This is a thoughtful, probing dive into a frankly terrifying subject (the ubiquity of human evil). While I don’t agree with all of his ideas/conclusions/opinions, this book broadened and challenged my understanding of something I’ve not given much thought to, and will never think the same about again.

I re-read this periodically because it's a good reminder of what evil looks like in human beings. Peck is completely right about Satan being uncreative, incredibly petty, repetitive, and very powerful, hiding behind goodness and respectability at every opportunity. The 'group evil' aspect is fascinating. Everyone who's seen a clique at work can see the sense of what he says about how a particular attitude can be as pervasive and influential as a biochemical agent. Am sure his instinct is right about exorcisms - that the patient has to want to be healed, and the healers have to gather at personal sacrifice. Am also glad he doesn't deny or excuse his "Christian bias", making it clear that Christ has an essential role in his understanding and perspective.

It has many good quotes, but this is one of the best. “Evil is revolting because it is dangerous. It will contaminate or even destroy a person who remains too long in its presence. Unless you know very well what you are doing, the best thing you can do when faced with evil is to run the other way. The revulsion counter-transference is an instinctive, or, if you will, God-given and saving early-warning radar system."

“The evil are ‘the people of the lie’, deceiving others as they also build layer upon layer of self-deception.” (page 66) “Forever fleeing the light of self-exposure and the voice of their own conscience, they are the most frightened of human beings. They live their lives in sheer terror.”

One caveat - the author does not acknowledge God as the ultimate judge, and so from a theological perspective, there are some significant gaps (especially in the doctrine of hell as rather a personal space than a shared horror). If you don't read this as a theological book, and with the understanding that the author came to Christianity mid-life, there are some real gems in here.

I read this book years ago and I'm reading it again. If there's ever been a person who's just given you this "ick" feeling, like there is some thing "off" or fundamentally untruthful about them... OR people who seem like they are too good to be true, then I recommend this book to help you. You may still not understand an evil person and what motivates them, but you can at least rest assured that you are not the only person who has dealt with someone like that. Plus, I just love anything on psychology so his explanations are fascinating as well as tied in with biblical principles.

An incredible eye-opener for anyone who has a family member who sucks the life out of everyone around them, who makes all who oppose them feel guilty for their actions, who seems to need to control everyone who gets near them, and who seems to personify evil. They are evil, this book explains it. Some cases he describes are horrifying, you will not believe how such people destroy other family members without feeling a bit of remorse or understanding they are themselves at fault. Having read this book, you will no longer feel you are to blame for the havoc they wreak, you will know how to fight them. I did not give this a full 5 stars because near the end of the book Dr. Peck explores exorcism as a possible means of fixing such people ..... that's a bit much, but in the face of evil, and with his strong religious beliefs, I guess Dr. Peck really can't be faulted.... ok 5 stars.

I have read this book. Very interesting on the way evil is so much around us. As people of good nature we need to be able to see the evil in man kind. A great book to read. It is a psychologist kind of book. I would like to see people trying to defeat evil minds. Knowing evil is everywhere we turn. A+ on this book. M. Scott Peck, M.D. did a a great job with hi writing style of the book as well.

Očekivao sam više od knjige, ali je za klasu (ako ne i dve) ispod knjige "Put kojim se ređe ide". Između ostalog, autor na svakih deset strana navodi rečenicu rečenicu: "Kao što sam napisao u knjizi "Put kojim se ređe ide". U trenucima je knjiga odlična, naročito kada konkretno objašnjava neke pojmove iz psihoterapije. Ostatak knjige je nekako suvoparan i često se ponavljaju određene rečenice i misli. U svakom slučaju, knjiga je poslužila boljem razumevanju termina laži i zla, za koje se može reći da su i više nego sveprisutni u društvu.

This is probably one of the scariest books I've read, and the reason for this is due to it being non-fiction and based on Peck's experiences with certain patients. Peck tries to formulate a hypothesis of evil, but doesn't satisfy the scientific method, and even though his examples can be attributed to 'dark' characteristics or conditioned behaviors (learning through modeling, over time), providing a reasonable framework for his hypothesis, much of what Peck states (what constitutes 'evil') would be considered an amusement by scientists. Despite this, the book does strike home as it provides common examples. The patients in this book aren't celebrities in rehab, they're ordinary folk with dark desires, and compulsions. Some of them have no idea about the origin of their destructive behaviors, but as Peck (the psychiatrist) delves into their histories, there are scary patterns that loop back to childhood, that can make a reader explore their own histories, or stumble on people (within their life) who display characteristics that are discussed in the book: sociopaths, narcissists, generally people whose traits transform them into predators.

I couldn’t put this book down, and it was for all the wrong reasons. Scott Peck is/was a psychologist (not sure if he’s still alive as this book is older), and if you ever encounter a psychologist or therapist like him, please run for the hills. A friend recommended this book because I’m interested in books about the idea of evil, and I was not prepared for this book. The first two-thirds of this book is just stories of his patients and showing his bad practices and unethical behavior. To summarize his views, his patients are good people but toxic people in their lives are evil. No nuance. No empathy or compassion for the toxic people and what they may have gone through and the fact they probably need therapy to. Just a label that they’re evil. Not only that, he tries to convince his patients that these people are evil. Even when a patient acknowledges they need boundaries because they’re dealing with a sick person and must distance themselves, Peck pushes the idea on the patient that these people are just evil.

Finally, in the last part of the book, it gets really good as the author's religious views come pouring out. In this section, he discusses “real” supernatural evil. I’m talking people being possessed by the devil and other demons. And the only thing that made this part more hilarious is that he ties in the controversial diagnosis of DID aka multiple personality disorder.

I binged this book all the way through because it was pure insanity from start to finish. So, if you want a playbook on what not to do as a psychologist or therapist, this book is for you. And if you want to know what type of psychologists or therapists to avoid, grab a copy of this book. But to give it a little credit, there is a bit about people who are probably legit psychopaths, sociopaths or narcissists, but the book’s so short, it’s hard to get a solid read on the people he discusses.

This could be a dangerous book to some, if they are the type to believe everything they read. What matters is what your definition of evil is. Peck's definition of evil seems to entail people who are difficult, uneducated, lost, self-absorbed, personality-disordered, controlling and stuck. They have been wounded by other selfish people in their formative years and have become only what they know. It's a good book if you look at it as how to either deal with or avoid difficult people, if you are having a problem with that sort of thing. It's a dangerous book if you think that exorcism is a thing. Or that God penetrates you. It's an inconsistent, unscientific look at a concept that might not even exist.

This is a weird book. I found about half of it literally unreadable - my eyes and mind would not stay focused on the first chapter (the story of "George" and his pact with the devil), or the chapters about possession/exorcism and about My Lai as an example of "group evil". The conclusion is wishy-washy and unhelpful... after spending several hundred pages arguing that some people are so heartless, so lacking in empathy, so self-centered, so deceitful and self-deceiving that their narcissism reaches the level of "evil," he speculates that they can only be healed by sacrificial love. But the book hasn't offered much hope for that being possible, or remotely safe for a would-be healer.

On the other hand, the chapters where he explored the affect and psychology of Evil were extremely persuasive. (He admits that his "Evil" is very similar to Erich Fromm's "malignant narcissism," and he quotes Fromm a lot, so maybe I should read that book next.) But his descriptions of conversations with people he diagnoses as "evil" are scarily recognizable, and I think the constellation of traits he describes are right-on ... the absence of empathy, the rage at being contradicted, the chronic lying, deceit, manipulation, and evasion.

It also helped me a lot that he worked through the false opposition of "evil or just sick?" Basically he concludes that evil is a mental illness (the ultimate "personality disorder") and that the appropriate question is "Just sick, or sick AND evil?"

One last gripe: I found it frustrating that the book is written by a psychotherapist for other psychotherapists. One of his core arguments is that therapists should develop scientific methods for diagnosing, studying, and treating Evil. Which is fine. But I would have appreciated a section or chapter addressed to readers entangled in relationships with evil people. The cases he described all ended with refusal or failure of therapeutic treatment. The best outcome he could give was a sort of "deus ex machina" where he, the therapist, was able to pull a child-victim out of an evil parent's range of influence.

Understanding why some people do what they do in personal relationships is fascinating. This book was recommended to me to help me find a new way to understand these people, some of whom are and were close to me. I learned so much from this book that I bought it for my local public library in an effort to help others dealing with what is essentially evil - in the form of human behaviors. It is not a fast nor an easy read but all the while worth the effort.

After hearing Dr. Howard speak about this book I ordered it and was in the process of tossing it on the pile of my anticipated reading list when I decided to read the introduction. I never stopped reading and three days later I had finished this book, which for me proved to be a spell binding page-turner, in which Dr. Peck relates certain of his experiences as a psychiatrist, particularly in psychotherapy with evil people.

Perhaps the most mesmerizing thing about the book is Dr. Peck’s detailed characterizations of evil people, which occurs throughout. As I read these characterizations, at least half dozen different people that I know came to mind, including myself on more than one occasion.

Dr. Peck describes evil people as:
•tforemost lazy and narcissistic
•tas deceptive, greedy, self-absorbed, and slothful
•tas people who refuse to acknowledge their own failures
•tas those who project their evil onto others
•tas those who thrive on confusion, lies, and twisted motives
•tas those who desire control and dominion over others
•tas those who are bored with divine things
•tas scapegoating narcissists, who lash out at anyone offering reproach
•tas those who would sacrifice anything or anybody to preserve self-image
•tas those who cause suffering
•tas those who are terrified their false pretense will break down
•tas those who devote enormous energy into maintenance of pretense
•tas those who inspire us to destroy instead of heal and to hate instead of pity
•tetc.

Peck also speaks a good bit about Satan in the book. Peck confesses that he doesn’t know much about the devil, whether it’s a he, she, or it, whether its corporeal, a force or just a concept, just that it is; and that for those who align themselves with it, it becomes very real indeed. Peck believes that one can call the devil into existence or out of existence. Peck insists that Satan emerges in narcissism and has no power except in a human body. Peck says that Satan must use human beings to do its deviltry. Satan cannot murder except with human hands. The only power Satan has is through human belief in its lies and its principal weapon is establishing fear.

And Peck speaks of Hell in the book. Peck believes that those in hell are there by their own choice and that they could walk right out of hell if they would relinquish their pride and ask for forgiveness, but they are so caught up in hate that they actually despise goodness. Peck believes Hell dwellers are not in heaven because they personally despise heaven, as they openly despise all altruism and philanthropy. They relish in taking from others and giving little or nothing. For Peck, Hell is a state of being that people fashion for themselves, a state of separateness from God. Peck says that Hell is not the result of God’s repudiation of man, but of man’s repudiation of God.

Peck asserts there are only two states of being: submission to God’s goodness or refusal to submit to anything but ones own will, which refusal automatically enslaves one to the forces of evil. For Peck, there is no in-between. We must ultimately belong either to God or the devil. We must choose one enslavement or the other. And we can only combat evil with the presence of God. Peck points out that those who crusade not for “God in themselves” but against “the devil in others” never succeed. To be more “against the devil” than “for God” is exceedingly dangerous. Peck insists that if we believe that God created us in his own image then we should take that seriously and accept the responsibility involved in sustaining a Godly presence.

Peck reviews three theological explanations for evil: (1) Hinduism/Buddhism beliefs that evil is just the other side of the coin: for life there must be death, for growth decay, for creation destruction, etc., such that the distinction between good and evil is nothing but an illusion. (2) That evil is God’s creation because he endowed us with free will and free will requires that we have the ability to make the wrong choice. In this manner, evil may be envisioned as a sort of fertilizer, necessary to promote spiritual growth. (3) Classic dualism where evil is regarded not of God’s creation but a ghastly cancer deteriorating the world which God is combating.

The book is stock full of other fascinating concepts and thought provoking issues. Peck suggests in the book that it is time for science to begin to study evil more closely. Peck sees great advances happening when science and religion merge to address evil, instead of being mutually exclusive. Peck rightly says that science without religion gives us the “lunacy of the arms race” and religion without science gives us the “lunacy of a Jonestown”. For Peck, the total separation of religion and science just doesn’t work.

Perhaps Pecks most radical message is reserved for the end of the book when he begins to castigate the tendency of humanity toward war. The truth is that war is nothing short of a living hell. A hell that spreads all about us. Peck reveals how unbridled evil leads us into war after war.

There are many more fascinating concepts awaiting you in this book. I can’t wait to read Peck again!