Analyzing the mind of a sociopath has been one of the most important tasks that psychoanalysts face today. The more they know and understand the complexities of the disturbed, the more they hope to find treatments and eventually a cure for the illness that they believe can cause the ultimate violent criminal.
Perhaps Dostoevsky himself wanted to weigh in on the mind of the sociopath and the journey toward their violent lives. Due to his vivid description of Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky shows his readers first hand what a sociopath is like. First one must understand that there is no such affliction as sociopath. The technical name is antisocial personality disorder and there are certain criteria a person must meet in order to receive this diagnosis. It is reserved for the most violent criminal minds and therefore is taken very seriously by the psychiatric community. In order to be diagnosed, one must have been previously diagnosed as having a conduct disorder by the age of fifteen. This is what many refer to as the child version of antisocial personality disorder. “Along with depression and anxiety, the individual also exhibits an increase in antisocial behavior, aggression, destruction of property, and deceitfulness or theft” (Strickland). They may also act out against smaller things that they can control, such as smaller siblings and/or animals.
Once a person with conduct disorder turns eighteen and is considered to be a legal adult, they are re-evaluated and then diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2nd Edition lists the criteria that psychologists use to base their diagnosis. They must meet three of the following.
1. fails to conform to social norms, as indicated...
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...order, examining Raskolnikov’s actions and personality, and taking a closer look at arrogance, we can assert that Raskolnikov is simply an arrogant man; viewing himself as superior to society. Raskolnikov’s actions were done through purely selfish motives and the mentality that he should not be punished, because the paramount of his actions benefited society. This is the profile of a man that is arrogant and selfish, not the profile of an individual suffering from a mental illness.
Works Cited
Dostoevsky, Feodor. “Crime and Punishment”. A Norton Critical Edition 3rd Ed.
Levinson, David. Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment Vol. III. Sage Publications. London, 2002.
Merriam-Webster. “Merriam-Webster Online”. http://www.m-w.com. December 18, 2005.
Strickland, Bonnie. The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology 2nd Ed. Gale Group. Detroit, 2001.
As Rodya analyzes Luzhin’s character, he realizes that intellect unrestrained by moral purpose is dangerous due to the fact that many shrewd people can look right through that false façade. Luzhin’s false façade of intellect does not fool Rodya or Razumikhin, and although they try to convince Dunya into not marrying Luzhin, she does not listen. Rodya believes that Luzhin’s “moral purpose” is to “marry an honest girl…who has experienced hardship” (36). The only way he is able to get Dunya to agree to marry him, is by acting as if he is a very intellectual person, who is actually not as educated as he says he is. This illustrates the fact that Rodya knows that it is really dangerous because he knows that people can ruin their lives by acting to be someone they are not. Rodya also knows that people will isolate themselves from others just so that no one will find out their true personality. This is illustrated in through the fact that Luzhin tries to avoid Dunya and her mother as much as possible. The way he writes his letter, exemplifies his isolation, for Luzhin does not know how to interact with society. He has no idea how to write letters to his fiancée and his future mother in law. This reflects on Rodya’s second dream because he is unable to get Dunya married off to a nice person. He feels isolated from everyone else because his intellect caused him to sense that Luzhin is not telling the truth about his personality. However, it was due to his lack of moral purpose that Rodya berates his sister’s fiancé. He is unable to control himself, and due to his immoral act of getting drunk, Rodya loses all judgment and therefore goes and belittles Luzhin. Although Rodya’s intellectual mind had taken over and showed him that Luzhin wa...
As the story unfolds, Dostoevsky introduces the reader to Raskolnikov, a troubled young man who is extremely isolated from those who surround him. He lives in a small, dingy, dusty, and dirty room in a small unattractive house. He lives in an abstract world neglecting the real. He is quite separate from all the people with whom he has contact. In the opening chapter, Raskolnikov is said to be, "so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but any one at all" (1). People come physically close to him, but everyone is forced to remain distant mentally. He walks through the crowded, noisy, dirty streets of St. Petersburg physically but somehow he never does so mentally, moving through the streets like a zombie, not a man. He is not aware of his location and often jostles bewildered pedestrians. Therefore, at the outset of the novel Dostoevsky illustrates the apparent schism between the mind and body of Raskolnikov.
A Study of the literary techniques used by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment to convey the downfall and subsequent rise of the main character. "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is the story of a young student Raskolnikov and his need to murder an old woman to prove one of his many philosophies. The book begins with the murder, but the primary focus is on his reasoning and reactions before and after the act. It is set in St Petersburg where the main character, Raskolnikov, appears to be an ex-student living, in poverty, a life of lethargy.
Dostoevsky does not like all of Raskolnokv though. He hates his aloofness. Dostoevsky cannot stand anti-socialism and believes that people should be together and not dislike “meeting at any time'; with anyone. Constantly Raskolnokov alienates himself from all his friends and family to go alone about his way, which ends up getting him into trouble because of his radical thinking, like his theory that some people can transcend the law because of some extraordinary powers. The trouble that Raskolnokov gets into is Fyodor’s way of showing that continually parting yourself from society is unhealthy for a person and that they need other human contact to be complete.
First a little terminology history, so it may clear up any “sociopath”/”psychopath” confusion. In the early days, doctors who worked with mental patients started to notice that some patients who appeared outwardly fine had what the doctors called a “moral depravity” or “moral insanity,” in that they seemed to have no sense of ethics or the feelings of other people. The “psychopath” term was first given to these people around 1900. The word changed to “sociopath” around the 1930’s to emphasize the affliction they do to society (Hirstein 1.)
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment begins with Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov living in poverty and isolation in St. Petersburg. The reader soon learns that he was, until somewhat recently, a successful student at the local university. His character at that point was not uncommon. However, the environment of the grim and individualistic city eventually encourages Raskolnikov’s undeveloped detachment and sense of superiority to its current state of desperation. This state is worsening when Raskolnikov visits an old pawnbroker to sell a watch. During the visit, the reader slowly realizes that Raskolnikov plans to murder the woman with his superiority as a justification. After the Raskolnikov commits the murder, the novel deeply explores his psychology, yet it also touches on countless other topics including nihilism, the idea of a “superman,” and the value of human life. In this way, the greatness of Crime and Punishment comes not just from its examination of the main topic of the psychology of isolation and murder, but the variety topics which naturally arise in the discussion.
Often times in literature, we are presented with quintessential characters that are all placed into the conventional categories of either good or bad. In these pieces, we are usually able to differentiate the characters and discover their true intentions from reading only a few chapters. However, in some remarkable pieces of work, authors create characters that are so realistic and so complex that we are unable to distinguish them as purely good or evil. In the novel Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky develops the morally ambiguous characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov to provide us with an interesting read and to give us a chance to evaluate each character.
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Dostoevsky, the only one who has taught me anything about psychology.” The two writers share many similarities and differences. Dostoevsky clearly had an effect on the thinking of Nietzsche. The two would be considered both philosophers and psychologists. Both writers became prominent in the late 19th century in Germany and Russia respectively. Dostoevsky was noted for his Russian literary classics and would be responsible for a flowering of late 19th century Russian literary culture. His Russian contemporaries include Leo Tostoy and Anton Chekov. Dostoevsky’s most famous works include The Brothers Karamozov, The Idiot, and Crime and Punishment. Nietzsche is most famous for his philosophical works such as thus spoke Zarathustra. The two writers have many similarities in their philosophy. They both see a changing role in religion. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky also differ sharply on some other aspects of life. One of these being the differing views on the role of the fatherland. Nietzsche’s beyond good and evil and Dostoevsky’s crime and punishment are two works that can be compared and contrasted to show the similarities and dissimilarities of the two geniuses. The two men offer great insights in these books on morality and the affect it can have on the actions of the individual and the society as a whole.
Crime and Punishment at first is a daunting novel. With its sheer size alone, at 551 pages, combined with the dense writing style of Dostoevsky the initial sitting can leave one wonder how anyone ever finishes this hefty novel. However, the reasons soon become clear as you breeze through anxious to see where the next turn will take you. This psychological thriller aspect is also what leads to such a close examination of Raskolnikov's thoughts. It is not until part three that we are given the core idea that drives him to murder. Prior to his encounter with Porfiry beginning on page 248 the reader is left only with conjecture as to what drove him to murder of Alyona and Lizaveta Ivanovna. We see that he is ill and destitute, both good reasons to murder for money. We also have the dream with the horse starting on page 54 that at the very least gives rise to his brutal method of murder. It is clear in the exchange between Porfiry and Raskolvikov that Porfiry believes this idea hinted at in Raskolnikov's article is what drove him to murder. P...
Raskolnikov, in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, is a complex character difficult to understand. He believes himself superior to the rest of humanity, and therefore he believes he has the right to commit murder. After he kills Alena Ivanovna, an old pawnbroker, Raskolnikov discovers his supposed superiority has cut him off from other people. He exists in a self-created alienation from the world around him. Raskolnikov mearly drifts through life, unable to participate in it anymore. It is only through Sonya that Raskolnikov is able to gradually regain his connection to humanity; she helps him to understand that, although he cannot be superior to others, she loves him regardless. Although he finds it difficult to reject his theory that certain individuals may commit acts not permitted ordinary people, Raskolnikov does accept that he is not such an individual, that he is ordinary. Through this realization and Sonya's love for him he finds the strength to confess to his crime and accept responsibility for it; this allows him to slowly began to rejoin the world around him.
Within the tortured mind of a young Russian university student, an epic battle rages between two opposite ideologies - the conservative Christianity characteristic of the time, and a new modernist humanism gaining prevalence in academia. Fyodor Dostoevsky in the novel Crime and Punishment uses this conflict to illustrate why the coldly rational thought that is the ideal of humanism represses our essential emotions and robs us of all that is human. He uses the changes in Raskolnikov's mental state to provide a human example of modernism's effect on man, placing emphasis upon the student's quest for forgiveness and the effect of repressed emotion. The moral side of Raskolnikov's mind requires absolution in a Christian manner. This need obliviates his claim to be a Nietzschean superman, and illustrates that all humans have a desire for morality.
The word “hero” is simple in connotation but complex in the feeling it evokes. The Oxford dictionary defines a hero as, “A person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.” This statement can be interpreted in many ways and thus creating a multitude of heros but heros that all share the same essential qualities, albeit in different manners. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the protagonist Raskolnikov is depicted as a "Code" or Hemingway hero (Crime and Punishment). A proportional hero from a different literary classic would be Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984 (1984). In this story, Winston displays characteristics of a modern hero through both
One of the most profound and obvious changes in Raskolnikov’s character can be seen in the newfound appreciation for other people and human relationships he discovers at the end of the novel. When the reader is first introduced to Raskolnikov, Dostoevsky quickly makes it apparent that he has little to no regard for others, writing on the very first page that Raskolnikov was “so completely absorbed in himself, and isolated from his fellows that he dreaded meeting, not only his landlady, but anyone at all” (1). Indeed, in Raskolnikov’s mind, “to be forced to listen to [the landlady’s] trivial, irrelevant gossip […] and to rack his brains for excuses, to prevaricate, to lie” is the most loathsome thing imaginable (1). His disdain toward other people is so great that the mere thought of interacting with anyone for any length of time repulses him. On some occasions...
According to Raskolnikov’s theory in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”,there are two types of people that coexist in the world; the “Extraordinary” and the “Ordinary”. The ordinary men can be defined as “Men that have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because they are ordinary.”(248). To the contrary “extraordinary” men are “Men that have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way , just because they are extraordinary”(248). Dostoevsky’s theory is evident through the characters of his novel. The main character, Raskolnikov, uses his theory of extraordinary men to justify contemplated murder. There is a sense of empowerment his character experiences with the ability to step over social boundaries. He is led to believe the killing of the pawnbroker is done for the perseverance of the greater good. It is ironic that character who is shown to be powerful in the early stages of the novel subsequently go on to show many weaknesses.