The Self on Trial is an inquiry into the self and its pathological behaviors. The author observes 20th-century fiction and studies it through a psychological reading. It is evident that the century has produced self-destructive characters whose behaviors and choices are an ultimate form of consummation — primitive, elementary, and inexplicable. Why cannot Prufrock ask the overwhelming question? What is the reason for Humbert’s sexual attraction to Lolita? Why do we destroy what we love the most? The author reveals, through literary representations, aberrations of the ego that come into existence when already existing psychological dispositions meet a specific social habitat.

An important contribution, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative literature, world literature, philosophy, psychology, poetry, and modern fiction. It will appeal to those who try to understand the nature of one’s inexplicability.