The Birth of the Kazan “Philosophical Clinic”: From the Spirit of the Sotonin/Satonin Family

The article reconstructs the genealogy of the Kazan “philosophical clinic” developed by Konstantin I. Sotonin (1893–1944) in the context of the Satonin/Sotonin family history. It traces his shift from classical metaphysics and theory of knowledge to an interdisciplinary project at the crossroads of philosophy, experimental psychology and medicine, in which philosophy is conceived as a therapy for discontents. The core notion is “metaphysical indifferentism”, which privileges knowledge and individual joy over the pursuit of abstract Truth and universal ethics. Drawing on the diary of Aleksandr Sotonin, memoirs by Igor Satonin and M.V. Nechkina, as well as oral testimonies, the article shows how family trauma, revolutionary experience and the “anarchic” stance of the brothers shaped the clinic’s conceptual foundations. The “philosophical clinic” is interpreted as a pragmatic tool for local therapy of personal frustration under conditions of the crisis of grand narratives in the early twentieth century.