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Title: Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty by Roy F. Baumeister, Aaron T. Beck ISBN: 0-8050-7165-2 Publisher: W H Freeman & Co. Pub. Date: March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An outstanding attempt to understand human violence
Comment: In the course of reviewing over 20 books on the topic of human violence and mass murder, I found this to be far and away the best. Some obviously have problems with the author's attempts to understand and not just demonize killers. I can think of no other way of getting into the heads of those who commit violence in the name of a state, an ideology, an ethnic group, a religion or indeed any other belief system. Confronting the "banality of evil" is indeed an unpleasant exercise, but necessary if we are ever to achieve a deeper understanding of our greatest failing as a species. To summarize, this work is probably the best research-based study of the psychology of human mass violence currently on the market.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the most interesting books I've ever read!
Comment: I picked up this book thinking it would be a study of serial killers or something. I was happily surprised to find a well written book about the myth of evil. Baumiester does a good job of introducing difficult concepts that challenge our belief systems. One particularly interesting facet of his theory is the "perception gap" between the victims of evil and the perpetrators of evil. Baumiester uses both scientific research and real-life examples (O.J., Sadaam Hussien, Bosnia) to illustrate his points, making the information very accessible. As a writer, I found the information on what causes people to commit evil actions fascinating and helpful in creating fictional characters with dimension. As a someone who works in the prevention field, I applied his theory about egotism and violence to school bullies. This book is a must read for writers, teachers, law enforcement, prevention specialist, counselors and so forth. This book will definately make you think.
Rating: 2
Summary: Music without structure or aesthetic standards
Comment: I begin with the confession that I didn't get far in this book; but one needn't get far, in some endeavors, to realize that the pathway is just wrong and the journey best aborted.
Baumeister wants us to study evil, but to set aside our moral principles to do so. And how, prey tell, do we distinguish evil without moral standards? It is like saying, "Let's see what makes music bad, but without considering aesthetic standards." Evil is only evil relative to moral principles.
Similarly, he studies evil by looking at individuals, and how their actions look to them. That, too, is just wrong--like studying music by looking at tones, but not how they hang together to make music. Morality--and this is no esoteric matter--is always about how we live together communally. It is an ancient truism that to one's self one's actions always look right. Twenty-five hundred years ago, Socrates made the point that we only do things we believe right(though he probably drew the wrong conclusion from that observation).
Baumeister's vaunted "perception gap" is not exactly news, and he makes entirely the wrong thing of it. The perception gap is the entire point of the universal, ancient adage, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," in its many formulations.
Read this book, if you want--but you should know going in that the necessary conditions for understanding evil have been proscribed from the beginning.
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Title: Prisoners of Hate : The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence by Aaron T. Beck ISBN: 0060932007 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Meanings of Life by Roy F. Baumeister ISBN: 0898625319 Publisher: Guilford Press Pub. Date: 25 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Escaping the Self: Alcoholism, Spirituality, Masochism, and Other Flights from the Burden of Selfhood by Roy F. Baumeister ISBN: 0465020534 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: September, 1991 List Price(USD): $39.50 |
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Title: Breaking Hearts: The Two Sides of Unrequited Love by Roy F. Baumeister, Sara R. Wotman ISBN: 0898625432 Publisher: Guilford Press Pub. Date: 16 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $46.00 |
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Title: Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century by Bill Bonner, Addison Wiggin ISBN: 0471449733 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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