This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Klose, D. A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

M. Scott Peck's Analysis of Human Evil: a Critical Review

2512 Ninth St., #11, Berkeley, CA 94710.

This article brings critical attention to M. Scott Peck's (1983) analy-sis of both individual and collective human evil, as presented in his The People of the Lie. Overlooked by some psychologists and others because of its religious associations, Peck's account stands up well as a psychological analysis that explains evil character structure as both a form of narcissistic personality disorder and a moral break-down, or perversion, of conscience. Concepts of denial, scapegoating, threatened narcissism, lying, self-deception, and cover-up, in Peck's account, illuminate in parallel ways both individual and collective evil. Perennial questions, such as how ordinary persons come to perpetuate extraordinary evil, the genesis of evil character, and whether human evil can be healed, are explored by comparing Peclks views with those of other writers.

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 35, No. 3, 37-66 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/00221678950353003


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?