ABSTRACT
The history of human civilisation is replete with examples of man’s destructiveness towards man. Some of these outbursts are impulsive, passionate, and transient. S. Freud’s first comment upon revenge was in the context of trauma which, he believed, became more pathogenic when suffered in silence. Taking revenge holds the possibility of getting over the injury, though speaking about what has happened also helps. Acts of revenge are not always directed at the individual or organisation that is viewed as having caused harm. Often the rage emanating from feeling hurt is aimed at objects that symbolically stand for the injuring party or are weak and vulnerable, hence suitable for being attacked. The linkage between a child’s sense of betrayal at the discovery of parental sexuality and the resulting desire to take revenge is nowhere more clear in Freud’s writings than in his 1910 paper titled “A Special Type of Choice of Object Made by Men”.
