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The crimes of Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, and other high-profile killers are so breathtakingly awful that most people would not hesitate to label them "evil." In this groundbreaking book, renowned psychiatrist Michael H. Stone--host of Discovery Channel's former series Most Evil--uses this common emotional reaction to horrifying acts as his starting point to explore the concept and reality of evil from a new perspective. In an in-depth discussion of the personality traits and behavior that constitute evil across a wide spectrum, Dr. Stone takes a clarifying scientific approach to a topic that for centuries has been inadequately explained by religious doctrines.

Basing his analysis on the detailed biographies of more than 600 violent criminals, Stone has created a 22-level hierarchy of evil behavior, which loosely reflects the structure of Dante's Inferno. He traces two salient personality traits that run the gamut from those who commit crimes of passion to perpetrators of the worst crimes--sadistic torture and murder. One trait is narcissism, as exhibited in people who are so self-centered that they have little or no ability to care about their victims. The other is aggression, the use of power over another person to inflict humiliation, suffering, and death.

Stone then turns to the various factors that, singly or intertwined, contribute to pushing certain people over the edge into committing heinous crimes. They include heredity, adverse environments, violence-prone cultures, mental illness or brain injury, and abuse of mind-altering drugs. All are considered in the search for the root causes of evil behavior.

What do psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience tell us about the minds of those whose actions could be described as evil? And what will that mean for the rest of us? Stone discusses how an increased understanding of the causes of evil will affect the justice system. He predicts a day when certain persons can safely be declared salvageable and restored to society and when early signs of violence in children may be corrected before potentially dangerous patterns become entrenched.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction(p. 9)
• Chapter 1 Evil in Peacetime(p. 27)
• Chapter 2 Crimes of Impulse: Murders of Jealousy and Rage(p. 53)
• Chapter 3 Other Crimes of Impulse: Emphasis on Antisocial Persons(p. 85)
• Chapter 4 Murder on Purpose: The Psychopathic Schemers(p. 115)
• Chapter 5 Spree and Mass Murder: Evil by the Numbers(p. 141)
• Chapter 6 The Psychopath Hard at Work(p. 165)
• Chapter 7 Serial Killers and Torturers(p. 195)
• Chapter 8 The Family at Its Worst(p. 243)
• Chapter 9 Science Looks at Evil(p. 285)
• Final Thoughts(p. 331)
• Afterword(p. 357)
• Acknowledgments(p. 361)
• Notes(p. 363)
• Index(p. 405)

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CHOICE Review

Stone (clinical psychiatry, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons) examines examples of violent crimes generally considered to be evil--for example, torture, murder (including serial, mass, and spree murder), and sexual sadism with murder--and categorizes each on a "gradations of evil" scale. He introduces his scale with a discussion of what is generally considered evil based on cultural differences. The scale ranges from 1 (justifiable homicide) to 22 (psychopathic torture murders, with torture, not necessarily sexual encounter, as the primary motive). The author gives examples of recent cases in each category and explains the justification for the rating he assigns. He discusses some of the perpetrators' psychiatric diagnoses and concludes with a discussion of the neurobiology behind the diagnoses and behaviors, going back to revisit the cited cases as examples. The case examples are sometimes graphic, but they serve to give the reader a greater understanding of the scale. This excellent study of evil and forensic psychiatry will be valuable to anyone interested in why people commit evil acts. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. J. A. Gibson Kaplan University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Michael H. Stone, MD (New York, NY) is professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is the author of ten books, most recently Personality Disorders: Treatable and Untreatable, and over two hundred professional articles and book chapters. He is also the host of Discovery Channel's former series Most Evil and has been featured in the New York Times, Psychology Today, the Christian Science Monitor, CNN, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, the London Times, the BBAC, and Newsday, among many other media outlets.