Abstract
What is the difference between the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the fictional character Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? Although this sounds like the set up to a joke, there is a serious comparison to be made. They are both involved in stories which share the common structure of a protagonist who is called upon to update a strongly held theory on the basis of new evidence. And these two narratives illustrate the role of sound self-awareness in the rational revision of one’s theories.
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Notes
Austen, J. (1813/2003). Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin, p. 80, p. 79, p. 13.
Tanner, T. (1972). Introduction to Pride and Prejudice. Reprinted in Austen, J. (1813/2003). Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin (Penguin Classics 2003 edition), p. 378.
Murphy, D.E. (2005). What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa., p. xv.
Rancour-Laferriere, D. (1988). The Mind of Stalin, p. 47.
Ryle (1990). Cognitive Analytic Therapy. Chichester: John Wiley.
Khrushchev Remembers (1971). Cited in Bullock, A. (1998). Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (2nd ed.) London: Fontana, p. 387.
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© 2014 John Lambie
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Lambie, J. (2014). Case Study IV: Sound Self-Awareness — Joseph Stalin versus Jane Austen. In: How to be Critically Open-Minded — A Psychological and Historical Analysis. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137301055_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137301055_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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