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M. Scott Peck

People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil Paperback – January 2, 1998

by M. Scott Peck (Author)

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In this absorbing and equally inspiring companion volume to his classic trilogy—The Road Less Traveled, Further Along the Road Less Traveled, and The Road Less Traveled and Beyond—Dr. M. Scott Peck brilliantly probes into the essence of human evil.

People who are evil attack others instead of facing their own failures. Peck demonstrates the havoc these people of the lie work in the lives of those around them. He presents, from vivid incidents encountered in his psychiatric practice, examples of evil in everyday life.

This book is by turns disturbing, fascinating, and altogether impossible to put down as it offers a strikingly original approach to the age-old problem of human evil.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Touchstone
Publication date

January 2, 1998
Dimensions

5.31 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

0684848597
ISBN-13

978-0684848594
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

M. Scott Peck, M.D. is the author of the New York Times best-seller The Road Less Traveled, with six million copies in print. His other books include Further Along the Road Less Traveled, The Road Less Traveled and Beyond, Meditations from the Road and Golf and the Spirit.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Touchstone; 2nd edition (January 2, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0684848597
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0684848594
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Existentialist Philosophy
- #40 in United States Executive Government
- #52 in Communication Skills

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1,460 ratings

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M. Scott Peck

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M. Scott Peck's publishing history reflects his own evolution as a serious and widely acclaimed writer, thinker, psychiatrist, and spiritual guide. Since his groundbreaking bestseller, The Road Less Traveled, was first published in 1978, his insatiable intellectual curiosity has taken him in various new directions with virtually each new book: the subject of healing human evil in People of the Lie (1982), where he first briefly discussed exorcism and possession; the creative experience of community in The Different Drum (1987); the role of civility in personal relationships and society in A World Waiting to Be Born (1993); an examination of the complexities of life and the paradoxical nature of belief in Further Along the Road Less Traveled (1993); and an exploration of the medical, ethical, and spiritual issues of euthanasia in Denial of the Soul (1999); as well as a novel, a children's book, and other works. A graduate of both Harvard University and Case Western Reserve, Dr. Peck served in the Army Medical Corps before maintaining a private practice in psychiatry. For the last twenty years, he has devoted much of his time and financial resources to the work of the Foundation for Community Encouragement, a nonprofit organization that he helped found in 1984. Dr. Peck lives in Connecticut.

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		14%
3 star		6%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Anonymous1

Outdated even in 1983 when written

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2018

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I believe there are truly evil people in the world and so I read this book with an open mind. However, the viewpoints in this book are very outdated. In fact, this book was already outdated in 1983 when it was written. I'm not sure how Dr. Peck could have come to some of the conclusions he did unless he suspended all common sense and/or he's one of the many psychologists who have serious mental health problems of their own that affect their judgment.

Specifically, there are three glaring examples of faulty conclusions Dr. Peck came to based on debunked/false information. They are so bad that I must disregard the book in its entirety because they make his observations and conclusions suspect, to say the least. They are as follows:

---When Dr. Peck describes certain people as evil and that a necessary component of his "diagnosis" is that evil people are incurable and can't really be helped, what he is describing is borderline personality disorder.
---Dr. Peck is a Freudian. Freud's theories were debunked long, long ago---long before 1983. In fact, anyone who thinks that toddlers are sexual and wanting sex from their parent is sick himself. The Oedipal Complex is a fraud perpetrated on the ignorant by Dr. Sigmund Fraud and upheld by the perverse.
---Dr. Peck's definition of autism in NOT autism. In 1983, there was almost no information on autism as a spectrum disorder. That's even more reason for him not to have come to the conclusion he did with a patient who showed no autistic behaviors whatsoever. What he was describing with patient Charlene is narcissism, maybe even narcissistic personality disorder.

At the very least, this book should have been updated. My recommendation is not to waste your time or money on it.

177 people found this helpful

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PRNLM

The best rational discussion of evil in human life that I've yet read.

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2017

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At some point in life, some percentage of the population will have a confrontation with evil. They may, as was the case with me, previously have thought they understood the concept or even dismissed the idea entirely.

Then, suddenly, when the confrontation occurs, one is left trying to understand what one has experienced, and looking for answers high and low—perhaps in books, perhaps in religion, perhaps in talk with friends and mentors.

This is probably the most satisfying resource I've come across on the question of evil in human psychology. Peck doesn't avoid the question or the word; instead, he tackles them head on, proposing that if you've seen it, you understand that evil is real. He seeks to understand what the experience and the quality amount to when articulated through reason, rather than purely through theology.

His definition of evil ends up being quite concise, rather than wandering and metaphysical and listless as is so often the case, and more than that, it's a satisfying definition; it rings true to to me, at the very least, as someone that was confronted with the question. The case studies that he provides are fascinating and run the gamut from the individual scale to the nuclear family scale to the social scale.

While there isn't much in the way of actionable information presented, I suspect that most people reading on the topic of evil aren't looking for tips and tricks so much as they are trying to come to grips with their own thinking about the topic—to clarify their own experience and make sense of what they've learned and how it's changed the way that they look at the world.

If this sounds like you, get this book and read it. I suspect it will take what is already a dim light somewhere in your consciousness and bring it to full brightness and understanding—in a way that is somehow a relief and a balm.

250 people found this helpful

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Inexpert advice.

Excellent book on how evil people present in therapy and ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2018

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Excellent book on how evil people present in therapy and how, often, the one sitting in the session isn’t the problem. The evil person sitting outside in the waiting room may be trying to destroy the one who is sitting with the doctor.
Great information for anyone who wants to understand if they are associating with an evil person. If you have, you may find them in this book.
The part that stuck with me was the simple principle that evil is “live” spelled backward. Evil is the opposite of life and vitality.

82 people found this helpful

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Beth Knight

A seminal work on malignant narcissism

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2019

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This book was published over 40 years ago, and it’s information is somewhat dated. I remember at the time it was revolutionary in identifying people with no empathy which the author identified as evil but which we all know today as malignant narcissism. As it has since become a pervasive condition in the world, I thought it would be a good idea to look at early writings about the condition. Of course, if it is in fact evil, it is not a condition but a situation. At any rate it was helpful to me to relive my frame of mind in being introduced to these concepts. It was less understood then because we didn’t have the vocabulary or the frame of reference to describe it. So for that reason, I believe this book stands the test of time and it’s worth a read.

43 people found this helpful

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Skaboomsky

Peck does an excellent job of illuminating just how mundane evil can be

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2016

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If you have difficult people in your life, you should read this book. It's simultaneously a classic yet timely topic. Peck does an excellent job of illuminating just how mundane evil can be, and just how present in can be in our environment, yet in many cases go undetected. Why? Because it looks like a mother, a father, a sibling, a lover.

127 people found this helpful

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Michael A Podgorski

Excellent and Insightful

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2017

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Scott Peck really does an excellent job of discussing the nature of people who are pathological liars. And he comes back to what I feel is the most prescient point of the book: We are responsible for the reality that we create and we create that reality either with truth or lies. When we create a reality that is based on lies, only pathology can follow and our reality becomes twisted by that.

94 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Daniel LO

The book that had impacted me the most this year

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2019

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I came across this seemingly ‘obscure’ book thanks to the mentions in other books I’ve read in the past, authors referring to it as ‘groundbreaking’ and powerful.

After reading it through it and hundreds of notes I can say this is the most ‘impactful’ book I’ve read in a long time.
I believe there is no reason to not read this important work.

6 people found this helpful

jackie

Great book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2020

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Learned a lot about narcissists from this book.

6 people found this helpful

Fabulous37

One of my best reads ever

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2015

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Ratings will vary from person to person based on many things. As a parent, as a therapist and having encountered so many experiences in life, this book spoke to all of this and more. It answered and raised questions I myself have pondered on at times. I have read The Road Less Travelled and it's sequel. Both were immensely enjoyed. This book is for you if you have ever contemplated why people do things you'd consider to be evil or just plain wrong. Peck's narrative on the Vietnam war is engrossing and desperately sad, I learnt much in this aspect of the book. Great read that had been on my personal wish list for many years.

11 people found this helpful

David Robert Tomlinson

Disturbing but important book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2016

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Difficult topic and I'm not sure that the author has reached a resolution in his own thinking about whether evil needs to be simply confronted or is there some hope for some measure of healing for those whose personalities are dangerously distorted. Anyhow, the case studies are illuminating, and he writes with skill, conviction and verve. A disturbing but significant book, and for anyone facing a situation imbued with evil, then this is going to be a great help.

9 people found this helpful

Jess101

Different and interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

An interesting read I plan on reading it again in the near future. P.S. book has a a somewhat spiritual aspect to it with it's use of 'evil'... I found it interesting as I work with/ support people who could be considered by some as 'evil'. Not recommended to ones who are scientifically inclined, you probably will dislike this book. A different read...

9 people found this helpful

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