Cruelty: Human Evil and the Human Brain [Hardcover]

Kathleen Taylor (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0199552622 | ISBN-13: 978-0199552627 | Publication Date: April 30, 2009 | Edition: 1

In Cruelty, neuroscientist Kathleen Taylor explores the factors behind violence, sexual abuse, genocide, and other atrocities. Drawing on history, politics, philosophy, psychology, and especially neuroscience, she sets cruelty in the context of human evolution and our current understanding of brain function. She begins with an example from Lithuania in World War II, in which a young man beat a group of prisoners to death, one by one, as a crowd of civilians cheered. Can the killer and his audience be described as mentally ill? Could we ever be like them? Taylor explores the beliefs, emotions, and even instincts which can lead normally decent and law-abiding people to commit shocking acts of murder. For instance, she shows how movements begun consciously can trigger more instinctive behavior. Men who chase a victim intending to scare him may find that their brains reinterpret the chase as a hunt--and treat the victim as prey. Filled with such insight, Taylor provides a clear, nuanced and thoughtful assessment of human viciousness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Both lay readers and academics from a variety of disciplines will find 'Cruelty' an absorbing and thought-provoking work. Sue McHale, Times Higher Education Supplement A copy should be given to every politician elected to Parliment. Sue McHale, Times Higher Education Supplement [A] wise and timely book. Steven Rose, The Guardian

About the Author

Kathleen Taylor is a researcher at the University of Oxford, and the author of Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (April 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199552622
• ISBN-13: 978-0199552627
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #945,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, April 16, 2009

By 

Slow reader (Leicester, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruelty: Human Evil and the Human Brain (Hardcover)

In the last 100 years far more people have been killed in mass atrocities than in actual warfare. Recurrent cruelty on a massive scale is an urgent problem which mankind has failed to solve. Taylor comes to this subject claiming that her expertise in neuroscience will give new understanding. But she writes in a self-indulgent style in which large quantities of speculation are mixed with the results of her reading. Repetitive and rambling text with asides of doubtful relevance and an occasional lacing of feminism make the book an irritating read. I am not fond of fiction as evidence in a scientific context. Shakespeare's Othello is stunning literature but not scientific evidence. Other quotations are used frustratingly, often leaving a question floating rather than adding to understanding. "A benchmark study of sexual behaviour" (p 204) from which she quotes precise-sounding percentages turns out to be the fraudulent work of Alfred Kinsey. Even a glance at Wikepedia would have raised suspicion. It is difficult to know how much Taylor accepts Freud's theories. Many intelligent people do, but mainstream scientists are deeply sceptical. The irritating use of endnotes is sadly not just a feature of this book. Disrupting one's reading to flip to the note may yield only a source reference, or stuff which should either be omitted or put in the main text, or a comment without which the main text cannot be understood. This is bad editing as well as lack of organization and discipline by the author.
Expect plenty of the sort of stuff you might get by discussing the subject with an intelligent friend, plus references to literature you may not know. In that sense you will have mulled over many angles of the subject. Do not expect your understanding to be enhanced greatly in a scientific sense, because the small amount of neuroscience does not increase understanding as much as you might think. Sadly, the impression is that this book is the product of the urge to follow up a previous best-seller rather than of mature scholarship and an incisive mind.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasurable read-- very insightful!, July 1, 2009

By 

Sunshine LaRue (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cruelty: Human Evil and the Human Brain (Hardcover)

I was a little ambivalent about this when I first picked it up, but I couldn't put it down. I found it to be extremely engaging and thought-provoking-- a lot of the historical examples are extremely prophetic of what is going on in the world today. I highly recommend this title for anyone who is interested in the psychology of violence, war, and inhumanity.