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God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain, that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
This paper presents a hypothesis regarding the motivational forces behind the enigmatic assassination of a nationally loved and envied figure whom the assassin did not know personally and against whom he had no actual grievance. Whereas the affect of vengeance (Socarides, 1966) has been described as playing a major role in such slayings, it is only one factor in a complex motivational system. Further comprehension can be achieved by the application of object relations theory and new concepts of narcissism.
Psychoanalytic interpretations and speculations on individuals one has not personally seen in a clinical setting may require some justification. In many instances the subject's own literary productions, diaries (de Sade), and the work of nonanalytic writers