Revenge

A Short Enquiry into Retribution

Stephen Fineman

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781780238401
• eBook ISBN: 9781780238807
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Revenge is a primal force at the heart of conflict and justice—as ancient as humanity itself. It can be found in nearly all societies and, culturally, we are fascinated by it—as countless novels, dramas, films, and computer games attest. "Getting even" can restore the balance of relationships and bring order. It can fill the vacuum left by imperfect or unjust justice systems. It can rescue people trapped in oppressive conditions. But revenge can also get out of control; spirals of revenge are notoriously destructive and impervious to appeals for peace and forgiveness. In this bold new book, Stephen Fineman lifts the lid on revenge, exposing its intriguing contours in arenas as diverse as the workplace, intimate relationships, the search for societal justice, war, and politics. He explores the psychology and experience of revenge and touches on more recent manifestations, like cyber-stalking and revenge pornography, in order to ask important questions: How best can we prevent the most damaging effects of revenge? When should retribution be tolerated, or even celebrated? If we are all potential avengers, what does that say about us? In an age when digital media has created a new generation of armchair avengers, settling real or imaginary scores and starting-up new ones, Revenge is more than timely. Thoughtful and critical, Revenge tackles one of society's oldest and greatest vices.

REFERENCES

ONE: THE ROOTS OF REVENGE

1 ‘Stone-throwing Baboons Wait Three Days for Revenge in Saudi Arabia’, www.albawaba.com, 2 December 2000; ‘Gorilla Revenge’, www.answers.google.com, 28 February 2005.

2 Dario Maestripieri, Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World (Chicago, IL, 2007); Frans B. M. de Waal and Lesleigh M. Luttrell, ‘Mechanisms of Social Reciprocity in Three Primate Species: Symmetrical Relationship Characteristics or Cognition?’, Ethology and Sociobiology, IX/2 (1988), pp. 101–18; Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes (Baltimore, MD, revd edn 2007).

3 Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge, 1996), p. 317.

4 Ulrich Orth, Leo Montada and Andreas Maercker, ‘Feelings of Revenge, Retaliation Motive, and Posttraumatic Stress Reactions in Crime Victims’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, XXI/2 (2006), pp. 229–43; Barbara Lopes Cardozo, Reinhard Kaiser, Carol A. Gotway and Ferid Agani, ‘Mental Health, Social Functioning, and Feelings of Hatred and Revenge of Kosovar Albanians One Year After the War in Kosovo’, Journal of Traumatic Stress, XVI/4 (2003), pp. 351–60.

5 Jon Ronson, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed (London, 2015), p. 162.

6 Jane Goldberg, ‘Fantasies of Revenge and the Stabilization of the Ego’, www.drjanegoldberg.com, October 2013.

7 Karen Horney, ‘The Value of Vindictiveness’, American Journal of Psychoanalysis, VIII/1 (1948), pp. 3–12.

8 Heinz Kohut, ‘Thoughts on Narcissism and Narcissistic Rage’, Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, XXVII/1 (1972), pp. 360–400.

9 Ben Dattner, ‘Reflections on Narcissistic Bosses’, www.businessweek.com, 23 June 2009.

10 James Fallon, ‘The Mind of a Dictator: Exploring the Minds of Psychopaths and Dictators’, www.psychologytoday.com, 11 November 2011.

11 American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn [DSM-IV-TR] (Washington, DC, 2000); Betty Glad, ‘Why Tyrants Go Too Far: Malignant Narcissism and Absolute Power’, Political Psychology, XXIII/1 (2002), pp. 1–2; Salman Akhtar and J. Anderson Thomson, ‘Overview: Narcissistic Personality Disorder’, American Journal of Psychiatry, CXXXIX/1 (1982), pp. 12–16; Mila Goldner-Vukov and Laurie Jo Moore, ‘Malignant Narcissism: From Fairy Tales to Harsh Reality’, Psychiatria Danubina, XXII/3 (2010), pp. 392–405.

12 Rupert Colley, ‘Ekaterina Dzhugashvili – Stalin’s Mother’, www.historyinanhour.com, 5 February 2013.

13 The autocrat’s self-adulatory symbols continue to beguile populations in Syria, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Kazakhstan. Long-time President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has added his own touch: his handprint in solid gold, located in a room at the top of the highest tower in the country’s capital. Visitors can measure their own hand against his, physically touching this symbol of his greatness – flesh turned to gold.

14 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918–56: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (New York, 2003), III, P. 69.

15 Shiva Balaghi, Saddam Hussein: A Biography (Westport, CT, 2006), pp. 6–7.

16 Jerrold M. Post, The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders: With Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton (Ann Arbor, MI, 2005), p. 343.

17 Christopher Hitchens, ‘Iraq’s 1979 Fascist Coup’, speech given at the Commonwealth Club, Palo Alto, 1979, available at www.lybio.net; Brian Wingate, Saddam Hussein (New York, 2003).

18 Mark Bowden, ‘Tales of the Tyrant’, The Atlantic (May 2002).

TWO: RELIGIOUS VOICES

1 Quoted in Dawn Warren, ‘Judaism’, www.towardcommonground.org, accessed 16 January 2017.

2 Yerachmiel Fried, ‘Eye for an Eye – Ask the Rabbi’, www.aish.com, accessed 16 January 2017.

3 Philippe Buc, ‘Some Thoughts on the Christian Theology of Violence, Medieval and Modern, from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution’, Rivista di storia del cristianesimo, V/1 (2008), pp. 9–28.

4 Mazood Azhar, ‘Jaish Threatens “Smashing Blow” in Kashmir’, Press Trust of India, 14 October 2001.

5 Acharya Buddharakkhita, trans., ‘Kakacupama Sutta: The Parable of the Saw’, Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 10 November 2013.

6 ‘Radical Buddhist Monk Accused of Inciting Riots that Have Killed Hundreds of Muslims’, New York Post, 21 June 2013.

THREE: WRITING REVENGE

1 See Henry Bacon, The Fascination of Film Violence (New York, 2015), p. 18.

2 Robin S. Rosenberg, ed., Our Superheroes, Ourselves (Oxford, 2013); Jeph Loess and Tom Morris, ‘Heroes and Superheroes’, in Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way, ed. Tom Morris and Matt Morris (Chicago, IL, 2005), pp. 11–20.

3 ‘Captain America 1 – Enemy, Chapter One’, Marvel Knights (1 June 2002).

4 Katie Cole, ‘What Can Wonder Woman Tell Us About American Culture?’, https://anthropologygallery.wordpress.com, 3 June 2012.

5 Gloria Steinem, ‘Wonder Woman’, in The Superhero Reader, ed. Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester (Jackson, MS, 2013), pp. 203–10.

6 ‘Is Wonder Woman Qualified to Be a UN Ambassador?’, www.bbc.co.uk, 21 October 2016.

7 Samuel Henry Butcher, ed. and trans., Aristotle’s Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, 4th edn (London, 1907, repr. as Aristotle Poetics, 1951), p. 53.

8 Marguerite A. Tassi, Women and Revenge in...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• PREFACE
• ONE THE ROOTS OF REVENGE
• TWO RELIGIOUS VOICES
• THREE WRITING REVENGE
• FOUR EYES, TEETH AND JUSTICE
• FIVE TRIBES AND BLOODY HONOUR
• SIX A VERY PERSONAL GRUDGE
• SEVEN VENGEANCE IN WAR
• EIGHT WORK AND REVENGE
• NINE INSIDE POLITICAL REVENGE
• EPILOGUE: NO END TO REVENGE?
• REFERENCES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INDEX