The narrator explains at length his theory on "The Imp of the Perverse", which he believes causes people to commit acts against their self-interest.

It is merely the idea of what would be our sensations during the sweeping precipitancy of a fall from such a height... for this very cause do we now the most vividly desire it.The work theorizes that all people have self-destructive tendencies, including the narrator.

The narrator's ultimate confession as a murderer is not inspired by any feelings of guilt but, instead, from an overwhelming desire to publicize his actions despite knowing that he should not.

[4] The story has been noted for its psychological analysis of human behavior and motivations presaging the concepts of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and psychoanalysis.

[8] Many of Poe's characters display a failure to resist the Imp of the Perverse—including the murderer in "The Black Cat"[3] and the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart".

[12] Three months after the story was published, Poe lashed out against Boston's literary circle by trying to hoax them by reading his obscure poem "Al Aaraaf" at a lecture.

Biographer Daniel Stashower suggests Poe's purposeful attempt to provoke his audience and alienate himself further was inspired by his Imp of the Perverse.

[14] Poe reported in the Broadway Journal in December 1845 that the Nassau Monthly at Princeton College harshly criticized "The Imp of the Perverse".

"He chases from the wilderness of phrenology into that of transcendentalism, then into that of metaphysics generally; then through many weary pages into the open field of inductive philosophy, where he at last corners the poor thing, and then most unmercifully pokes it to death with a long stick.