Censorship: When your greatest enemy is yourself

Source: The will that almost robbed the world of Kafka

"My dear Max, my last request: everything that is found... diaries, manuscripts, letters, mine and others', sketches and so on, is to be burned completely without reading."

(Franz Kafka, letter to Max Brod, found after Kafka's death, 1924)

Explanation: Why did a great writer ask to destroy his works?

Franz Kafka, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, left behind a clear will: burn all of his writings. He knew that his close friend, Max Brod, held most of his works—"The Trial," "The Castle," "Amerika"—and wanted them to go up in flames. Brod, luckily for us, ignored the will and published all of Kafka's writings. Today, Kafka is considered one of the most influential writers in history. But this strange will raises a question: Why? Why would someone who wrote masterpieces want to destroy them? Was it extreme humility? Deep shame? Fear of criticism?

Perspective: The inner war: When we silence ourselves

Self-censorship is the harshest form of censorship, because it comes from within. Kafka wasn't afraid of the Inquisition or his community. Maybe he was afraid of himself, of his own unforgiving internal judgment. It's the same censorship that makes us delete a message before hitting send, change an answer on a test because "it sounds stupid," or hold back from sharing a thought online because "what will people say?" Kafka lived in an era when an artist had to be "great"—at least on par with Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig. Kafka saw himself as not good enough, not great enough, not finished enough. That is how a person silences themselves, thinking twice and thrice, and saying nothing at all. That is what Mordecai the Jew explained to Esther: if you censor yourself and fail to act, you and your father's house will perish.

Going Deeper: Impostor syndrome: The paradox of talent and doubt

In psychology, there is a concept known as "impostor syndrome"—a chronic feeling among those who have achieved greatness and acclaim that they are frauds, that someone is about to expose them as unworthy. Studies show that the most talented people often suffer from this the most, because the more intelligent you are, the more aware you are of what you don't know. Kafka suffered from impostor syndrome. He didn't believe he was a real writer. And the paradox is that this very self-doubt, this ruthless inner critic, is what drove him to write so well. But at an enormous cost. And who knows what Kafka never wrote…

Culture: Artists who destroyed their work: The price of perfectionism

Many artists have destroyed their own works. Virginia Woolf burned drafts of her novels, Bertolt Brecht asked to destroy early poems, and Chopin asked to burn his virtuosic piano piece 'Fantaisie-Impromptu.' But the most extreme case is the painter Francis Bacon, who destroyed hundreds of his paintings with his own hands—slashing them, burning them—because he felt they weren't perfect. Only paintings that met his impossible standard survived (and one of them sold a few years ago for $140 million). And the price Bacon paid? We will never know what was in those paintings. Maybe masterpieces. Maybe trash. What's certain is that perfectionism consumes the creator, not just the creation.