The Reproduction Of Evil: A Clinical & Cultural Perspective (Relational Perspectives Book Series) [Hardcover]

Sue Grand (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0881632619 | ISBN-13: 978-0881632613 | Publication Date: March 1, 2000

This work examines the manifestation of so called "evil" behaviour in society. It covers such topics as malignant dissociative contagion, lonliness and the allure of body cruelty, child abuse and the problem of knowing history, and malignance and the bestiality of survival.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Drawing on her own clinical experiences and the work of others, Sue Grand challenges us to take on the perilous task of identifying individuals dedicated to malice and killing, and to try to work with them on the murderous core of their personality through psychoanalytic psychotherapy. -- Henry Krystal, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Michigan State University

"The Reproduction of Evil is a moving book written by a therapist who is also a philosopher and a poet. -- Martin S. Bergman, Clinical Professor of Psychology, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

About the Author

Sue Grand, Ph.D. is a supervisor at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and a supervisor and faculty member at the Manhattan Institute of Psychoanalysis. She is in private practice in Teaneck, New Jersey and in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881632619
• ISBN-13: 978-0881632613
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Oddly Poetic Course in Subtle Sociopathy, January 6, 2009

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Rodger Garrett "SighKoBlahGrr" (Loma Linda, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Reproduction of Evil: A Clinical and Cultural Perspective (Relational Perspectives Book Series) (Paperback)

If the parole evaluator's job is to determine if the violent criminal's child within is still locked in a vault unprocessed resentment towards those who violated him (or her), there's plenty of territory to look over. The rage of that inner child may be understandable, but what does that matter to the next victim?

Grand has done a remarkable -- if unusual -- job of examining several of the major issues simmering in the minds of "violence channelers" who were themselves violated. She does so from a predominantly psychoanalytic perspective with a substantial dose of psychodynamic object relations tossed in. Her principle influences appear to be Balint, Bion, Buber, Fairbairn, Fenichel, Guntrip, Horney, Klein, Ogden, Riviere, Searles, Sullivan and Winnicott, in all of whom she's thoroughly grounded. We also see Akhtar, Becker, Herman, Stern, Van der Kolk popping up expectably.

But Grand is no ivory tower academic. She's spent decades in the long-form trenches and offers her analytic grasp of several very interesting cases. In the process, she turns out several really illuminating essays on rejecting retaliation, countertransferential introjection of guilt from a subtle but dangerously vicious passive-aggressive, the possession of another's "things" as deserved compensation for parental bestiality and a means of defeating death, and the errors (and psychic costs) of righteous vengeance-seeking.

I may not agree with everything she says, but as a course in the issues and how to examine them, The Reproduction of Evil was a vital learning experience for me.