In memory of the psychiatrist M Scott Peck, who provided me with the only referential definition I evil that seemed to have any validity. Yet, I cant find it. I remember the equation of evil = stupid + lazy, which I attempted to equate with the four types of officers assessed on those scales Peck discussed evil in his book People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, and also in a chapter of The Road Less Traveled. (From wiki, mostly) Peck characterizes evil as a malignant type of self-righteousness in which there is an active rather than passive refusal to tolerate imperfection (sin) and its consequent guilt. This syndrome results in a projection of evil onto selected specific innocent victims (often children), which is the paradoxical mechanism by which the People of the Lie commit their evil. Peck argued that these people are the most difficult of all to deal with, and extremely hard to identify. He described in some detail several individual cases involving his patients. In one case which Peck considers as the most typical because of its subtlety, he describes Roger, a depressed teenage son of respected, well off parents. In a series of parental decisions justified by often subtle distortions of the truth, they exhibited a consistent disregard for their sons feelings, and a consistent willingness to destroy his growth. With false rationality and normality, they aggressively refused to consider that they were in any way responsible for his resultant depression, eventually suggesting his condition must be incurable and genetic. Some of his conclusions about the psychiatric condition that he designates as evil, are derived from his close study of one patient he names Charlene. I add parenthetically that, while I can see the similarities in psychological causes, the manifestation looks different. Although Charlene is not dangerous, she is ultimately unable to have empathy for others in any way.People like her see others as play things or tools to be manipulated for their own uses or entertainment. Peck states that these people are rarely seen by psychiatrists, and have never been treated successfully. Evil is described by Peck as militant ignorance and distinguishes it from his concept of Judeo-Christian sin, the later of which he sees as a process that leads us to miss the mark and fall short of perfection. Peck argues that while most people are conscious of these failures (guilt) at least on some level, those that are evil actively militantly refuse this consciousness. Peck considers those he calls evil to be attempting to escape and hide from their own conscience (through self-deception), and views this as being quite distinct from the apparent absence of conscience evident in sociopathy. (That may be a bit too subtle for me. One way I thought I had grasped evil as Peck defined it is sociopathy. I can see the dif between being as innocent as a cobra, and having existential heebiie jeebies. On the pragmatic perspective, tho, what matters is what one does, not rather one rationalizes it) According to Peck an evil person is: consistently self-deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt and maintaining a self-image of perfection. (okay, maybe Obama is evil), Deceives others as a consequence of their own self-deception, Projects his or her evils and sins onto very specific targets (scapegoats) while being apparently normal with everyone else (their insensitivity toward him was selective Commonly hates with the pretense of love, for the purposes of self-deception as much as deception of others. Abuses political (emotional) power (the imposition of ones will upon others by overt or covert coercion ) Maintains a high level of respectability, and lies incessantly in order to do so Is consistent in his or her sins. Evil persons are characterized not so much by the magnitude of their sins, but by their consistency (of destructiveness) Is unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim (scapegoat) Has a covert intolerance to criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury Most evil people realize the evil deep within themselves but are unable to tolerate the pain of introspection, or admit to themselves that they are evil. Thus, they constantly run away from their evil by putting themselves in a position of moral superiority and putting the focus of evil on others. Evil is an extreme form of what Scott Peck, in The Road Less Traveled, calls a character disorder. Using the My Lai Massacre as a case study Peck also examined group evil, discussing how human group morality is strikingly less than individual morality. Partly, he considers this to be a result of specialization, which allows people to avoid individual responsibility and pass the buck, resulting in a reduction of group conscience. Though the topic of evil has historically been the domain of religion, Peck made great efforts to keep much of his discussion on a scientific basis, explaining the specific psychological mechanisms by which evil operates. He was also particularly conscious of the danger of a psychology of evil being misused for personal or political ends. Peck considered that such a psychology should be used with great care, as falsely labeling people as evil is one of the very characteristics of evil. He argued that a diagnosis of evil should come from the standpoint of healing and safety for its victims, but also with the possibility even if remote, that the evil themselves may be cured. youtube/results?search_query=m+scott+peck+interview+
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:33:21 +0000
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