The city lights blurred outside Dr. Kim’s apartment window as he poured another drink, the amber liquid swirling like the chaotic thoughts in his head. His wife, Hye-won, and his daughter, Mina, walked into the living room, their faces etched with concern. “How was it, dearest?” Hye-won asked softly, her gaze lingering on the nearly empty bottle.
Dr. Kim, a renowned psychoanalyst, usually maintained a stoic professionalism, but tonight, the dam had broken. He was forbidden from disclosing professional information to third parties, a pillar of his ethical code, yet the need to unburden himself was overwhelming. He’d spent the day in a small, sterile room, grappling with a mind unlike any he’d encountered.
His patient, the man apprehended near Yeouinaru Station at 9:45 a.m. that morning for igniting a fire on a subway train, was the same age as Dr. Kim. What struck him most was the man’s disconcerting demeanor: calm, humble, and yet undeniably vain. It was Dr. Kim, the seasoned analyst, who had found his composure eroding after hours of conversation.
The suspect offered no discernible motive for the arson. It wasn’t about revenge, or financial gain, or even a cry for help. Arson was a goal, not a means. This realization had profoundly rattled Dr. Kim. The classical methods of criminal psychoanalysis, which often centered on poverty, hatred, or social injustice as root causes, felt woefully inadequate. In recent years, he’d been increasingly aware of the limitations of these traditional frameworks when faced with the perplexing complexities of modern criminal psychology.
As he nursed his drink, a chilling thought began to solidify in his mind: what if the suspect, in his disturbing act, was also grappling with a profound sense of helplessness? He couldn’t shake the unsettling calmness in the man’s eyes, a placid surface that seemed to conceal an unfathomable depth. The more he thought about it, the more he assumed this was the case. The suspect’s calm gaze, devoid of remorse or anger, flickered in his mind’s eye, a haunting reflection that offered no easy answers.
All names of people and organizations appearing in this story are pseudonyms
Arsonist sparks fire on Seoul subway, forcing 400 passengers to flee through tunnel
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