Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

On revenge

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Following Kohut, the psychoanalytic literature has usually discussed revenge in terms of narcissistic rage evoked in response to narcissistic injury. In this paper, I draw on Bion to present an alternative reading of revenge. This interpretation is illustrated through von Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas and Moore and Lloyd's V for Vendetta.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bakhtin, M.M. (1999) Toward a Philosophy of the Act., Translated by V. Liapunov. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, G. (2000) Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beattie, H.J. (2005) Revenge. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 53: 513–524.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bion, W.R. (1962a) The psycho-analytic study of thinking. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 43: 306–310.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bion, W.R. (1962b) Learning from Experience. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dharwadker, V. (2004) The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickens, C. (1850, 1996) David Copperfield. London: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, J.V. (2006) The emotional experience of K. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 87 (5): 1221–1237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1933, 1964) New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. Standard Edition 22. London: Hogarth Press, pp. 1–182.

  • Goldberg, J.G. (2004) Fantasies of revenge and the stabilization of the ego: Acts of revenge and the ascension of Thanatos. Modern Psychoanalysis 29: 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldwater, E. (2004) Getting mad and getting even. Modern Psychoanalysis 29: 23–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, J. (2011) Superego: An attachment perspective. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 92 (5): 1221–1240.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kleist, H von (1973) The Marquise of O – And Other Stories, Translated by M. Greenberg New York: Frederick Ungar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohut, H. (1972) Thoughts on narcissism and narcissistic rage. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 27: 360–400, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lacan, J. (1977) Ecrits, Translated by A. Sheridan. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lafarge, L. (2006) The wish for revenge. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 75: 447–475.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lane, R.C. (1995) The revenge motive: A developmental perspective on the life cycle and treatment process. Psychoanalytic Review 82: 41–64.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lehman, D. (ed) (2006) The Oxford Book of American Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liebersohn, Y., Neuman, Y. and Bekerman, Z. (2004) Oh baby, it's hard for me to say I’m sorry: Public apologetic speech and cultural rhetorical resources. Journal of Pragmatics 36: 921–944.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez-Corvo, R.E. (2003) The Dictionary of the Work of W.R. Bion. London: Karnac Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lotto, D. (2006) The psychohistory of vengeance. Journal of Psychohistory 34 (1): 43–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matte-Blanco, I. (1975) The Unconscious as Infinite Sets: An Essay in Bi-Logic. London: Duckworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, A. and Gibbons, D. (1986) Watchman. New York: DC Comics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, A. and Lloyd, D. (1988) V for Vendetta. New York: DC Comics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuman, Y. (2009) On love, hate and knowledge. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 90 (4): 697–712.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neuman, Y. (2010) Empathy: From mind reading to the reading of a distant text. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 44 (3): 235–244.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ogden, T. (1983) The concept of internal object relations. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 64: 227–241.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Peitgen, H.O., Jurgens, H. and Saupe, D. (1992) Chaos and Fractals. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Voloshinov, V.N. (1976) Freudianism: A Marxist Critique. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voloshinov, V.N. (1986) Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weineck, S.M. (2003) Kleist and the resurrection of the father. Eighteenth-Century Studies 37: 69–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werman, D.S. (1993) Edgar Allan Poe, James Ensor, and the psychology of revenge. Annual of Psychoanalysis 21: 301–315, Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2006) The matrix, or, the two sides of perversion. In: J. Weiss, J. Nolan and J. Hunsinger (eds.) International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments. York: Springer, pp. 1549–1569.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank the anonymous reviewers and editor Lynne Layton for their highly constructive comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva, 84105, Israel

    Yair Neuman

Authors
  1. Yair Neuman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Neuman, Y. On revenge. Psychoanal Cult Soc 17, 1–15 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2012.4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/pcs.2012.4

Keywords

Search

Navigation