Cunning, distrustful, and remarkably independent, Kosinski was enrolled in a school for the handicapped due to his muteness. After a skiing accident in 1947, he regained his speech and "armed with a distinct sense of identity" quickly worked his way through high school in less than a year.
Kosinski's sense of independence differed from the imposed conformity of postwar Poland and the state-oriented Communist ideology. His experiences during the war had undoubtedly produced a keen interest in analysis of individual behavior in situations of stress and particularly how the individual copes with situations in which he is forced to conform to a mass opinion. From 1950 to 1955, Kosinski studied at the University of Lodz, where he received two M.A. degrees, in history and political science. While studying social psychology and the sociology of literary form at the State Academy of Sciences, by his own admission Kosinski "led several lives." On one level, he appeared to be a brilliant, resourceful, and dedicated scholar, but on another level he made plans for his escape from totalitarianism.
Kosinski has described his intellectual life in Poland and the Soviet Union as being an "inner emigre." Forced by the totalitarian state to conceal his true opinions and to stifle the expression of his ideas, Kosinski rejected all thoughts of being a writer and turned instead toward a visual expression of ideas--photography.
This is a free page. This page contains 198 words. This
biography contains 4,916 words (approx. 16 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Jerzy (Nikodem) Kosinski Access Pass.
