The Imp Of The Perverse

[Magical Realist]

We've all had that thought while standing next to the ledge of a cliff or building--what if I just jumped off? Or while driving on the freeway with others in our car--what if I just jerk my steering wheel to the left? Poe called this the "Imp of the Perverse"---a rather nasty little varmint that fleetingly tempts you with the most dreadful of possibilities. Less imaginatively modern psychologists term these "intrusive thoughts"and tell us not to worry---that it is entirely human to have these, at least every now and then. And yet, where is the fine line between this, and suddenly wanting to kill somebody?
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"Have you ever had to fight the urge to trip a stranger for no reason? How about to scream in a quiet lecture? Or even to jump in front of an oncoming train?

While scary to dwell on, such thoughts are actually quite common. Research shows that up to 90 percent of people without a diagnosed mental illness experience what psychologists have labeled “intrusive thoughts.”

Colloquially, the phenomenon is known as the Imp of the Perverse, a name derived from a short Edgar Allan Poe story of the same title published in 1845. The story follows a narrator who describes his irresistible urge to confess that he has murdered someone, though he is at no risk of being discovered. Poe likened these perverse thoughts to “a shadow [that] seems to flit across the brain.”

The evolutionary purpose for such thoughts is unknown, but one theory by Paul Salkovskis, a psychology professor at the University of Bath, suggests intrusive thoughts are part of the brain’s way of problem solving. By generating unfiltered thoughts, our subconscious ensures that we consider a wide range of solutions for potential problems in the future.

Not all intrusions are negative, but some people seem to be more susceptible to unpleasant ones, according to Shiu Wong, a research fellow at Concordia University who studies behavior and anxiety disorders. The thoughts themselves are fairly harmless, he says, but how we respond to them can be a problem. When intrusive thoughts become too frequent or compel us to action, it can be a sign of anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which people try to control intrusions with ritualistic behaviors. Even in the non-clinical population, research shows, trying to suppress a thought only makes it more likely to occur.

So what should you do the next time the imp in your mind causes intrusive thoughts? Wong advises that we try to take comfort in the fact that everyone experiences them: “Normalizing the experience helps manage distress.”"----- https://psmag.com/magazine/imp-of-the-perverse/

[C C]

[...] So what should you do the next time the imp in your mind causes intrusive thoughts? Wong advises that we try to take comfort in the fact that everyone experiences them: “Normalizing the experience helps manage distress.”"----- https://psmag.com/magazine/imp-of-the-perverse/

As a child, I wanted to be a writer of fiction. So like Patricia Highsmith, Agatha Christie, Gillian Flynn, etc I was always entertaining psychologically dark or thriller events and deceitfully malevolent characters as a potential plot or elements of some story. Thanks to the later influence of Jack Vance's ornate style, though, even the crudest got gilded in the course of conversion to description.

Things and subject matter still reflexively cross my mind that would seem disturbing to others if the creative context were unknown. I'm completely comfortable with those stygian commuters intermittently crossing my mental landscape. As superficial specters, none of them have the administrative license to seize control. Whereas other might worry about those "intrusive thoughts", for me they are instantly recruited as props for an unfulfilled exercise that should have been interred long ago but still habitually shambles about like an undead automaton.

[geordief]

We've all had that thought while standing next the ledge of a cliff or building--what if I just jumped off? Or while driving on the freeway with others in our car--what if I just jerk my steering wheel to the left? Poe called this the "Imp of the Perverse"---a rather nasty little varmint that fleetingly tempts you with the most dreadful of possibilities. Less imaginatively modern psychologists term these "intrusive thoughts"and tell us  not to worry---that it is entirely human to have these, at least every now and then. And yet, where is the fine line between this, and suddenly wanting to kill somebody?
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  "Have you ever had to fight the urge to trip a stranger for no reason? How about to scream in a quiet lecture? Or even to jump in front of an oncoming train?

While scary to dwell on, such thoughts are actually quite common. Research shows that up to 90 percent of people without a diagnosed mental illness experience what psychologists have labeled “intrusive thoughts.”

Colloquially, the phenomenon is known as the Imp of the Perverse, a name derived from a short Edgar Allan Poe story of the same title published in 1845. The story follows a narrator who describes his irresistible urge to confess that he has murdered someone, though he is at no risk of being discovered. Poe likened these perverse thoughts to “a shadow [that] seems to flit across the brain.”

The evolutionary purpose for such thoughts is unknown, but one theory by Paul Salkovskis, a psychology professor at the University of Bath, suggests intrusive thoughts are part of the brain’s way of problem solving. By generating unfiltered thoughts, our subconscious ensures that we consider a wide range of solutions for potential problems in the future.

Not all intrusions are negative, but some people seem to be more susceptible to unpleasant ones, according to Shiu Wong, a research fellow at Concordia University who studies behavior and anxiety disorders. The thoughts themselves are fairly harmless, he says, but how we respond to them can be a problem. When intrusive thoughts become too frequent or compel us to action, it can be a sign of anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which people try to control intrusions with ritualistic behaviors. Even in the non-clinical population, research shows, trying to suppress a thought only makes it more likely to occur.

So what should you do the next time the imp in your mind causes intrusive thoughts? Wong advises that we try to take comfort in the fact that everyone experiences them: “Normalizing the experience helps manage distress.”"----- https://psmag.com/magazine/imp-of-the-perverse/

I read that story, maybe 60 years ago  and  I thought I understood what was in his mind and how it might play out in other situations.In the years since ,that kind of a thought occurred to me from time to time and I even slightly worried that I might act it out on some occasion

I have worked through it though and maybe it is a bit of the double bluff.A bit like the smoking ads we get over here where the ad finishes by saying that it (smoking ,drinking ,gambling or whatever) is not your friend and to just ignore it.

So ,with the Imp of the Perverse, although the idea is pretty cool I got bored with it  and my attention would automatically  go somewhere more interesting.

I am a pretty dull character  anyway and so would not be in the line for extravagant departures from the rails.

On the other hand I do have secrets  and there is always the possibility of letting the mask slip but that would be more likely force of circumstance than any societal "death wish"

There is another saying "feeling good in your own skin".If you have that ,then you are perhaps unlikely to fall prey to these kind of leaps onto the dark (or the open ,as in Poe's character's case)

Wasn't Poe bludgeoned to death in a back street?(mention of it ,I think in The Beatles "I am the Walrus")

Edit A bit shockingly I think I heard that the Moors Murderers(Ian Brady in particular-who was seemingly very clever ,and manipulative ,I think) may have had some kind of an existential reason for their actions.

Did he think that performing an act of abhorrence somehow freed him from the chains of conformal living?

(doing something precisely because it should not be done)

I think I may have read something along those lines.

[confused2]

My fear of high places isn't that I might fall .. more that I might jump.