“I am a sick man… I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver hurts. However, I don’t know a fig about my sickness and am not sure what it is that hurts me” (Dostoevsky, 2021). Notes from Underground is a novel written from the perspective of a complex and deeply troubled individual in 1800’s St. Petersburg, Russia. Known only as “The Underground Man”, the protagonist subjects us to scattered ramblings of pessimistic philosophy. The first half of the book gives us a picture of his thoughts about life generally. The second half of the book is dedicated to telling a story of his interactions with peers. He is extraordinarily self-aware in a peculiar way which causes him to approach the world and others in off-putting ways which sabotage his efforts to garner the respect and appreciation of others. The Underground Man is a complex and challenging character to understand. He is intelligent and self-aware. But this seems to cause him to constantly analyze his every action and thought to the point of paralysis. I believe and will make the case here, that he suffers primarily from narcissistic personality disorder.
When we think of narcissism, we think of pompous grandiosity and selfishness. The first diagnostic criterion of the disorder in the DSM-V is having a “grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g. exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)” (2022). We may be inclined to think of a loud and boisterous individual full of achievements. Indeed, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition, or DSM-V, narcissistic personality disorder is defined as “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts… (2022). “Grandiose” narcissism is generally what we think of when we think of narcissism. But what happens when a pathologically narcissistic individual is continually unable to garner the admiration and praise they expect with their carefully constructed false image? Writing in the Handbook of Trait Narcissism, the authors claim that “most work has emphasized grandiose narcissism…” and that “…when situations threaten self-esteem, vulnerable narcissists lack the same self-enhancement strategies that grandiose narcissists use” (2018). The Underground Man is a 40-year-old retired civil servant who speaks of taking pleasure in being wicked and rude during his career. However, we learn that he lied about this and was never able to achieve anything in his career: “I never even managed to become anything; neither wicked nor good, neither a scoundrel nor an honest man, neither a hero nor an insect” (Dostoevsky, 2021). Through the pages of the novel we are painted a clear picture of vulnerable narcissism.
The Underground Man professes to have withdrawn from society. His earnings are meager, and he confines himself in an unimpressive and drab apartment. Once again, according to the DSM-V, “Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder may also display suspiciousness, social withdrawal, or alienation, but in narcissistic personality disorder these qualities derive primarily from fears of having imperfections or flaws revealed” (2022). “I am, for instance, terribly vain. I am as insecure and touchy as a hunchback or a dwarf.…” (Dostoevsky, 2021). In the beginning of the part II of the novel, The Underground Man is slighted by an officer in a billiard room who nonchalantly moves him out of the way. He is extraordinarily offended but cannot bring himself to retaliate for fear of being made to look like a fool. The slight that bothers him the most; that he holds most unforgiveable; is that the officer simply did not notice him. This causes in him to rage, and he spends days anxiously planning his revenge. He learns the officer’s name and station. He learns the officer’s routines in order to run into him again to enact his revenge by bumping into him as he passes by. It takes multiple attempts, but he finally closes his eyes and manages to bump shoulder to shoulder with his “enemy”. “He did not even look back and pretended not to notice: but he only pretended, I’m sure of that. To this day I’m sure of it!” (Dostoevsky, 2021). Yet another criterion for narcissistic personality disorder, according to the DSM-V, is “Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her” (2022). Later he says that the officer ended up being transferred somewhere else and that he has not seen him in fourteen years. It is evident by the text that, quite contrary to the delusions of The Underground Man, the officer never knew that the Underground Man even existed.
Another characteristic present in The Underground Man is interpersonal exploitativeness. This is another criterion for narcissistic personality disorder according to the DSM-V which is described as a tendency to take advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends (2022). He meets a young prostitute who is still idealistic and capable of love. In his interactions with her, he is able to portray a false image that she naively admires. The Underground Man gives her his address, inviting her to come away with him. However, he finds himself filled with dread at the thought of her arrival. He cannot keep up the façade: “The only bad thing is that she’ll see, for example, how I live. Yesterday I showed myself to her as such a … hero … and now, hm!” (Dostoevsky, 2021). She ultimately does come to visit, and he treats her with derision and coldness. However, she remains dignified and leaves his shabby apartment with grace. In a calculated move of spite, he gives her a five-rouble bill in an attempt to treat her as a prostitute and not the lover she wishes to be. She would much need this money, but after she is gone, he finds that she has left the money behind. “I was so great an egoist, I had so little real respect for people, that I could scarcely imagine that she would do that. I couldn’t bear it” (Dostoevsky, 2021). Since this act of nobility and grace makes him feel defeated, he chases after her. But he is unable to find her in the ensuing blizzard. “All my life I’ve been incapable even of picturing any other love, and I’ve reached the point now of sometimes thinking that love consists precisely in the right, voluntarily granted by the beloved object, to be tyrannized over” (Dostoevsky, 2021). This quote perfectly encapsulates the primary endeavor always present in narcissistic intersubjectivity: to “win” at the expense of the other.
Is there any hope for The Underground Man? Narcissistic personality disorder, or NPD, is notoriously difficult to treat. According to the textbook Abnormal Psychology, “treating enduring patterns of behavior is inherently different from treating acute disorders” (Beidel et al., 2016). Individuals with NPD tend to be highly averse to treatment and generally it is the people around them that wish for them to seek treatment (Beidel et al., 2016). According to Igor Weinberg, “NPD patients evoke strong negative reactions in therapists… making treatments hard to conduct” and treatment dropout rates for NPD patients is as high as 64% (2024). At 40 years old, The Underground Man is past his mid-life which makes the prognosis less than great. However, some have hope for the treatment of NPD. Igor Weinberg, writing in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, discusses various novel treatment developments for NPD and shifting the “perspective from the one that views the patients as holding all the challenges to effective treatment, to a transactional approach that views challenges as at least in part co-created” (2024). As mentioned previously, patients with NPD can evoke strong negative reactions in those attempting to provide treatment. In many instances, pathologically narcissistic individuals can force us to confront the narcissism in ourselves. There is some hope, albeit small, for treatment of The Underground Man’s disorder. Notes from Underground is a classic that serves in the greater understanding of the internal workings at play in the modern civilized human mind.
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