Mental Disorder In Lolita

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Lolita, by Vladimir Nobakov follows the story of doomed Humbert Humbert, a “nympholept”, as he courts a young girl named Lolita. Throughout the novel, Humbert thinks, says, and does things that a normal person would not. His actions make many a reader question whether or not Humbert is mentally sane. By observing his actions in Lolita, it is very easy to see that he is not sane; in fact, he most definitely has at least two psychological disorders. Unfortunately, these disorders do not excuse his actions. However, they do help explain them. Whilst these mental illnesses do not explain everything, they open a window that lets us see what really goes on in our infamous pedophiles head.
When looking at Humbert Humbert, one of the first disorders that seems to fit is Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Humbert shows many of the symptoms that are common with NPD, such as a sense of grandiosity, extremely envious, and an obsessive need to control. This sense of grandiosity appears in both fantasy and real life. He exhibits this in two occasions through out the book. “I was, and stil...

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