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.
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