A Theory Of Evil
Human evil, is it a subject we can ever truly understand? This is one of the questions that the author of People of The Lie, M. Scott Peck, M.D., tries to answer. I do not ever recall reading a book outside of the Bible or the Holy Qur'an that discussed the subject of evil. It is a topic that I find quite intriguing, and the fact that it was not written entirely on a spiritual level made it all the more interesting. I felt it would shed a little scientific light on a otherwise spiritual matter. The reason for that is I have not fully associated myself with a specific religion because there are certain things that I do not understand about them. I do, however, feel that I have a strong sense of spirituality, so anything that deals with the human spirit is important to me. This book gave me a chance to take a look at what is evil without having to deal with the religious terminology that often times confuses me. Dr. Peck introduces this book as an insightful yet painful look into the reality of evil. He takes a look at it from both a scientific and religious point of view. Dr. Peck explains that as with all subject matter you can get the best results when you examine them through different views
In the latter part of the second chapter, Toward a Psychology of Evil, Peck began to relate the concept of evil with the cases he had written about earlier. It was at this point that I was able to agree with some of the things he was stating about his patients. It was also the point when the subject of human evil became, at times, very overwhelming. It made me think of situations in my past and how some them related to what he was saying. It made me think about myself , think of when I was on the verge of being evil at different points in my life. He describes narcissism and will as being the essential problem in human evil. There have been times when I was so self-absorbed that I did not realize or even care about what I was doing to others. This book also made me want look at others and see if I could judge them as being evil. Then, I thought to myself that it is not my place to judge or prosecute other human beings. The only one who has that right is GOD, ALLAH, in Islamic terms. Highly exaggerated, is a phrase that best describes my initial impression of this book. It seemed as if Peck was full of himself and was very judge mental. I felt like he was putting himself in position he had no right to be in, like he was god. He was not making any sense with his examples, especially in the first chapter. In the story that dealt with George he did not make any valid or significant points from a scientific aspect, but he did however have
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Approximate Word count = 987
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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