On the Figure of the Double and the Enigma of Evil in L’Adversaire, by Emmanuel Carrère, a Story of Criminal Imposture

Abstract

Starting from Emmanuel Carrère’s L’Adversaire, a complex psychological tale about the impostures and horrible crimes perpetrated by Jean-Claude Romand, we want to highlight the link between this story and the mystery of Evil, with the combat that takes place within the human soul between the conscience and the irra-tional forces of the unconscious that op-erate the «demoniac double» that lives in us (Carrère calls this the «adversary» that prompts us to lie). Our approach is based on the theories of Jung about the process of individuation of the subject and the dynamic relations between the conscious self, the social mask of the «persona», the dark side of the unconscious (the Shadow) and the appealing images coming from the «arquetypes» of the collective uncon-scious.