Peck Studies Evil

M. Scott Peck. 1998. People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil (Orig Pub 1983). New York: Simon & Shuster.

Review by Stephen W. Hiemstra

Villainous characters are often at the heart of good novels that serve to provide a contrast for the story’s protagonist. The protagonist might in turn possess a serious flaw that provides contrast to the grow achieved by the protagonist over the course of the story.  In both cases, it is helpful to know what flaws and villainy look like in real life before writing about them.

Introduction

In M. Scott Peck’s People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil he begins with this objective:

“The purpose of this book is to encourage us to take our human life so seriously that we also take human evil far more seriously—seriously enough to study it with all the means at our command, including the methods of science.” (44)

In this context, Peck defines evil as live spelled backwards, in opposition to life (42). He uses primarily his background in psychiatry and case studies with patients to argue his case.

Background and Organization

Morgan Scott Peck (1936-2005) graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University. He wrote a number of books, but is best known for The Road Less Traveled (1978)

Peck writes in seven chapters preceded by an introduction:

Introduction

The Man who Made a Pact with the Devil
Toward a Psychology of Evil
The Encounter with Evil in Everyday Life
Charlene: A Teaching Case
Of Possession and Exorcism
MyLai: An Examination of Group Evil
The Danger and the Hope (vii-viii).

Peck dedicated the book to his wife, Lily. His first page cites Saint Augustine’s advice to hate the sin but love the sinner. (9) He self-identifies numerous times as a Christian (e.g. 37).

Dealing with Pain

How people deal with pain often is the key to their descent into evil. In his first case study, Peck introduces us to a patient who he refers to as George who was confronted with psychotic symptoms, like hearing disturbing voices. (16-17) George claims to have made a pact with the devil and, as a consequence, his symptoms went away. After years of therapy, Peck confronts George:

“You’re a kind of coward…because you’ve run away from these things that really inescapable, they come to haunt you in the form of your symptoms, your obsessions, and compulsions.” (32)

George claims that his pact is harmless but relieved his symptoms because he does not believe in God or the Devil.

“But if all you want is the easiest possible relief from pain, then I expect that you are the devil’s man, and I don’t see any way that psychotherapy can help you … because … for you the devil became real. In your desire to avoid pain, t think you called the devil into existence.” (33)

Thus, George played the coward in confronting pain, which enabled his symptoms and his torment. When he eventually confronted his pain, his symptoms disappeared and George returned to a more normal life. (34-35)

Spiders, Spiders, Everywhere

In another case study, a woman who Peck refers to as Billie has a co-dependent relationship with her mother. Co-dependency is a form of symbiosis—when two people act as one. In another case study, a husband and wife were even more tightly bound together.

Billie was promiscuous, mirroring her overbearing mother’s own behavior. The presenting issue was an extreme spider phobia and fear of being alone. Highly intelligent, she never did her homework because studying alone evoked her fear and she got poor grades. (138-140)

Peck suggested that Billie get her own apartment, which her father supported and mother resisted. (141-142) Billie had trouble using the apartment once she got one because of her fear of being alone. Six years into therapy, she began writing poetry and began enjoying her time alone. Then, in therapy she blurted out one day that her mother was like a spider. Her revulsion over her mother’s overbearing behavior she had projected onto spiders and came to realize that she too had become a spider. (146-148) Thus began her road to recovery.

Attributes of Evil People

Sprinkled throughout these case studies and literature reviews Peck developed a list of attributes that characterize evil people. Among these are:

Lack of self-awareness. People unable to accept negative feedback cannot engage in the normal stimulus-response required to correct bad behavior. This lack of an effective feedback loop leads them to repeat painful experiences.
Unable to confront their own pain, they lack empathy in dealing with the pain of others.
Evil people scapegoat others with their problems. Unable to see their own issues, they project them on others and lie about their own behavior.
Children are the primary victims of evil people and, because they cannot defend themselves, frequently mimic evil behavior leading to a transmission between generations.
Groups dilute the willingness of individuals to act on conscience and groups behave more immaturely than individuals, which can have evil consequences. Peck examines this behavior in a case study of the MyLai massacre during the Vietnam War in 1968.

Because lies often characterize evil people, they are often the most obvious tell in unmasking them.

Assessment

Scott Peck’s People of the Lie provides fascinating case studies and reflections on the nature of evil. Because he wrote in the 1980s before much was known about personality disorders, his work likely motivated later diagnoses. For us, the descriptions are likely easier to read than later, more technical descriptions.

The term, evil, arises out of a religious worldview and it denotes the effect that troubled individuals have on the people around them. The psychiatric professional who typically only observes an individual patient is unlikely to observe this behavior and describe it as evil even if patient is tormenting everyone they meet. A clinical diagnosis is easier to pass on with the billing, even if evil is a more apt description.

Personality disorders, as cognitive troubles, remain difficult to diagnosis and treat. Psychiatric patients are often above-average intelligence and the chronic torment that they suffer is often carefully hidden, even from the therapist. Most such people are unlikely to seek treatment voluntarily. Thus, Peck’s case studies are likely to remain interesting both to practitioners and those having to deal with family members so afflicted.

References

Peck, M. Scott. 2003. The Road Less Traveled (OrigPub 1978). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Footnotes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scot....

 One patient I met during my time working as a chaplain in a psyche ward went on and on about voices she heard, but stopped abruptly when I asked if the voices had names.

Peck Studies Evil
Also see:
Preface to a Life in Tension
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