In the domain of literature there is no author who has probed so deeply into the human soul as Dostoevsky. Possessed of great powers of introspection, and having experienced a most varied career, he was well fitted for the task of analysing the human mind and its motives. His intimate contact with criminals of all kinds during his exile in Siberia, together with the fact that he himself suffered from epilepsy, made him especially qualified to describe subnormal, criminal and epileptic types. Such a type is portrayed in his masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, in the character of Smerdyakov; and as an example of amorality, this character is well worth study.