Reviews for Personal psychopathology; early formulations

The average rating for Personal psychopathology; early formulations based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-07-24 00:00:00 Shad Granius 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: • foremost lazy and narcissistic • as deceptive, greedy, self-absorbed, and slothful • as people who refuse to acknowledge their own failures • as those who project their evil onto others • as those who thrive on confusion, lies, and twisted motives • as those who desire control and dominion over others • as those who are bored with divine things • as scapegoating narcissists, who lash out at anyone offering reproach • as those who would sacrifice anything or anybody to preserve self-image • as those who cause suffering • as those who are terrified their false pretense will break down • as those who devote enormous energy into maintenance of pretense • as those who inspire us to destroy instead of heal and to hate instead of pity • etc. 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. Pecks 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!

Review # 2 was written on 2012-03-15 00:00:00 JEANETTE AVILA "Evil can be conquered only by love." "To somehow be tolerant and intolerant." "An almost Godlike compassion is required." -------- "Okay George, I'm going to say a few things to you and I want you to listen to them well. Because they are very important. Nothing is more important." "You have a defect--a weakness--in your character, George. It is a very basic weakness, and it it the cause of all the difficulties we've been talking about. It's the major cause of your bad marriage. It's the cause of your symptoms, your obsessions and compulsions." "Basically George, you are a kind of coward. Whenever the going gets a little bit rough, you sell out. When you're faced with the realization that your're going to die one of these days, you run away from it. You don't think about it, because it's 'morbid.' When you're faced with the painful realization that your marriage is lousy, you run away from that too. Instead of facing it and doing something about it, you don't think about that either. And then because your've run away from these things that are really inescapable, they come to haunt you in these form of your symptoms, your obsessions, and compulsions These symptoms could be your salvation, You could say, "These symptoms mean that I'm haunted. I better find out what these ghosts are, and clean them out of my house.' But you don't say that, because that would mean really facing some things that are painful.. So you try to run away from your symptoms, too. Instead of facing them and what they mean, you try to get rid of them. And when they're not so easy to get rid of, you go running to anything that will give you relief no matter how wicked or evil or destructive. You plead you shouldn't be accountable... because it was [done] under duress. Of course it was [done] under duress. Why else would one do that, except to rid oneself of some kind of suffering?... The question is not duress. The question is how people deal with duress. Some withstand it and overcome it, ennobled. Some break and sell out. You sell out, and I must say, you do it rather easily. Easily. Easy. That's a key word for you, George. You like to think of yourself as easygoing. Joe Cool. And I suppose you are easygoing, but I don't know where you're going easy, except into hell. You're always looking for the easy way out, George. Not the right way. The easy way. Where you're faced with a choice between the right way and the easy way, you'll take the easy way every time. The painless way. In fact, you'll do anything to find the easy way out, even it if means selling your soul. As I said, I'm glad you're feeling guilty. If you didn't feel bad about taking the easy way out, no matter what, then I wouldn't be able to help you... If you're willing to face the painful realities of your life--your terrorful childhood, your miserable marriage, your mortality, your own cowardice--I can be of some assistance. And I am sure that we will succeed. But if all you want is the easiest possible relief form pain, then I expect you are the devil's man, and I don't see any way to help you. " -------- "The feeling that a healthy person often experiences in a relationship with an evil one is revulsion. The feeling of revulsion may be almost instant if the evil encountered is blatant. If the evil is more subtle, the revulsion may develop only gradually as the relationship with the evil one slowly deepens. The feeling of revulsion can be extremely useful to the therapist. It can be a diagnostic tool par excellence. It can signify more truly and rapidly than anything else that the therapist is in the presence of an evil human being." "Revulsion is a powerful emotion that causes us to immediately want to avoid, to escape, the revolting presence, And that is exactly the most appropriate thing for a healthy person to do under ordinary circumstances when confronted with an evil presence: to get away from it. Evil is revolting because it is dangerous. It will contaminate or otherwise 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, a God-given and saving early-warning radar system." p65 "There is another reaction that the evil frequently engender in us: confusion. Describing an encounter with an evil person, one woman wrote, it was "as if I'd suddenly lost my ability to think." Once again, this reaction is quite appropriate. Lies confuse. The evil are "people of the lie" deceiving others as they also build layer upon layer of self-deception. " "While evil people are to be feared, they are also to be pitied." "It is a thesis of this book that evil can be defined as a specific form of mental illness..." "It is not their sins per se that characterize evil people, rather is is the subtlety and persistence and consistency of their sins. This is because the central defect of the evil is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it." "The words "image," "appearance," and "outwardly" are crucial to understanding the morality of evil. While they seem to lack any motivation to BE good, they intensely desire to appear good. Their "goodness" is all on a level of pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. This is why they are, the "people of the lie." "Actually, the lie is designed not so much to deceive others as to deceive themselves. They cannot or will not tolerate the pain of self-reproach...Because they are such experts at disguise, it is seldom possible to pinpoint the maliciousness of the evil. The disguise is usually impenetrable. " "It is my experience that evil seems to run in families." (80) "There is, I suspect, something basically incomprehensible about evil. But if not incomprehensible, it is characteristically inscrutable. The evil always hide their motives with lies." "If one wants to seek out evil people, the simplest way to do so is to trace them from their victims. The best place to look, then, is among the parents of emotionally disturbed children or adolescents. I do not mean to imply that all emotionally disturbed children are victims of evil or that all such parents are malignant persons. The configuration of evil is present only in a minority of these cases. It is, however, a substantial minority." "Evil was defined as the use of power to destroy the spiritual growth of others for the purpose of defending and preserving the integrity of our own sick selves."(199) It may be that the parents described were not themselves suffering, but their families were. And the symptoms of family disorder--depression, suicide, failing grades, --were attributed to the leadership. The suffering of the children was a symptom of the sickness of the parents." "The relationship between evil and schizophrenia is not only a matter for fascinating speculation but also very serious research. Many (but certainly not all) of the parents of schizophrenic children seem to be ambulatory schizophrenics or evil or both." "Wherever there is evil, there is a lie around." (135) "Theirs is a brand of narcissism so total that they seem to lack, in whole or party, this capacity for empathy." ---------