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This book deals with a timely topic of enduring importance. Due to the recent terrorist attacks, academics, the lay public, the media, even the U.S. president, have revived the use of the word evil, which now appears with a noticeably increased frequency in much of the daily news and commentary. Professionals particularly in the fields of psychology, sociology, and philosophy are being asked for answers to the questions, Why is there human evil? What are its causes? How are we to understand individuals who wish to inflict human suffering and destruction on as wide a scale as possible? An intense interest in the phenomenon of human evil has developed. It is expressed in the widespread concern to understand human psychology and patterns of thought that underlie human evil in all of its forms-ranging from the aggression, brutality, and destructiveness of war, genocide, and terrorism, to individual expressions of human evil in prejudice, racism, and hate crimes. This book is the first of its kind. It is a comprehensive and solid study of the multi-causal nature of a phenomenon that has been treated almost exclusively in terms of religion, myth, symbolism, moral philosophy, and ethics. The reader will find that it makes clear, specific, non-speculative, and definite answers to the questions often now raised concerning human evil.
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