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Obedience to Authority: Current Perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm

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Many books have been written on controversial topics, but it is quite amazing to notice how groundbreaking experiments like those conducted (decades ago) by Stanley Milgram are still surrounded by a wall of silence. While they have revealed clear, yet painful insights about the nature of our social functioning, the subject of "obedience to authority" must have been too hot to be pursued in open debates. Milgram was brave enough to risk a pioneering trip into the very heart of a smoking volcano. He actually revealed in the 'obedience' studies the raw effects of socialization and civilization. When people obey, they are almost spellbound by the authority figure and this allows one to forget about personal responsibility; when the authority is not a legitimate one, this temptation of shedding responsibility might be in fact even greater, as the horrors of the Holocaust would suggest.

A hierarchical model of society operates upon the myth of surrendering to the one who "knows best," therefore always encouraging people to shortcut their own reasoning whenever a person holding a position of authority tells them how things are, thus requiring their obedience. We live constantly under the pressure to obey, which makes us nothing more than living tools, objects in the hands of those people holding the appropriate credentials of authority. While the detrimental effects of such a way of social functioning might not always be very apparent (especially when a common 'higher good' requires it, or when human relationships are indirect), it soon becomes painfully evident that at least for those professions bearing a direct, unmediated impact on human lives, an abuse of authority can be devastating in its effects. The police, judicial and military environments are the first that come to mind when we speak of abuse, but there are also raising concerns regarding the issue of human responsibility in areas such as the commercial flights or the ethics of the helping professions (including medicine and psychology). Although not addressed distinctly in the book, one can only imagine the implications of obedience as a way to achieve information control and influence over large masses of people, such as the way in which media corporations operate.

One would expect, perhaps, that Milgram's astounding (and original) findings be further investigated and publicized more but, instead, a curtain of unfair criticism was raised against him, questioning Milgram on moral/ethical grounds, just to end--in more recent times--with a ban on conducting any such experiments in the future. Ironically enough, it was another 'voice of authority' (APA's Board) to make it virtually impossible for such psychological research to continue, not to mention a somewhat excessive concern about having people freely and openly learn about Milgram's experiments! [See Chapter 9, an account of APA's 1992 science museum exhibit at Smithsonian, presenting Milgram's research to the public for the first time.] Therefore, the mechanisms by which people surrender their judgment when confronted with an authority figure have good chances to further remain obscure to the public eye.

Prof. Blass has done a wonderful job in putting together this book. His 'update' essay (presented in Chapter 4) is very well structured, its information is abundantly referenced, and it is also summarized in a few conclusions about the various Milgram-related experiments conducted worldwide after 1961-2 (when the original experiments took place). Also, the collective effort of various experts authoring the other chapters of the book achieves a much-needed revival of a topic that was longtime buried under the mud of an unconscious resistence to it.

The essays and studies making this book treasurable (beyond their research value) can get one very emotional at times, especially when reading about some of the most disturbing accounts (as is the case with Chapter 11, dealing with the Stanford Prison Experiment). The topic of 'obedience' is obviously still a very sensitive one, almost making one want to plunge in denial. The potential shock comes as no surprise, though, if we think that the entire scaffolding of civilization rests on just that: people doing things for each other. The way from 'mutual help' to 'mutual exclusion' is very short, and Milgram perceived (and demonstrated) how people can become at some point expendable, human sacrifices on the altar of human becoming!

Fact is, this book deserves to be pored over; if not for the richness of its updated details, then at least for it being a beautiful and illuminating exercise of "knowing yourself."

I thought this book is written by Thomas Blass. Actually he only collected miscellaneous writings by some other people. The writings are aimless collected without logical connection or lines of reasoning between them.

I cannot find a main idea or main ideas from these collected writings, as I usually find from all other books. So I feel confused about why Thomas Blass published this book.

Obedience to Authority: Current Perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm