Revenge motivation

Revenge motivation

What motivates revenge and how does it affect us?

Prevalence of revenge motivation

What is revenge?

• According to an Australian Institute of Criminology report, throughout 2008-2010 revenge homicides encompassed 5 per cent of the most frequently recorded homicides, with 26 victims and 25 incidents. Of these, 8 per cent were acquaintance homicides, 6 per cent stranger homicides and 2 per cent were domestically related.
• The prevalence of revenge homicide rated seventh following domestic argument, other argument, no motive, alcohol-related argument, drugs and money.

What motivates revenge?

• Many individual and collective actions are motivated by revenge (Uniacke, 2000).
• This motivation may stem from an emotional pain or shock experienced by an action from another, this is due to feelings of revenge being a common human response to pain or hurt by others (van Denderen, de Keijser, Gerlsma, Huisman & Boelen, 2014).
• The instinct of revenge which is so powerful in the natural man, is nothing but the excitation of a reflex that has not been released (Freud, 1895).
• Vengeful tendencies and fantasies of revenge are linked with and found to be motivated by power, authority and by the desire for status (McKee, 2008).

• Revenge is a form of retaliation whereby one seeks out hostile confrontations with others, motivated by a desire to pay-back another they feel is responsible for a hurt or suffering (Crowe & Wilkowski, 2013, Uniacke, 2000).
• A personal and non-instrumental; as vindictive and malicious and is described as an obsessional idea and a compulsive enactment (Rosen, 2007, Uniacke, 2000).
• Many forms and on many levels and may be expressed readily through masochistic reactions or sadistic behaviour (Beattie, 2005).

Personality and revenge

• The personality characteristics of a narcissist involve experiencing an unusual degree of self-reference and grandiosity in their interactions with other people.
• Narcissists may experience a shallow emotional life, little empathy, little enjoyment from life, grandiose fantasies as well as feelings of restless and boredom when no new sources feed their need for appraisal (Wink & Donahue, 1997).
• They are often unaware of their destructive and damaging nature.
• Narcissists are said to experience impaired empathy, impaired intimacy, impaired identity, and impaired self-direction (Kernberg, 1985)

Treatment

Conclusion

Sources

• It should be noted that literature on revenge motivation and revenge fantasies is limited and that the aim of this presentation is to educate readers in how to apply psychological knowledge about revenge motivation to their lives.
• It can be concluded that personality types impact upon the way revenge affects us.

Akhtar, S. (2014)Sources of suffering.

French, P. (2001). The virtues of vengeance. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas.

Freud, S., Strachey, J., & Freud, A. (1962). The Standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press.

Gergen, K. (1985). The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. American Psychologist, 40(3), 266-275.

Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-396.

McKee, I., & Feather, N. (2008). Revenge, Retribution, and Values: Social Attitudes and Punitive Sentencing. Soc Just Res, 21(2), 138-163.

van Denderen, M., de Keijser, J., Gerlsma, C., Huisman, M., & Boelen, P. (2014). Revenge and psychological adjustment after homicidal loss. Aggr. Behav., 40(6).

Weiner, B. (1992). Human motivation. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage.

• There is a need for laws that stretch beyond the enforcement of legislation. "In the absence of social structures of justice, individual revenge becomes a moral imperative". (French, 2001)
• Those with a higher level of character organisation are recognised experiencing revenge fantasies circumscribing oedipal issues (Akhtar, 2014).
• Those with an intermediate to low level of character organisation retain more overt, cold-blooded and sadistic fantasies of revenge (Akhtar, 2014).
• Clinical steps should be taken to limit and avoid acts of revenge