https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167819852234
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
1–18
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0022167819852234
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Rehumanizing Psychotherapy - Contemporary Existential and Jungian Perspectives
Dostoevsky, Existential
Therapy, and Modern
Rage: On the Possibility
of Counseling the
Underground Man
Kevin Aho
1
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.
Keywords
The Brothers Karamazov, the daimonic, Dostoevsky, existential psychotherapy,
Rollo May, philosophical counseling, Notes from the Underground, rage,
wholeness
1
Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, USA
Corresponding Author:
Kevin Aho, Department of Communication and Philosophy, Florida Gulf Coast University,
10501 FGCU Boulevard South, Fort Myers, FL 33965, USA.
Email: kaho@fgcu.edu
852234JHP XX X 10.1177/0022167819852234Journal of Humanistic PsychologyAho
research-article 2019