This brief communication supplements Stamm's contribution. Prior to his crime Meursault was apathetic, noninvolved. Slochower understands this feeling state as both a defense against and a passive expression of aggression. The discharge of aggression associated with the shooting of the Arab and the attack on the chaplain brought with it liberation from apathy, a sense of being alive, and the possibility that his aggression could be turned toward constructive pathways.