In this response to Jeffrey Stern's (2004) commentary on my article, “Giving the Devil His Due: Spite and the Struggle for Individual Dignity” (P. Shabad, 2000), I suggest that in emphasizing the conscious vindictiveness of explicit spite, Stern minimizes the perverse aspects of “cutting off one's nose to spite one's face” as a means of avenging oneself against powerful others. The underlying impetus of perverse spite is to break free from the prison of subtle developmental contingencies and unconscious seductions surrounding maternal possessiveness. When the child's self-assertive strivings are blocked because of the shame and fear of premature separateness, the inward obsessional churning of resentment becomes a fertile ground for perverse spite.