Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$8.99

Available instantly

Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$10.80

Paperback
$10.99

$10.99 with 39 percent savings

List Price: $17.99

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Tuesday, June 11 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 5 hrs 14 mins

Select delivery location

In Stock

$$10.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$8.36

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery June 17 - 21 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery June 16 - 19

Select delivery location

In Stock

$$10.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by ZBK Wholesale and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (147) from $6.03 & FREE Shipping

Follow the author

M. Scott Peck

Follow

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

by M. Scott Peck (Author)

4.5 2,236 ratings

See all formats and editions

Sorry, there was a problem loading this page. Try again.

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$10.99","priceAmount":10.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"10","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"oNxn0UZ2lX1RKW6ak5PuBRzncjMsDyQdOI9u5SJioLfkXoSZtLsujuGySa5vVKID6ozTmyS4YnWhBVOd3CtMygFz5HmFauvBGInp9y47jP8MpF%2FbprskYAjczHWecHUQfXH%2BP0Lc9XQ%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$8.36","priceAmount":8.36,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"36","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"oNxn0UZ2lX1RKW6ak5PuBRzncjMsDyQd0%2B6%2FiDvjul5DG4AnFgTQkiCM%2FpoBbi%2BoYnAWoFVmqfo9H9WkOW3JFpt0hBKgoOz9jpf3pk%2FLvd9QYVUgf1kVAyEsDDiiddLiG%2B3FxrmZccszEeBFR6WMe4U9%2BFOeas%2B%2FJ%2FI%2F21oysP4CBJqTfHsl3EUQlKzYVn4R","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

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
Publication date

January 2, 1998
Dimensions

5.31 x 0.7 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

0684848597
ISBN-13

978-0684848594
See all details

Frequently bought together

People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil

$10.99

Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jun 11

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

The Road Less Traveled, Timeless Edition: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

$13.29

Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jun 11

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession,

$17.79

Get it as soon as Wednesday, Jun 12

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Choose items to buy together.

M. Scott Peck
8,149
Paperback
198 offers from $1.96
Malachi Martin
1,405
Paperback
87 offers from $3.55
Martha Stout
5,076
Paperback
209 offers from $1.92
Graham Leicester
43
Paperback
23 offers from $15.26
Linda Hill
1,254
Paperback
15 offers from $18.10
Allen Wheelis
105
Paperback
99 offers from $1.70

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: #15,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Existentialist Philosophy
- #65 in Popular Psychology Personality Study
- #70 in Communication Skills

Customer Reviews:
4.5 2,236 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

M. Scott Peck

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

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

4.5 out of 5

2,236 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Todd Lee

Good lessons

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2024

Verified Purchase

My first review was premature. This book is an excellent guide and helpful in many ways. Some of the scenarios seemed far fetched but they were merely tools to help prove a point.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Carrol williams

Author

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2024

Good writer

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024

Verified Purchase

If u are into the human mind and human nature as a whole I recommend this book

Helpful

Queen Esther

Evil is anything not perfect?

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

I almost could not read this book after reading the opening chapter. I found the author’s argument that God is a male to be bizarre. He equates what he sees as male penetrating, dominating sexuality with God. He described the relationship between God and humanity like the relationship between the male and female. That God wants to penetrate humanity and make it give birth to Christ. I found that rape visual disturbing. Although the author understands that God could have the female qualities of nurturing and gentleness, he apparently regards them as less important. I see this as a male bias that is also the bias of Christianity which is basically a male-glorifying religion. He says he does not apologize for his Christian bias, but neither does he recognize the evil of misogyny that runs through the Bible. The degrading of women, the claiming that the female should be under the control of the male, that the female is at fault for bringing evil into the world, the persecution of witches, none of this seems to concern the author who dismisses it with nominal nod to the women’s movement. My reaction to this bias as a woman is one of revulsion, which according to the author is the natural response to evil. Since this book is about recognizing and confronting evil, I think the author should begin with the mote in the eye of Christianity. A good place to start would be to apologize for it, as did one of the popes a few years back – much to the discomfort of many unfortunately. If you are going to proudly proclaim your Christianity, then you need to acknowledge the evil therein. Especially if you are writing a book about confronting evil.
Nevertheless, since I had purchased the book I decided to plow on and see if there was anything of value, and there was much. I had to look at the date this book was written because the chapter describing malignant narcissism so perfectly described President Trump who demands “affirmation independent of all findings.” Yet, I see so many cheering Trump on and so many capitulating to his evil that it can feel hopeless. They indeed seem to have lost the ability to think. Evil contaminates those in its presence, and we see this happening to people surrounding Trump. The Republicans in Congress and the Evangelical Christians openly admit they have made a pact with the devil to gain power in order to force their ideology on others. Evil has attained an extraordinary degree of political power in this White House. Addressing this existential problem is enough reason to read “People of the Lie.” It truly is a matter of life or death for our democracy.
The case studies were fascinating, yet I am uncomfortable with labeling so many human foibles as ”evil.” It is important to recognize the ways we so damage others by thoughtless behavior. Whether that constitutes evil is debatable. I like that the author said we must dedicate ourselves to something higher than ourselves, something the malignant narcissist does not do. For the first time I realized that I had dedicated myself to the truth long ago as a child. But his claim that our goal is perfection is so predictable. What is perfection? Is it the same for everyone? That is a Christian concept that I find useless. It reveals Christianity as a dour and negative religion. Even God as presented in the Bible is imperfect.
The author lost me completely when he took exorcism seriously. I just don't see the world in terms of God and Satan - who ironically he refrains from labeling male. Not sure what higher good this author has dedicated himself to.

73 people found this helpful

Helpful

Carroll Busher

... so God turned them over to a depraved mind….. Romans 1:12

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2023

Verified Purchase

If you can imagine the cross as symbolizing both the breadth and depth of the human experience and God’s full awareness and presence in each of these dimensions you can see this work as being a human effort to present a corollary explanation of a specific human tendency that has damaging effects at both the individual and societal level. That tendency is to Lie.

In this work this well-established author of the “Road Less Travelled” takes the reader both panoramically and microscopically into the regions of the human heart where we are shown the reality of self-deceit.

This deceit is exposed in the case studies of the author (A Harvard trained psychiatrist) as being a product of the psychiatrically sick individual unwilling to abide the call of conscience. To do so would demand exposing the patient’s ego to the shame of recognition and acknowledgement of their own self-deceit; At the heart of this is the sin of pride. These are the People of the Lie. And the fruit of their deceit is damage not to just themselves but as often as not to others subject to them and their sickness.

In its worst manifestation the author reveals something much, much deeper. What Dr. Peck reveals is the reality of a deep spiritual evil that lurked behind the mask of what he initially thought were strictly psychiatric disorders of two of his select patients.

Here the prescription called not for a psychiatric treatment but a spiritual one. As these individuals were no longer in control of their will. The will had been usurped by another. The other was demonic and the cure was exorcism. These exorcisms personally witnessed by the author served to convince him of the absolute validity of the presence of Satan - the Father of Lies- in this world and serves as a cautionary tale for those who spurn truth and deny both their own conscience and the reality of ultimate good (GOD) and Evil (Satan).

In the end the author expands the aperture of his lens when he moves from the individual engaged in the lie to the lie of the collective (ie the institution and the state). Here he deconstructs the milieu and marching orders that were in play leading up to the My Lai massacre and the attempted coverup by the military establishment.

He hauls into the light as well the institutional lie underwriting the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that lead to the expansion of US involvement in the Viet Nam, expanding the operation into a full scale US invasion of South Viet Nam. An invasion that killed untold lives on both sides and leaving a country in shambles. An engagement that was never even given the dignity of being declared an actual war but more dishonestly characterized as a type Police Action- again another lie.

In the end the reader is exposed to a Tour De Force in the People of the Lie and is reminded of the risk & ramifications of the failure of conscience both in oneself and in the corporate bodies we are often apart of and depend on.

52 people found this helpful

Helpful

Marmaluke

Much Value Here

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

What a great book that I've always loved. I had a copy of it when it came out and seem to have loaned it out. So I bought another and it's as helpful today as it was back then. Yes, we have progressed into many more diverse and effective forms of therapy. But that doesn't invalidate what's going on here.

Even if you don't agree with this treatise or it's conclusion, there is so much valuable information to ponder from real life cases. He's been criticized for being Freudian and that Freudianism has been debunked or that evil people can't be cured etc. etc. I don't think that's entirely fair. If you listen to the cases and where he lands with the patients, you'll see that he's getting to the bottom of real issues. There is hope for these people and he indicates that quite well.

I think for me, looking back at this book and then looking at today's world, it seems that Peck's idea of evil can really be seen in just about any maladaptive behavior, organic illnesses notwithstanding. Some people are just ill because they have a chemistry problem or whatever. But the people he's dealing with in this book are definitely victims of malevolence and even have their own evil at work.

So to consider this book useless and deny that he is onto something valid seems shortsighted and really missing a lot of what is being said. For anyone who didn't like it, I recommend reading it again with an open mind.

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Colleen McIntosh

Thought provoking and informative

Reviewed in Canada on July 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

Really enjoyed reading this book and it’s subject matter. Well written, thought provoking and I enjoyed reading it very much. If you are interested in the subject matter, you’ll enjoy this book! Definitely, recommend it!

verena

Must have

Reviewed in Germany on December 1, 2023

Verified Purchase

A classic book, written way before the current narcissists epidemic

Rodney Henchliffe

I know that peck knew about human evil

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

I've actually heard people say that The People of The Lie is an "enjoyable read," or, an "interesting" book. What the dang? No!!!! They are wrong. If you have actually encountered human evil then this book is both traumatising and remarkable, as well as enlightening. Hence it has remained an international best seller any writer would only dream of aspiring to. It is not a book you read; it is a book you personally relate your experience to in order to understand the gravity of what Peck is talking about. Having known human evil I have encountered in Africa and Great Britain, I criticize sections of the book for being too fleeting or less in depth at times. That said, it enlightens us also. This is a book that pushes our understanding of human evil which, personally, we can never truly account for in terms of actual origin. What Peck knows is that human evil exists, I know this having known and worked with human evil myself (I know that Peck had actual knowledge of evil attended to in this remarkable book). This is a great achievement indeed. It forms part of my own research into human evil, at the heart of this book, and I've only read half so far, is the concept of evil linked with narcissism. I also relate to the idea that people are guilty of participating in evil; we must learn to attend to 'Love' and Respond to human evil in the most appropriate way. That said, I ultimately disagree with Peck's conclusion. But hey, what a ride this book is - the truth it contains has been life changing for me. I am still battling against human evil and now know what needs to be done. "Enjoy."

8 people found this helpful

siddhant

Good read

Reviewed in India on December 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

Its a good book . Enjoyed reading it .

MR D P PERCY

Profound and thoughtful

Reviewed in France on May 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

I have often encountered people who project their faults onto others, causing much chaos and pain. This book helps greatly in putting this scapegoating behaviour into a deeper spiritual context, supported by Peck’s professional experience as a psychologist.

See more reviews

Return this item for free

Return this item for free

Image Unavailable

Follow the author