Dostoevsky’s enigmas: An analysis of violent men

Abstract

For the calculating male adult criminal, violent acts would appear largely counterproductive. Scholarly disagreements about these behaviors are substantial, although recent ethnographic reports emphasize the subjective sense of the experience. These reports have an existential aspect, focusing on the meaning of violent, anarchic acts to the identities of perpetrators. The earliest and best known existentialist writer on criminality is Fyodor Dostoevsky whose violent characters Smerdiakov, Svidrigailov, and Stavrogin, are enigmas to their fictional counterparts, much as violent American contemporaries are to authorities and the general public. Dostoevsky’s three enigmatic characters are reckless publicity seekers; like aliens in their own land, they habitually deceive, intimidate, and exploit while still considering themselves to be decent individuals. These depictions are congruent with Yochelson and Samenow’s much more recent forensic observations and reinforce an antisocial prototype. Bogg (1994) offers a behavioral communality for this class of violent men: patterns of self-aggrandizing gaming developed in childhood. The game player derives extraordinary pleasure from victories, although this orientation effectively counters socialization. From Dostoevsky’s views an existential nihilistic construct can be derived. This construct depicts the persona of an inveterate violent game player and is consistent with Durkheimian theory and with ethnographic and forensic/clinical observations. The prevention of a gaming orientation is feasible but appears to require parental skills and community resources.