Dostoyevsky's Stalker and Other Essays on Psychopathology and the Arts

Michael Sperber, M.D., is the author of Henry David Thoreau: Cycles and Psyche and the co-editor (with Lissy F. Jarvik, M.D., Ph.D.) of Psychiatry and Genetics: Psychosocial, Ethical and Legal Considerations. Dr. Sperber trained in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where he taught for many years. He has also taught in the honors program, Department of Social Relations, Harvard College, and is currently psychiatric consultant to the Neuropsychiatry / Behavioral Neurology Service at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.

From Dostoyevsky to the Unabomber; from Thoreau to Woody Allen, Michael Sperber's new book is a tour de force of integrative thinking and creative analysis. Dostoyevsky's Stalker will be a valuable work for all those seeking deeper channels into the human mind.

• Chapter 1 PrefaceChapter 2 AcknowledgmentsChapter 3 IntroductionPart 4 PART I: VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF SHAMEChapter 5 1. Shame, the "As-if" Personality, and the Search for IdentityChapter 6 2. Anton Chekov's "The Darling": Imitative Pseudo-RelationshipsChapter 7 3. Woody Allen's Zelig: The Human ChameleonChapter 8 4. Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley: Better a Fake Somebody than a Real NobodyChapter 9 5. Reinvented Selves: Frank Abagnale's Catch Me If You Can and James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter MittyChapter 10 6. Henry David Thoreau's Alter Egos: Ralph Waldo Emerson and JOhn Thoreau Jr.Chapter 11 7. Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Underground Man and the Psychogenesis of StalkingChapter 12 8. The Case of the Quadriplegic CyberterroristChapter 13 9. The Unabomber at Harvard: A Murderous PhoenixChapter 14 10. The Unabomber, the Underground Man, and Asperger SyndromeChapter 15 11. Anton Chekhov's "The Man in a Case": Laughter that KilledChapter 16 12. Glenn Gould: the "Cased-in Man" SyndromeChapter 17 13. Homophobic Dysphoria in Annie Proulx's Brokeback MountainChapter 18 14. A Shame-Inducing Epiphany in James Joyce's "The Dead"Chapter 19 15. Anton Chekhov's "Lady with the Pet Dog": A Womanizer Learns to LoveChapter 20 16. Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim: Inner and Outer Courts of InquiryChapter 21 17. Edward Hopper's Last Painting, Two Comedians: An Ego-Absolving GlossChapter 22 18. Alexander Pushkin's "The Shot": Revenge, a Dish Best Savored ColdPart 23 PART II: POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDERChapter 24 19. Introduction: The Many Facets of PTSDChapter 25 20. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wakefield": Sleepwalker in a Mental JailChapter 26 21. Frederick Law Olmsted's Childhood Traumas and the Birth of PsychoarchitectureChapter 27 22. Leo Tolstoy's "God Sees the Truth, but Waits": Through Suffering Comes RedemptionChapter 28 23. Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers: A Real-life Ivan and MakarChapter 29 24. Henry David Thoreau's "Wilderness Therapy": Sensory Awareness in NatureChapter 30 25. The Great Deeds of Henry David Thoreau, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Crisis, Preparation, and a Deliberative MomentChapter 31 26. Introduction: The Creative Use of Alternate States of ConsciousnessChapter 32 27. Joseph Conrad's The Secret Sharer and Autoscopic IllusionChapter 33 28. Friedrich August Kekulé's Apparition of a Snake and the Structure of the Benzene RingChapter 34 29. Henry David Thoreau: An Imaginary Mountain, A Symbolic TombstoneChapter 35 30. Demonic Hallucinations and Patricidal Guilt: Dostoyevsky's Ivan Karamazov and Freud's Bavarian ArtistChapter 36 31. The Three Phantoms of Herman Melville's Moby DickPart 37 PART IV: MOOD IMAGERY IN LITERATUREChapter 38 32. Introduction: Icarus, Daedalus, and Bipolar DisorderChapter 39 33. Manic-Depressive Mood Swings in Albert Camus' The FallChapter 40 34. Bipolar Imagery in Henry David Thoreau's JournalsChapter 41 Bibliography