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The Anatomy of Evil
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
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The Anatomy of Evil
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Publisher's Summary
In this groundbreaking book, renowned psychiatrist Michael H. Stone explores the concept and reality of evil from a new perspective. In an in-depth discussion of the personality traits and behaviors that constitute evil across a wide spectrum, Dr. Stone takes a clarifying scientific approach to a topic that for centuries has been inadequately explained by religious doctrines.
Stone has created a 22-level hierarchy of evil behavior, which loosely reflects the structure of Dante's Inferno. Basing his analysis on the detailed biographies of more than 600 violent criminals, he traces two salient personality traits that run the gamut from those who commit crimes of passion to perpetrators of sadistic torture and murder. One trait is narcissism, as exhibited in people who are so self-centered that they have little or no ability to care about their victims. The other is aggression, the use of power over another person to inflict humiliation, suffering, and death.
What do psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience tell us about the minds of those whose actions could be described as evil? And what will that mean for the rest of us? Stone discusses how an increased understanding of the causes of evil will affect the justice system. He predicts a day when certain persons can safely be declared salvageable and restored to society and when early signs of violence in children may be corrected before potentially dangerous patterns become entrenched.
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What listeners say about The Anatomy of Evil
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Langer MD
- 2023-12-27
Cerebral. Best Appreciated By True-Crime Junkies
Psychiatrist Michael H. Stone presents his 22-category scale of "Evil" in an exhaustive, exceptionally clinical documentary. He illustrates his thesis with voluminous examples of jawdropping sociopathy. Putting outrages on a spectrum between "Level One: arguably justifiable crime" and "Level 22: genocidal mass murder", Stone attempts to develop a framework for pigeonholing what the populace in general would consider "evil".. including rape, kidnapping, child abuse, etc.
The writing is clear & persuasive, the logic behind the framework is impeccable, and Stone addresses the very few instances where cases don't quite fit into his paradigm (he's incredibly punctilious).
Unfortunately, the sheer volume of material also sentences the book to giving the impression of a fairly superficial "survey". If you are aware of the in-depth facts behind David Peltzer's experience, for example (as described in "A Boy Called It"), Stone's *five sentence* summary of the case is adequate. If you aren't, you could legitimately ask yourself "What the heck is he talking about? Level 8?!? I guess I'll take his word on it." There are literally HUNDREDS of five-sentence case summaries like that in this book (it's not written for a general audience - more for academics or extremely well-read genre afficianados).
Reader Charles Constant turns in a likewise "acceptable" narration performance, too. His diction, timbre, cadence, and tone are professional - but nothing that another reader couldn't have delivered.
Altogether, this is a fairly dry attempt at a framework for study. A paraphrase of the Afterword by Dr Otto F. Kernberg pretty much sums the book up: 'an admirable categorization effort that will be useful for researchers'.
This 6.5/10-star thought-provoking treatise was a fine listen as a 'Plus' option.. but spend your Credit elsewhere unless you're invested in sociology/psychology or absolutely captivated by this stuff.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Thom Tisher
- 2021-10-16
Being Aware of Causes
That and how people do evil is more obvious than why. Thus books attempts to give a better awareness of the physiological and psychological reasons suggesting why someone might do evil. Unfortunately in doing so, it exposes us to the possible horrors hiding in each of is given certain circumstances.
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1 person found this helpful