The narrator of the autobiographical story Cousin K is a young male writer who retraces the course of his life before becoming the murderer of a hitch-hiker who asked him for assistance. We will consider the impact on the hero of several accumulated traumatisms in childhood and adolescence (early maternal rejection, direct confrontation with his father’s death, perverse influence) and their possible role in the emergence of a cruelty drive. We will advance the hypothesis that the recourse to a criminal act is a search for triumph over the object and for omnipotence in the face of a threat of annihilation.