People of the Lie

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating but too ambitious
Review: I found this book fascinating even if somewhat strange for the variety of topics Peck sought to address.

The first portion of the book I found the most interesting and informative, probably because it reminded me of someone I know all too well and have been adversely affected by. Using fascinating case histories, Peck lays out the characterists of a particular personality pattern and/or disorder that he chooses to call "evil." Whild I think that his use of that label is somewhat distracting, he does effectively point out how easy it is to misplace our priorities.

The second two parts of this book, about My Lai and demon possession, were less effective but nevertheless interesting to read. His insightful analysis of the massacre in Vietnam raises serious questions about the institutional tendencies toward avoiding truth.

I'm not sure what to make of his writings on demon possession and exorcism. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but then neither am I convinced that's what Peck witnessed.

I'll give Peck five stars for his analysis of pathological selfishness and three stars for the remainder of the book. But even where the book is at its weakest it makes a interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: Relevant for crime victims seeking to understand why
Review: I think a lot of us who have been victims of crime end up with a need to somehow understand what made the offender do this. This book has provided more answers than any other.

Even though I do not agree with Peck's Christian religion and think he's out to lunch at the end of the book when he starts talking about possession, the rest of the book makes a LOT of sense.

In particular, the difference in perceived effect between victim and perp. A victim's grandmother's heirloom is stolen - it's priceless. To the thief it's worth $15. An angry young person takes it out on a passerby. It's no big deal. The victim wasn't hurt that bad -- only a broken nose. The victim, however, is in pain for a month, has his/her lifeview and sense of security damaged forever. Peck makes it clear how the lack of empathy can lead to this widely divergent sense of consequences between the offender and the victim.

I believe this book is a good antidote to the idea that all offender's can be "cured" of some fixable sickness and a must read (with a grain of salt) for anyone in the criminal justice system or practicing therapy with offenders. This is one of the few books in the therapy field that doesn't follow the politically correct line re offenders. It does however, quite accurately mirror the perceptions of most people I've talked to who are corrections officers and deal with offenders on a daily basis.

Rating:
Summary: well written, interesting, but not recommended
Review: The author warns us: this is a dangerous book. "People of the lie" is indeed a dangerous book...but I may be thinking of different reasons than those that Scott Peck had in mind. In this book, Peck (well known from "the road less travelled") formulates a new psychological theory: he tries to prove, through well told case studies, that some people are, as he calls them, "people of the lie", or in other words, evil. He thinks that being evil goes way beyond narcissism personality disorder, or other psychological disorders that psychiatrists / psychotherapists could think of. Scott Peck's point of view therefore transcends scientific thought, and makes a leap into religious thinking. Although he himself knows how dangerous it is to label someone as evil, although he himself warns time and again, in his book,of the thin line between narcissism and an evil personality...he still doesn't manage to prove his point, in my opinion at least.

Because in the end, it IS dangerous, very dangerous, to put these kinds of labels on people. The basic question to be answered is -who will make this judgment? I think that no-one should consider himself able or should be allowed to make this kind of judgment. Plus, most of the cases described by Scott Peck in the book could probably be seen, in another light, as narcissistic personality disorders, and thus, could be dealed with in other ways, and obviously not with exorcism, as the author unbelievably suggests. Of course, this also has to do with somebody's belief system. At least Scott Peck takes his time to explain what he believes in, he uses well thought out arguments and in general he writes very well. Also, in his favour, he never becomes phanatical or preachy: he always expresses his doubts. Nevertheless, I deeply disagree with the basic premise of this book. I believe people are just people, not gods, not devils, and they should be treated, healed, helped as people. And so, even though the writing itself pleased me, even though the book is well organised and at some points interesting, I cannot really recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Introduction to Evil
Review: M. Scott Peck's _People of the Lie_ makes an interesting case that "evil" should be recognized as a scientific and psychotherapeutic category.

Peck warns that his book is "dangerous," I think in part because it could lead casual readers to run around branding others as "evil" without clinical evidence. However, dangerous or not, his book presents some fine portraits of what do seem to be some genuinely evil patients.

I'm not terribly impressed with his section on "exorcism" for various reasons, but the only reason I'll mention here is that I'm not sure what it's doing in this book. Peck leads into it with a chapter on "Charlene," a former patient of his whom he was ultimately unable to help; he concludes this chapter by remarking that if he'd known then what he knows now, he might have been able to offer her "salvation" in the form of "deliverance and exorcism." Yet within another dozen pages or so, he's remarking that exorcism probably *wouldn't* have helped her and that victims of "possession" aren't necessarily evil to any great degree themselves. Okay, but then why discuss the topic in this book?

I'll refrain from comment on some of Peck's other conclusions and merely remark that I think the book weakens toward the end. However, for all that, it's still a fine volume on a very real phenomenon: the evil human being, understood (my paraphrase) as one who goes about deliberately inhibiting or undermining the spiritual growth and well-being of other people.

Of course therapists can be "evil" too, and Ellen Plasil's book _Therapist_ -- which gives a fascinating and horrifying account of "Objectivist psychotherapist" Lonnie Leonard -- makes a good companion to this book.

And in fact, a great many of Peck's remarks apply surprisingly well to Ayn Rand herself -- one of the more spirit-killing people to have wandered freely about America in this century, and one who (according to a psychotherapist who "knew her when") seems to have suffered from severe and chronic personality disorders. Readers interested in learning more about this can read the two Rand biographies by her former associates Barbara Branden (_The Passion of Ayn Rand_) and Nathaniel Branden (_My Years With Ayn Rand_, a revised edition of his earlier _Judgment Day_). Also of interest: Jeff Walker's _The Ayn Rand Cult_. (Or you can just drop me a line.)

Rating:
Summary: "Evil" as a clinical diagnosis
Review: Richard Peck's bestselling book "The Road Less Travelled" seemed to make the assumption that people need a healthy dose of God to keep their psyches in sync. "People of the Lie" makes a case for the influence of the Devil. I have heard a highly respected psychiatrist differentiate between people who are "sick" and those who are just "mean"; i.e., those who get a genuine pleasure out of hurting and demeaning other people. Peck writes about this latter group and suggests that these people could use a good exorcism to get the Devil out of their systems. Peck's case studies are interesting and a couple of them seem to be truly diabolical in the way they think and act; but I have a problem with his approach on two levels: his attempt to create a synthesis of religion and psychiatry often leads him into some very muddled thinking, and his paternalistic approach to his patients is so patronizing as to be downright insulting; one wonders if he would like to spank his patients for misbehaving. The clinical study of evil, if it exists as an entity, is an important and fascinating one, but it will take someone with more depth and balance than Peck to really bring it about.

Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking!
Review: This is a controversial book and, though I don't agree with all that Scott Peck says, it's certainly worth reading. This book framed evil in such a way that made it easily recognizable (confusion, grandiosity, etc.). I do question Peck's judgment of some as "evil." Labeling people as such excludes them from the rest of humanity -- it's a form of scapegoating which, ironically, is one of the very features of evil, as defined by Peck! It would seem that, when fighting evil, you run the risk of becoming "evil" yourself. This is what makes this book so thought-provoking.

It's ironic that this book is written by a therapist. I myself never encountered "evil" until I saw a therapist some years ago for a brief period of time. The therapist routinely lied, had girlfriends and family members in his group therapy, scapegoated emotionally dependent group therapy clients when they challenged him on ethical violations which caused injury to the very people he was supposed to protect, etc. I experienced profound confusion and repulsion with this man. Now, years later, Peck's book has helped me understand why .... I wish someone would write a book on "evil" people who use the healing and spiritual professions as a means of controlling others. It's a very real problem.

Rating:
Summary: Evil? But where are the details?
Review: Another one of my depressive Christmas break reads . . . a monotonous drone: laziness and narcissism are the root of all the world's ills, laziness and narcissism, laziness and narcissism, laziness and narcissism, . . . ad nauseum. (But what exactly are "laziness and narcissism"? I suppose to answer that I'd have to break down and buy his bestseller The Road Less Travelled, but . . . after reading this "gem", gasp . . . I'm not sure I have the stomach for it.)

Is it just me, or are the people he describes in this book not really "evil" (whatever that word means)? I mean to me they seem maybe ignorant, innocent, lackluster, overly whimsical, intolerant, hypomanic, disturbed, or gasp . . . even mentally ill. And as far as his diagnostic criteria for evil go, I mean who doesn't exhibit a "schizophrenic type" of thinking under extreme stress? This book reads like a bad-case of psychological burn-out. The author seems to be constantly re-iterating just how "oh-so-very-awful" it all is, but (at least the way I see it) he fails to deliver the goods. He's constantly (bordering on alcoholism) "having a drink" after his "evil" patients leave his office. But, he never seems to be expressing exactly what that elusive evil quality about those patients is precisely. (Apparently only his "overly attuned" intuition can discern the truly evil, from the other mentally ill and disturbed patients that he has.) The first half of the book seems to be building up to the case of that poor girl Charlene (who gets the big EVIL label, with a capital "E", but who never causes anyone any real harm, just sort of annoys the hell out of Peck), and the exorcisms. These exorcisms are not really explained, we're just given the impression that they are "highly personal", ghastly, horrendous, things we don't want to talk about . . . but what exactly went on . . . we'll never know because Peck will not tell (he just wants a drink badly at this point). (Perhaps an overzealous psychiatrist was contributing to the delusions of a schizophrenic patient . . . perish the thought!) The second half of the book is his commentary on "group evils". Again, the Mylai massacre - you guessed it, chalk it up to that doubly devilish combo "laziness and narcissism". And, his suggestion that military service should be mandatory . . . well it just rubs me the wrong way.

But, I'll give this book two stars anyway, because at least he's trying. And, besides I only reserve the one star rating for outright smut.

Rating:
Summary: Heal evil: take personal responsibility, treat narcissism
Review: In "People of the Lie," Scott Peck repeatedly asks the reader - and the field of psychiatry - to first of all acknowledge that there is such a thing as evil, secondly to give it a psychiatric diagnosis (he maintains that evil properly falls under narcissistic personalty disorder), and thirdly to begin facing and treating evil.

Although both Peck's writing style and general outlook are authoritarian and unabashedly patriarchial (God, he says, is masculine; but Satan has no gender), nevertheless he deserves credit for courageously examining the most fearful question in the human heart: What is evil? What are its characteristics? How do we counter evil? However, the book that best answers these questions is the current book by Robert Sardello, Freeing the Soul From Fear.

Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to the problem of human evil
Review: Peck writes clearly about the tangled web of human evil..a witch's brew of self-deception, lies, narcissism, and scapegoating. Like Ernest Becker in "The Denial of Death," Peck has come to the conclusion that the genesis of human evil lies in what can be called "narcissistic scapegoating": considering yourself without flaws and projecting all evil onto others, who, being evil, must be destroyed. In this century the best-known practicioners are the Nazis and the Communists. This type of narcissistic scapegoating can be praticed by one person, a family, an ethnic group, a religion, or a nation. It explains, I believe, the contradictory aspects of religion. There is the ideal anti-narcissistic element (what Martin Buber called an "I-Thou" relationship) and then there is the murderous narcissistic part (Buber's "I-It" relationship). Peck might get a little off the mark in the latter part of the book, in which he writes about exorcisms, but the first part is definite reading for anyone interested in good and evil. And it's practical: it gives you guide as to what to what to avoid in the vain philosophies loose in the world today.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I read this book a long time ago, shortly after discovering The Road Less Traveled, and it scared me a bit because I was so young and still used to looking at the world in black and white instead of shades of gray. The thing that makes the book a lot less scary is the fact that it is very rare to encounter someone who is genuinely evil . . . but, if we do, we're not apt to know it for a while because they are amazing masters of deception. Unknowingly, Peck has written the best biography of Clinton yet. Clinton's control of the television media is astounding. Our most respected mainstream newspapers are reporting several items a day on Clinton's prolific criminal behavior (rapes, assaults, blackmail, treason, death-threats, bribery, etc) and yet the television news won't report a word of it, and most people don't know because they don't read the newspapers. USA Today and the Wall Street Journal are our top selling newspapers and yet they only sell about 2 million papers a day in a country of 270 million people. LA Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and the Washington Times, don't even sell 4 million papers combined. Yet, they write about Clinton's shocking crimes regularly. How is Clinton able to get away with such evil? This book has the answers. This book also reveals the way Hitler managed to fool so many, and it reveals the essence of communism, and it explains the mentality of our most sociable serial killers, the bizzare speaches delivered by Kofi Anan, the horror of the new global governence, and lots of other things that don't seem to make sense at first glance. It also reveals the genuine evil found in those who don't seek fame and power. Buy this book, and read it two or three times, because it is an excellent form of self-protection. You'll never regret it.