Dr. Steven J. Bartlett writes to us:

I hope you will be interested in the first major comprehensive study of the psychology of human evil, just published by behavioral science publisher Charles C. Thomas. The Pathology of Man: A Study of Human Evil is the result of ten years of research into the psychology of genocide and the Holocaust, the psychology of war, of terrorism, obedience, and the many other ways in which human beings behave aggressively and often cruelly toward other people, toward other species, and often even toward themselves. The Pathology of Man is the first work to apply the science of pathology to the human species and to identify and describe the many pathologies that afflict our species, often without our awareness. Its aim is to provide a solid foundation of scholarship encompassing the work of twentieth century psychologists, psychiatrists, ethologists, psychologically focused historians, and others who have studied human aggression and destructiveness.

In addition to providing scholars with an important research tool, the book is well-suited to serve as a main text or as collateral reading for courses relating to the psychology of evil, the psychology of the Holocaust and of genocide generally, the psychology of war, obedience, and terrorism, and any courses that seek to bring students to a realistic understanding of the psychology of human aggression and destructiveness, without appealing to mythology, symbolism, or religion. The Pathology of Man: A Study of Human Evil is a dispassionate, objective, scientific assessment of our species’ follies and destructiveness.

I hope this work can serve your needs and interests.

With best wishes,
Sincerely,
Dr. Steven J. Bartlett
Senior Research Professor, Oregon State University
Visiting Scholar in Psychology, Willamette University
Author of eight previous books and monographs and many papers in the fields of psychology, philosophy of science, and problem-solving. Former Professor, Saint Louis University and University of Florida Research Fellow, Max-Planck-Institute Fellow, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions Research. Supported by: The National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Lilly Endowment, the Alliance Française, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, and others.

ABOUT THIS WORK AND ITS AUTHOR... [From the back cover]

“[T]he study of evil is just beginning and you are a pioneer.”
– M. Scott Peck, author of People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil and The Road Less Traveled.

“Steven James Bartlett’s The Pathology of Man marks the most comprehensive examination of human evil to date. Drawing from different fields of study, including psychology and epistemology, Bartlett sets out on a Tour de Force of deline­ating the parameters on human evil.... The resulting text is a most welcomed addition to the field and provides for fasci­nating reading. The Pathology of Man is a timely, scholarly, and important piece of work that should appeal to anyone who is interested in understanding human evil.”
– Eric A. Zillmer, Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology, Drexel University, and author of The Quest for the Nazi Personality: A Psychological Investigation of Nazi War Criminals.

“This book is stunning, upsetting, gripping.... Bartlett sets out a theory of human evil as a ubiquitous disease and humankind as the pathogen/parasite which is rapidly spreading and, in the process, killing its hosts (be they other humans, other species of life, and nature itself).... [T]he conclusions are unrelenting and devastat­ing.... [T]he book is a moral act of the highest order.”
– Irving Greenberg, President, Jewish Life Net­work/Steinhardt Foundation; Chairman, United States Holocaust Memorial Council 2000-2002.

“Steven James Bartlett observes how certain chronic diseases can be so prevalent as to be normal for a species. In The Pathology of Man, Bartlett follows this insight to make a provocative argument, that evil is such a normal pathology among human beings.... The Pathology of Man adds to the growing realization that the roots of human evil lie not in madness but within the core of sanity.”
– Douglas Porpora, Professor of Sociology, Drexel University, and author of How Holocausts Happen.

“[H]uman evil...is more the rule than the exception, more ‘normal’ than not.... [T]he pervasive pathology of human evil...must be better comprehended if we are to prevent it from metastasizing.... Toward this urgent task, nothing could be more important today than serious...psychological studies of human evil such as you have undertaken.”
– Stephen A. Diamond, author of Anger, Madness, and the Demonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity.

The Pathology of Man: A Study of Human Evil is a pioneering work in several specific ways:

The Pathology of Man is the first comprehensive study of the psychology and epistemology of human evil, long urged by leading psychiatrists and psychologists, including Freud, Jung, Menninger, Fromm, and Peck. The book breaks new ground by offering a clear, empirically based, and theo­retically sound understanding of human evil as a widespread, real, non-metaphorical pathology. With thorough and solid scholarship the author proposes a new framework-relative theory of disease and justifies the provocative thesis that human evil should be classified as a pathology which is not a deviation from an accepted norm, but rather is a normal state. This break with tradition provides the necessary psychological foundation for the familiar concept of the banality of human evil, a foundation which in the past it has lacked.

The Pathology of Man inaugurates a new ap­proach to the study of mankind. For the first time the science of pathology is applied to the human species, di­recting attention to mankind’s role as a true pathogen: The human species is shown to be auto-pathological in many ways, as well as pathological in its effects upon global biodiversity.

The Pathology of Man lays the foundation for two new areas of study, the phenomenology of hatred and the psychology of moral intelligence.

Finally, the work initiates a reflective examination of how mankind’s aggression, destructiveness, and cruelty to members of his own species are fostered and maintained by human patterns of thought and by a conceptual vocabulary that together encourage a certain interpretation of the world that itself is pathological.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY ERIC A. ZILLMER AND IRVING GREENBERG
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION

PART I: PATHOLOGY AND MAN

OVERVIEW OF PART I
CHAPTER 1: PATHOLOGY AND THEORIES OF DISEASE
CHAPTER 2: PATHOLOGY, POLITICS, AND CLINICAL JUDGMENT
CHAPTER 3: FRAMEWORK-RELATIVE PATHOLOGY
CHAPTER 4: EPIDEMIOLOGY, UNIVERSAL PATHOLOGY, AND THERAPY
CHAPTER 5: PATHOLOGY AND THE CONCEPT OF EVIL

PART II: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN EVIL

OVERVIEW OF PART II:
CHAPTER 6: FREUD AND THE PATHOLOGY OF AGGRESSION
CHAPTER 7: JUNG’S UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN EVIL
CHAPTER 8: RECENT PSYCHIATRY AND HUMAN EVIL: MENNINGER,

FROMM, AND PECK
CHAPTER 9: THE QUANTITATIVE HISTORY OF HUMAN

SELF-DESTRUCTIVENESS
CHAPTER 10: THE PATHOLOGY OF A SPECIES: ETHOLOGY AND HUMAN EVIL
CHAPTER 11: TOWARD A UNIFIED PSYCHOLOGY OF GENOCIDE
CHAPTER 12: THE HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN EVIL
CHAPTER 13: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TERRORISM AND HUMAN EVIL
CHAPTER 14: THE POPULARITY OF WAR AND ITS ROLE IN HUMAN EVIL
CHAPTER 15: “WE ARE SHEEP...”-OBEDIENCE AND HUMAN EVIL
CHAPTER 16: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF HATRED
CHAPTER 17: THE ECOLOGICAL PATHOLOGY OF MAN
CHAPTER 18: MORAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE PATHOLOGY OF HUMAN

STUPIDITY

PART III: THE CONCEPTUAL PATHOLOGY OF MAN

OVERVIEW OF PART III
CHAPTER 19: THE PATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY THOUGHT
CHAPTER 20: RELATIVISM, FRAMEWORK-RELATIVITY, AND HUMAN EVIL
CHAPTER 21: REFLECTIONS

REFERENCES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

To order, go to the publisher’s website by clicking on http://www.ccthomas.com/details.cfm?P_ISBN=0398075573