So there are 3 short stories in this book.

🔸𝘼 𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 :

In the 1st story we have a medical student Vasilyev who is suffering from anxiety and overthinking and subsequently goes through a nervous breakdown. 
𝑸𝒖𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 :

“𝑰𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒖𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒈𝒊𝒂, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏. 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕. ”

  “𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆, 𝒅𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒖𝒑, 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒅’𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒌𝒆! 𝑰 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇 ”


🔸 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙠 :

This short story deals with a man, Andrey Kovrin who suffers from hallucinations and delusions. Personally I think he was showing symptoms of 𝘉𝘪𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳, like in the 1st part of story we see he goes without sleep for days and feels full of energy and life which are common symptoms of Mania and then subsequently he has hallucinations. Also he is a brilliant scholar as well, successful academically. But then as he gets treated for his hallucinations, his entire personality changes and he ends up being miserable and depressed. So there is a manic episode and a depressive episode and eventually his health collapses and he dies. Idk if there was something more to it like the if monk who as more than a hallucination - if it was about spirituallity or not but this is just my interpretation. Actually as someone who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder i could see the similarities. And there is one thing which i liked that after going through treatment for his "hallucinations" and taking medicines, he lost his "spark" and there were changes in his personality which he talks about:

“𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅, 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒖𝒍, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚. 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍. 𝑵𝒐𝒘 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑰’𝒎 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆, 𝒂 𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚. 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒆 … 𝑶𝒉, 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒓𝒖𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆! 
𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒎 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆? 𝑾𝒉𝒐𝒎 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒎, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰’𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘?”

This thing is very common in bp patients we experience a kind of brain fog when we are on certain meds, it makes us feel like a zombie? Yeah well i think exact thing happened with him. 
There was these quotes I really liked: 

"𝑰 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒔𝒐 𝑰 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒐."

So this is his hallucination telling him that he actually exists and it's kinda beautiful idk

 "𝑴𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅, 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒐𝒄𝒓𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒅 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍. 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒔, 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌, 𝒅𝒆𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 – 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒅."

Yeah well idk kinda romanticism of mental health issues?

‘𝑯𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒆𝒄𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒚 – 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒔, 𝒑𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒔, 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒚𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂, 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒏’𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 – 𝑰 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏, 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉. 𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒕: 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍, 𝒈𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒅.’


I remember reading somewhere that neurodivergent people are special and it was like explained and all that, while i do kind of agree with it but at the same time I am aware of how painful it can be so yeah.

Also i just learnt that Chekhov himself had mental health issues and it's speculated that he had Bipolar disorder so maybe i am not wrong about Andrey Kovrin having Bipolar disorder.

I liked the 2nd story the most and it was sad and beautifully written. 


🔸Finally the 3rd story: 𝘼𝙣𝙖 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙠.

This was different, it was like how a person change with change in his/her conditions and social status.