The novelist who wrote himself into fiction during psychoanalysis

After the psychological devastation of World War I, Hermann Hesse underwent Jungian psychoanalysis. 'Demian' was written during this period, an autobiographical coming-of-age novel born from digging into his own inner world.

In its preface, he wrote that every person's life looks different, but each is ultimately 'an attempt to reach himself.' The protagonist Sinclair's journey — breaking from inherited morality to follow his own inner voice — mirrors Hesse's own psychological collapse and reconstruction.