A Psychology of Evil
Recently when in a used section of a bookstore, I came across a copy of Scott Pecks People of the Lie; The Hope for Healing Human Evil. People of the Lie is a Psychology of Evil based on psychologist Scott Pecks research and experience in his practice.
The book itself is a bit disturbing, as any book on the topic of “evil” would be. I would not suggest one avoid the book for this reason. It is also very enlightening and sheds greater light on the topic of malignant narcissism.
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 argues that these people are the most difficult of all to deal with, and extremely hard to identify.
According to Peck an evil person:
- Is consistently self-deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt and maintaining a self-image of perfection
- 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
- 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 one’s will upon others by overt or covert coercion” (Peck, 1978/1992, p298[9]))
- 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 and personality disorder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck
People possessed by evil are a destructive force in the universe. They are the people of the lie, in that they seduce and manipulate through deception. They find pleasure in hurting and destroying others and don’t care in the slightest about the damage they do in the world.
Love, on the other hand is the creative force of the Universe, Evil is the destructive force. Are both an aspect of God? God is the creative force for Good in the Universe and the only reason evil exists is because God gave us the freedom of choice and darkness is a choice.
I’ve never believed in the Christian devil, but I do believe that there is a very dark and evil force among us and none of us are immune to its influence. We invite it into our lives when we make choices that are anti life, abusive, destructive, hateful, cruel, deceptive and lacking in compassion or empathy.
Pecks final message in his book asks the question “how can we heal humanity?” He talked about the topic of “war” and how we tend to fight evil with more evil, which is ineffective. The more we become “warriors against evil,” the more we foster evil in ourselves.
Mother Teresa said “I was once asked why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I’ll be there.”
When we stand against the thing we hate, we foster more hatred in ourselves. But when we stand for the thing we love, we foster more love in ourselves.
Peck tells us that “love” is truly the answer to evil. In my experience with malignant narcissism, loving the narcissist more, doesn’t bring us more love from the narcissist himself/herself. We can’t “love our enemies” with the hope that the enemy will feel that love and suddenly become loving towards us. This is not why we love our enemies. We love our enemies for what it does within our own hearts and souls. When we find that place of love within our own hearts, we have more love in our lives and more to share with the world. It really has nothing to do with our perceived enemy. We simply don’t allow our enemy to take us into a place of darkness, by closing our own hearts to the power of love.
Many clients have told me, after experiencing the destructive pain of narcissistic abuse, “I will never love again!” When evil has the power to take from us our ability and desire to love, it has won.
Clients have also told me “I have tried to love him but he/she won’t change.”
Loving unconditionally is loving another exactly as they are. We don’t love the evil, nor do we choose to be around that person. We love ourselves, in the face of evil and not give the evil the power to make our own heart a breeding ground for the devil. Hatred, anger and fear gone wild, hurts most the one who hates and fears.
My work has me immersed in pulling people from the clutches of “Evil” on a daily basis as they experienced the most hateful, hurtful and horrific actions at the hands of a malignant narcissist. But I have also experienced such things. I have experienced quite a lot of narcissistic abuse in my life. That is why I came to specialize in it. I know it inside out and backwards. Narcissistic abuse isn’t a field that I chose. It is a field that chose me.
In my work I encouraged feeling the rage, the anger and the pain. Because until we can feel it we can’t really heal it.
If evil deeds, at the hands of the perpetrator, separate us from our own “goodness” then they are serving to create more evil. I had to acknowledge the aspect within myself that wanted to see my enemies suffer like they had caused me to suffer. It was an emotionally undeveloped part of me, nevertheless it was present. It wasn’t always present. It was buried deep beneath the surface and would rear its head from time to time. That wasn’t helping me to have more love in my life. It was only creating more hostility and the lack of love.
Loving our enemies is a kind of forgiveness. It still doesn’t say “what you did was okay.” What it does say is, “whatever you choose to do, and however you choose to treat me is your karma, but I’m not going to allow your actions and behavior to pull me down, make me feel worthless and cause me to feel anger and rage whenever I think about it.”
As victims of cruelty and abuse we often repeat the stories of the crimes against us. Whenever we tell our “victim” story to others or remind ourselves of the story, we give it power to upset us again.
People do some really cruel stuff. I have witnessed the absolute worst in human behavior and I continue to witness it on a daily basis as I hear horror story after horror story and experience evil at work in my own life. But keeping the stories alive, also keeps the pain alive. Every time we “tell our story” we are triggering our core wounds.
We often stay stuck in the anger as a way of erecting boundaries. “If I remember how badly you treated me I will avoid you and not allow you to get close enough to treat me like that again.” Staying away from abusive people is important for our healing and to protect ourselves from future abuse, but holding onto our anger doesn’t serve our highest good. Fantasizing about revenge is normal and healthy in the beginning but we need to let that go as well.
With the law of cause and effect, what we wish upon others, we also wish upon ourselves. We are all connected in this Web of Life.
When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves, even if we aren’t aware of it. So, when we want the worse thing possible to happen to those who hurt and betray us, we are unconsciously bringing this about for ourselves as well. It doesn’t matter how evil the deed, the law is the law.
The law of karma, is also the law of cause and effect. What others do to you, will come back to them, sometimes tenfold. They will reap what they sow. It will come back on them at some point. There are repercussions to all of our actions. Knowing this helps me to realize the importance of loving thy enemy, even if from a safe distance.
The willingness to reflect on our own actions, thoughts and deeds is where we grow as a human being and also the greatest thing we can do to assist in the growth and expansion of humanity. The more “loving” we become, the more love we contribute to the world and the more light we shine upon our fellow man and woman. The more we harbor hatred and resentment the more of that energy we contribute to the world.
I’m not convinced that evil people, the people of the lie, will ever change. There is a certain power in evil that the protagonist doesn’t wish to part with. Evil often sees love as a weakness. Evil will likely stay evil until the evil doers pass from this world. Our only hope is to stop breeding it so that with every generation there is less and less evil and more love.
According to Peck, love has already won and darkness is taking its last stand. I tend to agree with that. Not because we have become more loving as a whole, but because the energy of the planet is shifting to a higher vibration, having to do with where the earth and the solar system are positioned in the Universe.
Where our planet is in the cosmos makes a huge difference in the environment. The evil forces can’t sustain themselves where we are going. It is inhospitable to that vibration.
I’ll be happy to see that shift and for the day we can all live together in peace and harmony, love and abundance.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4