Dostoevsky, Existential Therapy, and Modern Rage: On the Possibility of Counseling the Underground Man

Abstract

It is often said today that we live in the “Age of Rage.” This article explores the phenomenon of modern rage through an analysis of the psychic conflicts of Dostoevsky’s “underground man,” as he tries to reconcile the newly imported values of modernity with his own needs and desires. By interpreting rage through the classic Greek notion of the daimonic, the author examines how the modern attempt to rationally control and suppress rage actually exacerbates the underground man’s destructive, cruel, and self-defeating behavior and cuts him off from the possibility of emotional connectivity and wholeness. He concludes by pointing to some therapeutic possibilities within the tradition of existential psychotherapy that might have allowed the underground man to better understand and heal himself by recognizing the daimonic roots of his own rage.