Literature Network » Fyodor Dostoevsky

The secret that guilty confessions fail to disclose

Content courtesy of

From: American Journal of Psychotherapy
Date: 20020101
Author:Goldberg, Carl

In my work with destructive clients, I have found suspect the notion that our deepest fear is that we are malevolent. By use of intuitive insights about the nature of confession in the writings of three literary psychologists-Edgar Allan Poe, Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoevsky-and from clinical evidence in a case study of a client who confessed to a crime, I seek to show the actual psychodynamics at work in the confession of a crime.

"The cruelest lies are often told in silence." -Robert Loius Stevenson

Theodor Reik (1), in his Compulsion to Confess, presents a case study of a man who ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Fyodor Dostoevsky

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.