the game of carnal relaxation, but she could not bear self-pity and was absolutely right in this ruthlessness to herself. The story goes that during Akhmatova's farewell to Moscow, "there was a well-behaved old woman... (who) long before the departure of the train several times hugged and crossed her even shed a few tears. When she left, Akhmatova... said: “Poor lady! She feels so sorry for me! So afraid for me! She thinks I'm so weak. She has no idea that I am a tank”. And everyone who has dealt with VELF, there is a chance to be convinced of the justice of this confession.

3^rd Logic was also quite evident in Akhmatova's behavior. She grew dull and withdrew into herself during intellectual disputes, though she valued learning in itself, and her son's scientific successes were a matter of enduring pride. Her vulnerability to 3^rd Logic can be seen from the fact that when, in one of her prefaces to a collection of poems, she happened to read "Akhmatova was not clever enough...", she suffered a severe attack of angina. This case is a good illustration of the not quite banal idea that soul, spirit, mind, and body (psychosomatics, in one word) are in such an indissoluble connection that any influence on one department, in one way or another, affects the others. In this case, the impact on the 3^rd Logic is reflected in the 4^th Physics.

Akhmatova's purely external allergy to all forms of highbrow does not mean that people of her type avoid serious intellectual pursuits. Not at all. The example of such VELF as Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard shows not only the predisposition of this type to philosophy, but also what kind of philosophy they can profess. Of course, skepticism is at the heart of the VELF philosophical system. The basis of the universe is thought to be the brainless World Will, deprived of rational brakes, which drags an individual doll with childish thoughtlessness over the mounds of existence, and when played with, throws him down into the abyss of oblivion. Schopenhauer considered this world the worst of all worlds and called his philosophy "the philosophy of pessimism. Which is very appropriate for the entire VELF generation, experiencing a chronic sense of loneliness and sadness. Right, only Schopenhauer's mindset of despair (1^st Will + 4^th Physics) can correspond to Akhmatova's mournful muse.

By their 2^nd Emotion, the VELF are by nature themselves disposed to artistic creation, and therefore the list of glorious representatives of this kind, who devoted themselves to the arts and literature, is certainly not exhausted by Akhmatova.

Certain Akhmatova's preferences in painting are easily explained. She favored artists of spiritualistic direction, alien to sensuality and earthiness. The explanation here may be very simple. Akhmatova, as a poetess, immediately found herself, spoke her own language, aided by the general decadent-tragic mood of the 4^th Physics dominating Russian poetry of the time. It was more difficult for Gauguin; he had to break through the sunny, sensual, cheerful painting of his predecessors and contemporaries to himself - lunar, ethereal and mournful. Gauguin never quite managed to find his own language, but when looking at his paintings, the viewer can't help feeling some uneasiness, ambiguity, the contradiction between the expected and the visible. Tahiti is a sunny island, its natives are cheerful and lively, but the coloring of the Tahitian cycle of Gauguin's paintings is dark, the models are austere, pensive and submerged in shadow. Gauguin was promiscuous and painted naked women, but his "nudes" are strangely libidinous, flat and sexually deprived. The appearance at the end of Gauguin's life of several paintings with a lunar landscape and mystic-ritual subject seems to testify to the achievement of the envisioned self-identification of the artist's soul and its pictorial expression, but it was at the moment when the artist found his voice that his earthly existence came to an end. Therefore, we can speak only hypothetically of Gauguin's true self-expression—a fate that, fortunately, was avoided by Akhmatova, who therefore did not recognize in the artist a brother in spirit.

Here's another twist on the psychotypical theme: it doesn't matter who you were born as, as long as it's appropriate.

Although the artistic sphere is extremely convenient for the Akhmatova, this type is rarely realized in its entirety. The 2^nd Emotion finds in literature and the arts inexhaustible nourishment, but the 1^st Will is not always realized, except at the conductor's stand or in the director's chair. Bohemia and the artistic milieu are too anarchic, too Brownist to organize themselves on any kind of basis. It is well known that attempts even by such a powerful figure as Gauguin to bring order to the riotous crowd of post-Impressionists ended in utter failure.

This is not the case when Akhmatova turns to religion, to mysticism—here she can be fully realized. Not only does her 2^nd Emotion find constant fodder in the religious-mystical sphere, but the 1^st Will also finds under her feet the steps of the organizational structure that Akhmatova lacks in art and which leads her upward, to where the only thing greedily desired by the 1^st Will—Power—lives.

Akhmatova's type, if it were to find itself in the religious sphere, might better be called the "guru type," a guru of rather tantric orientation. This characterization is due to the fact that the absolute power (1^st Will) of the guru in the VELF type of sects is combined with the concept of an exclusively emotional perception of the Absolute and an exclusively emotional pressure on Him: ecstasy, mantra recitation, dreams, visions, glossolalia, etc. (2^nd Emotion). Another distinctive feature of VELF sectarianism is the absence of a developed ideology (3^rd Logic) and harsh norms limiting the demands of the flesh (4^th Physics).

Akhmatova, as we know, affiliated herself with Orthodoxy, but we think there was more political fronting than sincere religious feeling in her Russian ecclesiology. For Akhmatova's inner sense of Christianity was too ascetic, not tragic enough, too speculative, and painfully prone to gender segregation that excluded a serious female church career. Fate did not give Akhmatova a chance to prove herself in the religious and mystical field; the role of the accidentally surviving patriarch of the martyred poetic school and the living idol of the few true connoisseurs of poetry is her fate. Some other representatives of the "Akhmatova family" were more fortunate, and they fully realized their psychotypical potential in this most convenient area, such as Pope Boniface VIII.

The sum of psychotypical traits of the VELF-politician can be considered unpretentious power, unshakable faith in herself, uncompromising, fearlessness, militancy, ruthlessness, unpretentiousness in everyday life, tendency to mysticism, oratorical talent, tragic predictions, impulsiveness, irrationality, unpredictability of behavior, plans, moods and often the result is a sad, usually violent end to a political career.

Such a controversial figure in world history as Adolf Hitler deserves a special talk in connection with the political activities of Akhmatova. His image was so distorted by the propaganda of the allies in the anti-fascist coalition that to this day a caricature of Hitler, drawn during the war, is taken for him. However, it is worth uncovering Hitler's "Table Talks", and the failure of the stereotype of the "demonic Führer" becomes apparent, and the reader is presented as, perhaps, an overconfident, not too smart, not too and one-sidedly educated, but a perfectly normal man. If there was anything extravagant in the Führer's behavior, it was not for the norms of his psychotype, but for other psychotypic norms. Hitler was, engaged in politics, an VELF, and thus the problem of the Führer's psyche, one might say, is exhausted.

The Akhmatova-Hitler parallel seems, at first glance, blasphemous, but let us read these lines:
"He's not going to be a nice husband to me,
But he and I deserve that,
That the Twentieth Century will be embarrassed."
Recognizable? It sounds very Hitlerian, and this is a quote from “Poem Without a Hero”. And the reason for this insight into the future of Akhmatova's created apocalypse is as delusional as the motives of Hitler's political hallucinations. Akhmatova imagined that her meeting with Isaiah Berlin was epochal. Berlin himself wrote about it in this way: "We—that is, she and I—unintentionally, by the simple fact of our meeting, began the Cold War and thereby changed the history of mankind. She... was absolutely convinced of this and saw herself and me as characters in world history, chosen by fate to start a cosmic conflict". The extreme conceit characteristic of the VELF, multiplied by an irrational tragic forecast, always gives one and the same smug apocalyptic picture, and in whose head it arises—the Russian poetess or the German politician—is not so important.

On the example of Hitler in general it is convenient to observe VELF-politician in its purest form. The combination of the 1^st Will and the 2^nd Emotion made Hitler an excellent orator, an orator appealing not to the public's reason but to its emotions. For Germans humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles and in a democracy, this combination could and did prove particularly effective. Hitler himself was well aware of the decisive role of the 1^st Will as a component of his oratorical talent and even linked the time of his speeches to evening hours, a period of tiredness and discouragement. He said: “In the morning, and even during the day, the human will is much more resistant to attempts to subjugate it to other wills and other people's opinions. Meanwhile, in the evening people are more easily influenced by a stronger will. Indeed, every rally is a struggle between two opposing forces. The oratorical gift possessed by a stronger, more apostolic nature will be able at this time of day to capture the will of others who are experiencing a natural decline in their powers of resistance much more easily than it would succeed at other times with people who have still retained full control over the energy of their mind and will.”

The second component of Hitler's oratorical gift after the 1^st Will and the key to his political success was the powerful processional 2^nd Emotion. The Führer also sensed it clearly in himself, which is why he often referred to himself as an "artistic nature" and threatened to abandon politics for the sake of art. Hitler's 2^nd Emotion demonstrated its power in all its brilliance on the rostrum. Its ability to sense the condition of the crowd at every single moment of the speech and to respond to it instantly with precise, vivid wording allowed the Führer to look directly into the soul of the German and immediately find words to express the vague, unformed aspirations of the crowd. Combined with the self-confidence and assertiveness of the 1^st Will, the hypnosis of Hitler's 2^nd Emotion turned the listener into a zombie, at least for as long as he was directly in the field of Hitler's speech magnetism.

The weakness of the Führer's oratorical gift was that he appealed exclusively to human emotions, neglecting the arguments of reason in his speeches. Thus, only those with Emotion at the top and Logic at the bottom were susceptible to his lasting influence. The beads of Hitler's eloquence fluttered in front of strong-willed, thinking people in vain.

Many things in Hitler's speeches deterred thinking people, above all his blatant anti-intellectualism, conditioned, as we now understand, by VELF’s 3^rd Logic. Hitler's "skepticism" manifested itself quite openly as a child, little Adolf was not only a poor student, but also proud of it, and when he received his high school diploma, the first thing he did was wipe himself with it (a perfect gesture for the 3^rd Logic). Adolf Hitler also demonstrated the typical ambivalence of the third function in his third logic: in his own words, he dared not open his mouth when he was in obscurity, but as he climbed up the social ladder his tongue became more and more unleashed, and at the end of his career his subordinates had to complain of his "spontaneous speaking" and "linguistic egotism".

Even Hitler's famous anti-Semitism was based in part on the "Skepticism" of the 3^rd Logic. He was fond of saying, "Jews are the most dangerous germs of decay, capable only of analytical rather than synthetic thought". It is unlikely that the Führer himself could explain what he meant by "synthetic thinking", but by hateful analytical thinking he seems to have meant thinking as such, or rather the tendency to rely seriously on it in his views and actions, which Hitler himself was not really capable of doing. I deduce this from the fact that he despised and feared scientists almost as much as he despised Jews. In "Table Talks" one finds the following characteristic passage: "In some fields any professorial science has a pernicious effect: it leads away from the instinct. It denigrates it in the eyes of men".

The dwarf who has nothing but knowledge is afraid of power. Instead of saying: knowledge without a healthy body is nothing, he rejects strength. Nature adapts itself to the conditions of life. And if the world were entrusted to a German professor for a few centuries, in a million years we would be surrounded by solid morons: huge heads on tiny bodies.

3^rd Logics is the Achilles' heel of the VELF-politician, and it is on skepticism that he most often gets burned and destroys his career. Moreover, the course of history is such that reasoning in general and its fruit—science in particular—are becoming more and more powerful arguments in political games, and thus almost automatically makes VELF an outsider in this field. Hitler's final life, as well as the picture of the world, could have been different if he had not neglected basic science and not saved on the nuclear program.

Militant skepticism is half the trouble with the VELF-politician. Much worse is the fact that, finding no support in the 3^rd Logic, politicians of this type give all their trust to the 2^nd Emotion, i.e. they are actually guided by moods and superstitions. The biographer of Emperor Augustus wrote: "He attached great importance to dreams, both his own and those of others, relating to him... Some signs and omens he considered unmistakable... But most of all he was concerned with miracles." And need I remind you how easily one of the German Führer's most vulnerable points can be guessed in this characterization of the Roman emperor?

Hitler, unpretentious in everyday life, indifferent to money, a non-baby man (no matter what they say about it), a vegetarian, clearly had no serious interest in the material world, but was not seen in consistent asceticism either, i.e. his Physics was obviously the 4^th. Its other derivatives in the Führer's psychology can also be read without difficulty. From the 4^th Physics, Hitler's tragic outlook, apocalyptic prognosis, fearlessness (he was awarded the cross in the First World War), cruelty, genuine indifference to human suffering and death.

The question of choosing between fame (the 1^st Will) and death (the 4^th Physics) was never an issue for Hitler, or for any other VELF, success was the measure of all things and the size of the payment for it was of little concern. Here, as in the case of the 3^rd Logic, the "Akhmatovian" order of functions set the leg of the VELF-politician. Hitler, preferring the glorious demise of the armies of Paulus and Rommel to their inglorious tactical retreat, markedly hastened the decline of his life and political career. For Hitler, his own life, the life of his people, in its purely biological aspect was of no interest or value. He said: "If the war is lost, the people will die. This fate is inevitable. And we have no reason to care about preserving the material foundations that people will need for their continued primitive existence. On the contrary, it is better for us to destroy it ourselves, for our people will be weak and the future will belong exclusively to the stronger eastern people. Only the inferior will survive the war anyway, since the best will die in the battles. What is there to say: "Ahmatova" (1^st Will, 2^nd Emotion, 3^rd Logic, 4^th Physics)—that's all.

Among the population of the earth, the VELF is not quite rare. There are even nations where this psychotype makes up a significant share of the population, noticeably influencing the national physiology, psychology and culture. In connection with Akhmatova, Spain and the Caucasus come to mind first and foremost. It seems to me that Spanish and Caucasian folk dances are the perfect embodiment of the "Akhmatova" spirit. They strangely combine proud aloofness, openly strong passion, and frigidity... Recognizable?

If we try to convey in one phrase the lifelong inner state of "Akhmatova", it is best to limit ourselves to a quotation from a poem by Alexander Blok, where he speaks of his father's "heavy flame of sorrow. Indeed, it is "Akhmatova's": sadness is from the 4^th Physics, the flame is from the 2^nd Emotion, and the heaviness of the flame is from the 1^st Will.

Usually VELFs are thin, with thin, iconic facial features. The gaze is persistent, analytical, and glossy. The gesture is calm and majestically careless. Speech is reserved and weighty. Women's makeup is minimal. Their hair is neat and smooth, but somewhat longer than usual. Clothing is restrained, austere, tight, but there is a certain artistic, eye-catching element in VELF’s attire in form and color.

SOURCE:
Synatx of Love Pages 145 - 151 https://psychosophy-ru.translate.goog/books/sintaksislubvi/sintaksislubvi145.html?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB

Attitudinal Psyche Version: