The Imp of the Perverse (short story by Edgar Allan Poe)

"The Imp of the Perverse" by Edgar Allan Poe explores the human tendency to act against our best interests simply because we are compelled to do so, even when we know it may lead to negative outcomes. The story illustrates how an individual's subconscious desire to defy reason and moral judgment can cause self-destructive actions. Through a narrator haunted by guilt and an impulse to confess a murder, Poe highlights the paradoxical nature of human nature—our push to sabotage ourselves out of a mysterious, almost innate, perversity.