I’m writing this in Texas where I’m finishing up a four-week teaching tour. En route, the Evil Princess and I listened to the audio version of Dr. Michael Stone’s book “The Anatomy of Evil.” It was, by and large, a goodread listen. Stone does an outstanding job of exploring the neuroscience of violent behavior.
Replete with case studies, the book is a litany of man’s inhumanity to man. For those who study this sort of thing, the author lists almost two dozen “categories of evil” based on actions, diagnoses, interviews and of course, known behaviors and prior histories. This makes the book a litany of atrocious, mostly murderous acts.
There is lots to learn from this book. You can’t defeat an enemy you don’t understand.
I have only two real criticisms. One is the author’s belief that banning high-capacity firearms would be a good thing; I profoundly disagree. Lawbreakers, by definition, tend not to be deterred by new laws for them to break.
The other is that the author never once mentions something that screams out to people like me and most who read this blog: The vast majority of these monsters’ victims would very likely be alive today had they been armed and capable of fighting back in self-defense.
In one of his many “Prey” books, novelist John Sanford has one his characters (either Jenkins or Shrake for fans) respond to a wise crack by saying something like “I’ve never been over gunned. One time I was under gunned, then I reconceptualized.” You can make the same comment about ammunition.
If you are a subscriber on Audible, this is a free download. It can’t be put on your Books app on the iPhone, but if you put the Audible app on your phone you can listen to it directly through the app or on your computer if you use it. Thank you for the recommendation, Mas, it is now in my queue. I suspect that this would be an excellent companion read for another book I have read several times, Inside the Criminal Mind by Stanton Samenow PhD.
The Samenow book is always recommended, as are the lectures of William Aprill, available on YouTube.
“author never once mentions something that screams out to people like me…”
It’s peculiar how someone can see the “landscape” but not the “villains walking in it”.
A patient in my wife’s clinic was surprised when she saw my pistol (I usually cover, but it was lunch and I *thought* all patients were gone) and asked “Is that what I think it is? Why do you need that here?”
I pointed out that *here* is really exposed to *there and them* and if I were *headed* to where I thought there would be trouble, I would choose to NOT go there. I reminded her that trouble often goes out looking for a place to manifest. And finally, I pointed out that I often don’t know *where* I will be next in the day since I run a lot of errands for the office all over town.
She proudly announced that she has a black belt in (something or other) … so apparently she’s aware of problems being out there and thinks she’s prepared. I considered pointing that she has a solution only to a certain level, above which it becomes inadequate quickly ~~ but I didn’t want to offend a patron.
You can ignore reality, but you can’t avoid its consequences.
Good points. If you live trusting, then you die betrayed.
For a really mind numbing look into the kind of diabolical individuals who are out there, I would recommend The Devil’s Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising by Roger Morris, and The Hate Factory: A First Hand Account of the 1980 Riot at the Penitentiary of New Mexico by Georgelle Hirliman. I was only a young teen when this happened but I remember it to this day.
Another good read by a “gun blind” author is The Gift of Fear. Useful to read and most here would find some of Gavin De Becker’s thoughts on personal firearms deployment pretty empty.