Edgar Allan Poe s Theory of the Imp of the Perverse
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"I physically caused the death of Max Kolb and I intentionally did so." According to reporter Jessica Heslam, this was the Hofstra University student, Shaun Alexander's confession in court when asked if he pleaded guilty or innocent to the brutal murder of another student. Purely for the thrill, Alexander slipped Kolb a date rape drug, and then bound his naked body with a rope and took pictures of it. After this, he meticulously murdered the 25-year-old man by stabbing him to death and then dismembering the body. The cold-blooded murderer killed Kolb in a fit of rage after he turned down his sexual advances. Alexander knew full well what he was doing was wrong, but his internal, primal instincts took over. This spirit of perverseness caused the man to commit an atrocious crime. Edgar Allan Poe understood the basics of human psychology years before Sigmund Freud ever introduced it. "Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?" Poe wrote this in his short story "The Black Cat" (10)...