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Abstract

This paper examines the reluctance of the behavioral sciences to tackle the problem of evil. Whereas each of us as private citizens can attest to the calamitous presence of malevolence in our daily lives, the point of view I take in this paper is that as behavioral scientists most of us have acted as if the problem of evil could be safely ignored or the character structure of the perpetrators of heinous actions could be reduced to known and well-understood psychiatric disor-ders. This psychological denial and reductionism have not well served our mandate to provide meaningful explanations and solutions of social problems for the public. If the behavioral sciences are to have a relevant role in contemporary society, the problem of evil-perhaps the most important issue humankind has ever faced-must be meaningfully reexamined. This paper serves as an effort in this direction.

There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the roots.

-Thoreau

(quoted in The New Dictionary of Thoughts, 1964)

Evil is but the shadow, that in this world, always accompanies good. You may have a world without shadow, but it is a world without light-a mere dim, twilight world. If you deepen the intensity of the light, you must be content to bring into deeper blackness and more distinct and definite outline, the shadow that accompanies it.

-F. W Robertson

(quoted in The New Dictionary of Thoughts, 1964)

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The Daimonic Development of the Malevolent Personality

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