| Abstract: | This commentary takes up a problem raised by Peter Shabad (2000) (see record 2000-00917-004), who argues that for certain patients, symptomatic behavior is reflective of unconsciously spiteful feelings toward internalized objects. His article was inspired by Dostoyevsky's (1864/2001) famous novella "Notes From Underground," whose narrator is proud of his spiteful character, unlike Shabad's patients, who are entirely unaware that they harbor such feelings. Although Shabad lays out the dynamics as he understands them of his patients' unconscious spite, he never makes clear what it is that makes spiteful feelings explicit in the narrator of Dostoyevsky's novella and real-life individuals like him. This response endeavors to account for this crucial difference using cases from literature as well as from life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
