Humanity's Dark Side: Evil, Destructive Experience, and Psychotherapy
As intellectually exciting a book as I ve read in a decade or more...an incredibly smart, all-star cast of psychologists and philosophers of various theoretical persuasions offer wise, provocative, and downright enjoyable views of the nature of our dark side, including a terrific chapter on the epitome of the dark side himself, Darth Vader. This book is replete not only with profound philosophical and moral questions but also with fascinating ideas about how confronting our clients darker inclinations may affect and improve clinical work. --Barry A. Farber, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Education, Clinical Psychology Program, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NYThis edited volume provides a welcome counterweight to the oversimplified approaches that have dominated cultural conversations (especially in the United States) about goodness, virtue, and all things positive. The contributors do not all agree, but they share a deep engagement in messy and complicated questions about the dark side of human nature. Those interested in theory and its role in clinical work, in the practice or experience of therapy, or in ongoing public discourse about human nature will find this a rich and refreshingly wide-ranging source of ideas, argument, and compelling examples from a diverse set of expert authors. --Julie K. Norem, PhD, Hamm Professor of Psychology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MAThere is hardly a more profound issue in psychology or philosophy than the nature of evil and how to deal with it in psychotherapy. And there are hardly more astute and well-informed editors than Bohart, Held, Mendelowitz, and Schneider and their carefully chosen authors to write about it. This outstanding volume is bound to have an outsized personal impact on readers who are willing to consider its implications for both therapists and patients in the conduct of therapy. --Stanley B. Messer, PhD, Dean and Professor II, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJIntellectually rigorous and profoundly important, this book is highly recommended to clinicians and readers willing to grapple with difficult but fascinating questions about evil and destructiveness. --New England PsychologistThere is hardly a more profound issue in psychology or philosophy than the nature of evil and how to deal with it in psychotherapy. And there are hardly more astute and well-informed editors than Bohart, Held, Mendelowitz, and Schneider and their carefully chosen authors to write about it. This outstanding volume is bound to have an outsized personal impact on readers who are willing to consider its implications for both therapists and patients in the conduct of therapy. --Stanley B. Messer, PhD, Dean and Professor II, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ