“A company of us got together once, and we drank a bit, it’s true, and suddenly somebody suggested that each of us, without leaving the table, tell something about himself, but something that he himself, in good conscience, considered the worst of all the bad things he’d done in the course of his whole life; and that it should be frank, above all, that it should be frank, no lying!”

“A strange notion!” said the general.

“Strange as could be, Your Excellency, but that’s what was good about it.”

“A ridiculous idea,” said Totsky, “though understandable: a peculiar sort of boasting.” …

“And was it a success?” asked Nastasya Filippovna.

“The fact is that it wasn’t, it turned out badly, people actually told all sorts of things, many told the truth, and, imagine, many even enjoyed the telling, but then they all felt ashamed, they couldn’t stand it! On the whole, though, it was quite amusing–in its own way, that is.”

“But that would be really nice!” observed Nastasya Filippovna, suddenly quite animated. “Really, why don’t we try it, gentlemen! In fact, we’re not very cheerful. If each of us agreed to tell something… of that sort… naturally, if one agrees, because it’s totally voluntary, eh? Maybe we can stand it? At least it’s terribly original….”
–Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot, tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volonkhosky

I note that playing the Dostoevsky Drinking Game with the scene which follows will get you so terrifically smashed that you can see into your own soul.