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SOURCE: "Karen Horney on 'The Value of Vindictiveness,'" in The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 42, No. 1, Spring, 1982, pp. 21-6.
In the following essay, which was originally presented at a conference held in February of 1981, Keyishian discusses the ways in which Horney's essay "The Value of Vindictiveness" can be used to illuminate the natures of various literary characters.
I first came to appreciate the special value of Karen Horney's work while doing research for a study of revenge as a literary theme. Through an exploration of writings on power and punishment I progressed a certain distance with a general theory of revenge. I came to see that the main feelings underlying revengeful acts were shame, violation, and the sense of injustice. I concluded that revenge had three main aims, often intermixed, but each with its own strategies, satisfactions, and dangers.
First, revenge aims to restore personal integrity and...
This section contains 2,436 words (approx. 9 pages at 300 words per page) |
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