Summary
Question: Has the "Imp" been whispering perverse thoughts in your ear lately, such as "Go ahead and jump" when you're on a high bluff, or "Confess" when you'd rather keep something to yourself? Just who is the Imp?
Answer: In Edgar Allen Poe's "The Imp of the Perverse," the protagonist carries out the perfect murder and enjoys his ill- gotten gains, constantly reassuring himself, "I am safe ..." But one day his mantra changes to "I am safe, yes, if I be not fool enough to confess." With that thought, he comes undone, says Jonathan Haidt in "The Happiness Hypothesis." Now the more the murderer tries to suppress the thought of confessing, the more insistent it becomes until he panics and blacks out. When he comes to, he learns he has made a full confession.See the full content of this document
Extract
Blame Poe for the Imp
Now researcher Dan Wegner has brought the Imp -- "the divided mind," really -- into the lab, asking subjects to try hard NOT TO THINK ABOUT something,...
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