Rating: 
Summary: A mixed bag of religion, science, and self-help
Review: This book was controversial when it was published in 1983, and it is interesting to examine Dr. Peck's arguments and conclusions in light of the past twenty years. The book's major premise is that the phenomena of human evil should be studied as a branch of psychiatry, subject to the strict scrutiny and observance of science. Peck maintains that we have only a very dim view of how evil operates, and what forms it takes, because the scientific community has always refused to make the necessary value judgements to discern good from evil. We need to find a healthy middle ground between religious and psychiatric schools of thought. Peck supports his theories with many anecdotal stories from practicing psychiatry in government, military, and private settings. These case studies are the best part of the book, even if you do not agree with Peck's conclusions. They present fascinating examples of the depths of evil in some "everyday people" and how these people manipulate others to avoid being exposed. Peck makes an interesting deduction that evil results from the twin forces of laziness and intense narcissism. As a liberal Christian, he describes (and encourages) using exorcisms to heal patients of demonic possession. Unfortunately, his political views obviously biased his perceptions of the military and the Vietnam War, which he discusses at length in a chapter on "group evil". Overall, the book is a mixed bag of theology, science, and self-help. Personally, I do not believe narcissistic parents should be labeled as "evil," while mass-murdering psychotics are merely "sick". Nor do I accept Peck's opinions (which he presents as fact) about Satan, Hell, and the salvation of non-Christians. But the call for the scientific community to engage in a systematic study of evil has proved beneficial, since it has resulted in increased use of psychiatry in law enforcement and criminal rehabilitation.
Rating: 
Summary: Ouch!
Review: Having read "The Road less traveled" - I was sure I'd love to read "People of the lie" but only later I realised that in this book M.Scott Peck spoke his obscure thoughts that none but him can understand!
I felt really bad reading about his former patients and being so judgemental towards them without any strong good reasons. Especially with the patient named George! M. Scott Peck warned us that this book is dangerous. Perhaps he meant stupid but he just couldn't say that for his own book.
Rating:
Summary: Only a platform
Review: I read this book, and right away could see the Dean for whom I had worked, he is truly an evil man. He is so wrapped up in himself, and will not listen to anything about other people. He treats others like they do not exist. I personally feel sorry for his wife. I remember one time the accreditors were there to accredit the U., he kept turning the conversation back to himself. I'm surprised the U. was accredited. It was a good day when that evil man retired. However, I believe the author could have left out the pages concerning the Vietnam war. He is using this book as a platform to bad mouth the Vietnam War. His comments are not appropriate to the subject, He is implying the men who went to Vietnam and did what they did and didn't report it as evil, perhaps it was because they knew that Johnson was running the war, and if they said anything they'd be immediately Court Marshalled. LBJ did not take kindly to criticism. The reason I gave this book one star is I believe the author is using it as a platform to voice his displeasure against the Vietnam War.
Rating:
Summary: Neither good psychology nor good theology
Review: In the grey overlap of psychology and theology one should tread lightly. Peck makes the requisite warnings as he enters this twilight, but I finished the book with the feeling that his warnings were deceptive. His conversion to some form of evangelical Christianity has seriously impaired his scientific objectivity. I could not help but feel a strong sense of self-justification in the last half of the book. On some level I felt that he doubted the justifiability of coercive "exorcisms." Even with these failings I think some may find this book helpful. The strength is Peck's careful identification of the characteristiics of human evil. First, he takes evilness out of the realm of mundane moralism. He defines evil as that which "seeks to kiil life or liveliness." I am grateful that he has escaped the Christian evangelical trap of defining evil as disobedience to an objective moral code. Defining good/evil in terms of liveliness/deadness is the essential beginning of a theologically and psychologically sound approach to humanness. Secondly, Peck carefully extends his definition of evil to embrace coercion and scapegoating. Both behaviors seem well anchored in self-deception, the primal enemy of both theology and psychology, in my view. These gleanings from the first three chapters are well worth reflection, but I found the rest of the book to be largely a waste of time, with the single exception of Peck's musings on specialization as a catalyst for group evil. I am disappointed that exorcism seems to be Peck's only solution to the problem of human evil, and cannot help but wonder if this conclusion is a implicit criticism of psychoanalysis. If so, Hans Eysenck does a much more thorough job (see Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire).
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but flawed
Review: The author writes from a mainstream Christian perspective, which is certainly legitimate. He describes certain case studies where the patients suffered from extreme narcissism. I am not convinced that all the cases represent the narcissistic form of evil that Peck tries to define; some may instead be exhibiting psychopathy or types of schizophrenia. In one case, for example, the pathology exhibited itself as victimless if one exempts the patient herself from victim status. Peck sets forth a case for a scientific study of evil and writes engagingly about mental illness and the naming of evil. He also investigates the phenomena of possession and exorcism. It becomes quite interesting when he looks at the fiction of J R R Tolkien and the work of Erich Fromm and Martin Buber and when he discusses the three major theological models of evil, i.e. the nondualism of certain Eastern faiths, the integrated dualism espoused by Buber and the traditional Christian one of diabolic dualism as he terms it. Where the author goes wrong in a big way, is in his study of the My Lai atrocity or rather the conclusions he draws from it: his suggestion for a military draft (involuntary service) and his criticism of specialisation. Here he reveals some utopian notions that I find very questionable. A compulsory draft goes against the principles of individual freedom and besides, utopian schemes invariably turns out evil. The good doctor should know that by now. The coercion involved in society laying that sort of claim on the individual is a totalitarian concept that is by definition evil. Another misconception that I noticed is that Dr Peck still thinks that psychotherapy is a universally good idea, notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary. In addition, he claims that most psychologists are kind, gentle people. That has not been the case in my personal experience or in the literature. It would not surprise me if narcissism were as prevalent amongst psychotherapists as it is in the general population. In this way Dr Peck acts as an apologist for psychotherapy as he also did with his mega selling book The Road Less Travelled. No doubt this therapy has helped some people but it is not the panacea Dr Peck would like to make it. With all of the above provisos, I still recommend this book. People Of The Lie contains enough that is thought provoking and does provide some original insights while asking some provocative questions.
Rating: 
Summary: THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK EVER WRITTEN
Review: Sadly, though THIS IS EASILY THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK EVER WRITTEN (as "a perfectly consistent sequel" to his first book The Road Less Traveled [Positive Energy=LOVE; Apathy / Laziness=NON-LOVE; Negative Energy=EVIL,])-- Dr. Peck very clearly illustrates (as of 1983, when he wrote the book [I first read this book, his second, in 1989, shortly after reading his first, monumental best-seller , written in 1978], however inadvertently, that THERE IS NO "HOPE FOR HEALING HUMAN EVIL" (the book's sub-title). The Evil are smarter than "ordinary people" with an "intellectual sneakiness" whose "genius for lies" he is actually forced to marvel at at one point (and this is a HARVARD-EDUCATED MEDICAL DOCTOR saying this); they are subtler than "ordinary people"; and their mental illness is SO POWERFUL (a lust for POWER being part and parcel of this mental illness) NO SINGLE HUMAN BEING IS THEIR MATCH in any verbal / mental! ! confrontation -- Dr. Peck notes that shrinks are LITERALLY OVERWHELMED by such a level of mental sickness and CANNOT "help" them, NOR their victims (particularly Hartley -- ALSO "once an Ivy League student," all but forced to commit suicide by his shrewish wife Sarah). Since reading this book in 1989, I have personally both stood back and witnessed, as well have done vigorous personal battle with, the destructive power of such evil persons and institutions as are described in this book (always trying to be as scrupulous as humanly possible in my assessments, words and deeds) -- but I have "lost" virtually every time (as even the great Dr. Peck mentions he has as well, in his 3rd book, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace). And, sadly, I'm no dummy. And, as Dr. Peck recounts, such evil persons are routinely able to polarize other "good, ordinary people" against you RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT, when they both want their support, an! ! d to take it from you. There is definitely an aspect of &! quot;genius" to it. So, what to do? As it is the SUBTLETY of the words and deeds The Evil that must be "captured" -- and The Evil are People of the Lie, quickly and masterfully "re-writing the past," "re-inventing the future" and smoothly and socially graceful in assuring you with their quicksilver tongues that YOU MISUNDERSTOOD "what was said", etc. -- that it is "YOUR FEEBLE MEMORY" that cannot track events accurately; THEY MUST BE RECORDED SO THEY CANNOT CONSTANTLY CHANGE THE FACTS IN "RE-TELLING" THEM. Unfortunately, so must we all be. For this is the only way to assure scrupulous diligence and "fairness" to The Evil, even as we do our best to "convict" them of their "crimes" against (our) "humanity." Still, it does not have to be Orwell's 1984 with "Big Brother Watching You" -- since we now have the Internet (though, so far, The Evil have "gotten ! ! away Scott free" with their inveterate lies and deceptions, apparently since at least when the Bible was written), and camcorders are cheap. WE CAN NOW WATCH BIG BROTHER, and all bear witness to the good or evil that is done. I suppose, too, this would be "pure democracy" -- for the first time in history. And if "Power Corrupts" and "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" - there is likely no better safeguard that this cannot happen if all public life is subject to video scrutiny. Evil seems to inherently REQUIRE a modicum of SECRECY in order to work its lies and deceptions. It has long been asserted (first by the Ancient Greeks, if I'm not mistaken) that "IF ALL MEN BEHAVED LIKE GOOD BROTHERS, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR THE LAWS." Well, under the watchful eye of video, would not all men (, women and children -- and even The Evil) be compelled to act like the good brothers God probably wants us to be anyway? Would not "vid! ! eo everywhere" BRING THE LORD'S WATCHFUL GAZE DOWN TO ! EARTH FROM HEAVEN? As T.R.L.T. is as "scientific" in its observation and citations (and very much in keeping with what is said about THE EVIL and their WORDS and DEEDS in the Bible, particularly Satan's "nickname" as THE FATHER OF LIES) a book a lay person would need to "explain -- and somewhat prove -- perhaps the Bible's most important but confusing metapors in the here and now on Earth," P.O.T.L. has done us all a great service by its mere existence (but more so, particularly, as it was written by the author it has been), if not for "NAMING NAMES," which may have been of even more value, to get a consensus of what's been going on . I am "sadly horrified" to note that there are "only a few reviews" of People of the Lie posted here at this moment. Peck's first book, T.R.L.T. (admittedly vastly more popular -- though not necessarily a "happier" book, as it starts out with what must now be the most famou! ! s sentence in all human language: "Life is Dificult."), has many more on its site -- up to this point in history, apparently been read by many more persons. Do yourself and this Earth a favor, and read this one, as well -- that we may all now see and agree on what this is, and how to best deal with it, before even one more soul is crushed.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Review: I believe this book ought to be required reading for anyone who's considering becoming a parent, considering being born to a parent or a pair of them, contemplating being a brother, sister aunt or uncle or maybe having a wife, husband or friend. The book is about power, manipulation, boundaries, lies and evil as they exist within ourselves and the people around us. The don't require that we believe in them to exist, but if we're able to recognize them for what they are it helps. Recognizing it doesn't make it easy, but it makes it possible. Peck's premises mightn't be entirely correct, as some suggest. But whether it's 'evil' or merely something not evil that could get a job being evil if there was such an occupation, Peck's approach works. I recommend this book for anyone who knows, loves, cares about and lives with the agonies of the phenomenon Peck calls 'evil'.
Rating:
Summary: Ouch!
Review: Having read "The Road less traveled" - I was sure I'd love to read "People of the lie" but only later I realised that in this book M.Scott Peck spoke his obscure thoughts that none but him can understand!
I felt really bad reading about his former patients and being so judgemental towards them without any strong good reasons. Especially with the patient named George! M. Scott Peck warned us that this book is dangerous. Perhaps he meant stupid but he just couldn't say that for his own book.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone should read this book.
Review: Anyone and everyone who has issues with controlling or nasty people including parents, loved ones, friends or whomever, should read this book. It helps you identify them and how they are affecting your life today and why. It has helped me to understand people better in general, to have patience with them, learn to avoid them when they are acting horrible or causing turmoil. There is a reason. They are acting out against how they were treated or what they have seen in their childhood. I genuinely loved this book!!
Rating:
Summary: Illumination the 2nd Time Around
Review: I remember picking this book up about 5 years ago and scanning through the first couple of chapters thinking to myself, "What is this guy talking about? I can't even fathom people that act like this." It just didn't ring true because my experience had not seen the likes of what he was trying to explain. Fast forward 5 years later, and after going through a harrowing job experience with two people who could star in a movie representation of this book (which, come to think of it, has already been done in a film called SWIMMING WITH SHARKS in the character played by Kevin Spacey), I read it through in a single sitting. Peck so accurately diagnoses the "people of the lie" as being so self-absorbed and narcisistic that they continually make excuses about the abuse they heap upon other people, somehow turning every story 180 degrees in the opposite direction and always claiming victimization when the situation so clearly points to them as the perpetrator. It is a sad indictment of what must be a pandemic within institutions, as these folks clamor and cling to power, money and title oblivious to the human carnage left in the wake of their passing. But even still, where our hearts are naturally inclined toward revenge, Peck cautions us, coaxing us toward pity for these wretched creatures. He suggests that whatever vile hellaciousness we could dream up as pay back should be tempered with the notion that these folks have consigned themselves to live in a hell of their own making (kind of like Annabella Sciorra in the movie, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME). The dark night of the soul sees their hearts scream out, "I hate you, you're nothing" when the worst some of us deal with is, "Ack... dumb mistake... oh well... keep going." Bravo... this book rings true, even if it took a second reading. Context is everything!
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