Dutch physician, psychiatrist and writer of drama, poetry, diaries and educational fairy tales.
Van Eeden was the son of Frederik Willem van Eeden (26 October 1829, Haarlem – 4 May 1901, Haarlem), an amateur botanist, conservationists and in 1864 founder and director of the “Koloniaal Museum”, now Tropen instituut in Amsterdam. He married in 1856 Neeltje van Warmelo (1833, Gouda -13 October 1919, Bussum) and got two sons Johan Adriaan (2 Augustus 1857, Haarlem – 17 December 1906) and Frederik (1860).
Frederik followed since Sept 1872 the HBS at Haarlem, later (sept 1874) changed to the Latin school and got Sept 1878 the exam and then studied medicine in Amsterdam. In 1885 he became a physician and he dissertated 8 July 1886 on “Kunstmatige voeding bij tuberculose”. He worked in Paris and in Nancy under Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823-1904) and got interested in hypnosis. He worked as a GP in Bussum and in Augustus 1887 he associated with the Jungian psychoanalyst Albert Willem van Renterghem (1845-1927) in his Institute for Psychological Therapy in Amsterdam. Dr. A.W. Van Renterghem wrote in De Gids. Jaargang 78 of 1914 about paranormal media, cryptomnésie (latent memory), telepathy and the possibility of reincarnation and was the first chairman of the Dutch “Vereniging voor Psychoanalyse”.
Van Eeden had an active student life as praeses (chairman) of the Student Corps (4 Okt 1882). With friends he erected Fanor 14 June 1881, a literary dispute. Fanor is the plural of the Arabic word Fan? meaning to pass away or to cease to exist. He met the poets Willem Kloos (1859–1938) en Albert Verwey (1865-1937). He wrote in 1882 drama “De paddestoel of De gevaarlijke hartstocht.” (The toad stool or the dangerous passion), “Frans Hals. Historisch, anachronistisch kluchtspel in drie bedrijven” (1884).
His new generation of poets hated the sentimental and moralistic bourgeois poetry of pastors like Beets (1841-1903) and Ten Kate (1819-1889) who published in the cultural magazine “De Gids” (The Guide) that started 1 Jan 1837 and still exists. With the financial help of Willem Witsen (1860-1923) the new generation known as “De Tachtigers” (referring to 1880) got their own platform in “De Nieuwe Gids” (The new guide).
Van Eeden debuted 1 Oktober 1885 under the pen name Cornelis Paradijs in “De Nieuwe Gids” with Grassprietjes. It was a parody of the “pastor poetry” as the subtitle described: “Grassprietjes of Liederen op het gebied van Deugd, Godsvrucht en Vaderland in vier afdeelingen”. The introduction was by Sebastiaan Slaaf (Sebastian Slave), another alter ego of Van Eeden. The “Tachtigers” were not interested in moralistic art, but wanted “l’art pou l’art” aestheticism.
Van Eeden wrote about the conflict between spiritual and emotional love and his work was highly popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. His most famous work is the fairytale “De kleine Johannes” (The Small Johannes) that appeared in three parts (1887, 1906, 1906). The first selection of it was published in De Nieuwe Gids in the first number of 1 October 1885 as a contrast to his parody “Grassprietjes”. This serious and humoristic book deals with the development phases of humans, confronted in a dualistic world with contrasts like good versus evil, idealism versus materialism, positivism versus pantheism, the search for happiness and the need to grow up. It is partly an autobiographic book as the main characters of “Windekind” (child of wind) refers to Van Eedens fantasy rich early youth, “Wistik” (If I knew) hints to his questioning as a school child, and the figures of “Pluizer (figure it out) and “Cijfer”(number) symbolise the materialistic point of view he met at University.
Van Eeden was a very active traveller and broadly minded intellectual searcher who met and wrote about many important persons of his time. As a psychiatrist he was was an active European psycho-analytical congress follower and speaker and met Jung and Freud (since 1886). With Lady Vicoria Welby (7 April 1837 – 29 March 1912) he founded the Society for Psychical Research [S.P.R.] in 1892 and did spiristic experiments on paranormal phenomena. As a journalist/essayist for “De Groene Amsterdammer” and “De Nieuwe Gids” he met many poets, philosophers and writers like Rolland, Buber and Tagore. He was a friend of L.E.J. Brouwer since 1915 and loved to wander with him in free nature and think about their “Significs” theory of language.
Though the magazine “De Nieuwe Gids” celebrated the “l’art pour l’arts” principle, the idealistic Van Eeden was a very socially involved person. In 1898 he established a socialistic colony Walden around the villa Cruysbergen in Bussum. He himself stayed there often in a simple hut, as did many of his psychiatric patients including the poet Willem Kloos. The name Walden was derived from Henry David Thoreau’s (1817-1862) book “Walden or Life in the Woods”(1854). The famous Dutch parapsychologist, psychometrist and psychic Gerard Croiset was born in the Walden colony. In 1907 the project died because of financial mismanagement.
Personal
Van Eeden married twice. On 15 April 1886 he married Martha van Vloten (18 February 1856, Deventer – 10 June 1943, Nigtevecht) and became member of the famous family Van Vloten. He divorced her 29 July 1907. On 21 August 1907 he married Geertruida Woutrina Everts. He got two sons in each marriage. On 12 May 1887 Hans, February 1889 Paul, 26 January 1909 Hugo and on 26 March 1910 Evert. Paul van Eeden died 21 February 1889.
On 12 January 1875 he had a red eye and could not tolerate sun light (diary).
Van Eeden was known as a bold and socially very active person, who held both Platonic and physical relations with women and was involved in many projects. But before age 60 his mental health deteriorated and the became a helpless person. He got depressed, phobic, forgetful and worried about his clumsy handwriting. Around 1927 he had to be hospitalised with fear of death and religious mania.
He became a Catholic convert before his death in Bussum, Netherlands on 6/16/1932.
Link to Wikipedia biography