People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil Paperback – January 2, 1998

If you can imagine the cross as symbolizing both the breadth and depth of the human experience and God’s full awareness and presence in each of these dimensions you can see this work as being a human effort to present a corollary explanation of a specific human tendency that has damaging effects at both the individual and societal level. That tendency is to Lie.In this work this well-established author of the “Road Less Travelled” takes the reader both panoramically and microscopically into the regions of the human heart where we are shown the reality of self-deceit.This deceit is exposed in the case studies of the author (A Harvard trained psychiatrist) as being a product of the psychiatrically sick individual unwilling to abide the call of conscience. To do so would demand exposing the patient’s ego to the shame of recognition and acknowledgement of their own self-deceit; At the heart of this is the sin of pride. These are the People of the Lie. And the fruit of their deceit is damage not to just themselves but as often as not to others subject to them and their sickness.In its worst manifestation the author reveals something much, much deeper. What Dr. Peck reveals is the reality of a deep spiritual evil that lurked behind the mask of what he initially thought were strictly psychiatric disorders of two of his select patients.Here the prescription called not for a psychiatric treatment but a spiritual one. As these individuals were no longer in control of their will. The will had been usurped by another. The other was demonic and the cure was exorcism. These exorcisms personally witnessed by the author served to convince him of the absolute validity of the presence of Satan - the Father of Lies- in this world and serves as a cautionary tale for those who spurn truth and deny both their own conscience and the reality of ultimate good (GOD) and Evil (Satan).In the end the author expands the aperture of his lens when he moves from the individual engaged in the lie to the lie of the collective (ie the institution and the state). Here he deconstructs the milieu and marching orders that were in play leading up to the My Lai massacre and the attempted coverup by the military establishment.He hauls into the light as well the institutional lie underwriting the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that lead to the expansion of US involvement in the Viet Nam, expanding the operation into a full scale US invasion of South Viet Nam. An invasion that killed untold lives on both sides and leaving a country in shambles. An engagement that was never even given the dignity of being declared an actual war but more dishonestly characterized as a type Police Action- again another lie.In the end the reader is exposed to a Tour De Force in the People of the Lie and is reminded of the risk & ramifications of the failure of conscience both in oneself and in the corporate bodies we are often apart of and depend on.

Reading about how some people think is good. You never know somebody really!

Great insight into how easily we don't see what we don't want to

I almost could not read this book after reading the opening chapter. I found the author’s argument that God is a male to be bizarre. He equates what he sees as male penetrating, dominating sexuality with God. He described the relationship between God and humanity like the relationship between the male and female. That God wants to penetrate humanity and make it give birth to Christ. I found that rape visual disturbing. Although the author understands that God could have the female qualities of nurturing and gentleness, he apparently regards them as less important. I see this as a male bias that is also the bias of Christianity which is basically a male-glorifying religion. He says he does not apologize for his Christian bias, but neither does he recognize the evil of misogyny that runs through the Bible. The degrading of women, the claiming that the female should be under the control of the male, that the female is at fault for bringing evil into the world, the persecution of witches, none of this seems to concern the author who dismisses it with nominal nod to the women’s movement. My reaction to this bias as a woman is one of revulsion, which according to the author is the natural response to evil. Since this book is about recognizing and confronting evil, I think the author should begin with the mote in the eye of Christianity. A good place to start would be to apologize for it, as did one of the popes a few years back – much to the discomfort of many unfortunately. If you are going to proudly proclaim your Christianity, then you need to acknowledge the evil therein. Especially if you are writing a book about confronting evil.Nevertheless, since I had purchased the book I decided to plow on and see if there was anything of value, and there was much. I had to look at the date this book was written because the chapter describing malignant narcissism so perfectly described President Trump who demands “affirmation independent of all findings.” Yet, I see so many cheering Trump on and so many capitulating to his evil that it can feel hopeless. They indeed seem to have lost the ability to think. Evil contaminates those in its presence, and we see this happening to people surrounding Trump. The Republicans in Congress and the Evangelical Christians openly admit they have made a pact with the devil to gain power in order to force their ideology on others. Evil has attained an extraordinary degree of political power in this White House. Addressing this existential problem is enough reason to read “People of the Lie.” It truly is a matter of life or death for our democracy.The case studies were fascinating, yet I am uncomfortable with labeling so many human foibles as ”evil.” It is important to recognize the ways we so damage others by thoughtless behavior. Whether that constitutes evil is debatable. I like that the author said we must dedicate ourselves to something higher than ourselves, something the malignant narcissist does not do. For the first time I realized that I had dedicated myself to the truth long ago as a child. But his claim that our goal is perfection is so predictable. What is perfection? Is it the same for everyone? That is a Christian concept that I find useless. It reveals Christianity as a dour and negative religion. Even God as presented in the Bible is imperfect.The author lost me completely when he took exorcism seriously. I just don't see the world in terms of God and Satan - who ironically he refrains from labeling male. Not sure what higher good this author has dedicated himself to.

What a great book that I've always loved. I had a copy of it when it came out and seem to have loaned it out. So I bought another and it's as helpful today as it was back then. Yes, we have progressed into many more diverse and effective forms of therapy. But that doesn't invalidate what's going on here.Even if you don't agree with this treatise or it's conclusion, there is so much valuable information to ponder from real life cases. He's been criticized for being Freudian and that Freudianism has been debunked or that evil people can't be cured etc. etc. I don't think that's entirely fair. If you listen to the cases and where he lands with the patients, you'll see that he's getting to the bottom of real issues. There is hope for these people and he indicates that quite well.I think for me, looking back at this book and then looking at today's world, it seems that Peck's idea of evil can really be seen in just about any maladaptive behavior, organic illnesses notwithstanding. Some people are just ill because they have a chemistry problem or whatever. But the people he's dealing with in this book are definitely victims of malevolence and even have their own evil at work.So to consider this book useless and deny that he is onto something valid seems shortsighted and really missing a lot of what is being said. For anyone who didn't like it, I recommend reading it again with an open mind.