M.Scott Peck, Narcissism and Evil

I recently gave away my book, People of the Lie by the with late renowned psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, in anticipation of purchasing the ebook. Unfortunately it is not available in the ebook format so I have to order another. Here are a few quotes about the narcissist that I concur with and believe are very significant revelations:

It is my experience that evil seems to run in families. p 80 If evil were easy to recognize, identify and manage, there would be no need for this book. But the fact of the matter is that it is the most difficult of all things with which to cope. p 130 [Evil] will contaminate or otherwise destroy a person who remains too long in its presence. p 65

The evil deny the suffering of their guilt–the painful awareness of their sin, inadequacy, and imperfection–by casting their pain onto the other through projection and scapegoating. They themselves may not suffer, but those around them do. The evil cause suffering. The evil create for those under their dominion a miniature sick society. p 123-124

It happens then, that the children of evil parents enter adulthood with very significant psychiatric disturbances. ….It is doubtful that some can be wholly healed of their scars from having had to live in close quarters with evil without correctly naming the source of their problems.

To come to terms with evil in one’s parentage is perhaps the most difficult and painful psychological task a human being can be called on to face. Most fail and so remain its victims. Those who fully succeed in developing the necessary searing vision are those who are able to name it. p 130
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I have personally had to come to terms with the evil of my own mother, one of those Peck refers to who has fully succeeded in terms of his particular paradigm. So what I can contribute from personal experience is that accepting It was an ongoing process. I have not had any significant psychiatric disturbances because I am a free spirit, a rebel by nature. Early on, I grabbed the bull by the horn and faced the fact that my mother never bonded with me . As such, I accepted the fact that she probably hated me, simply because I look like my father and his people and my personality traits are the opposite of hers. Since I am also not a natural people pleaser, I gave up trying to live by my mother’s standards when I left home for college at 17, never to live with her again.

Today, my mother is 92 and she lives alone, right down the street from me. It is unfortunate that I have to keep my distance at this time. It is obvious to her doctor and others that she is dying, but the narcissism in her refuse to accept it. With her flesh being weak, the evil is even stronger. I am strong but I am also wise. I know that to be around her is to surround myself with evil energy. I am grateful that she does not want to see me anyway because she cannot face allowing me to see that she is imperfect. She has convinced herself that she is failing because she has it in her mind that I am the one who recommended she take a certain laxative that has caused her present weakness and sickness.

I was not the one. In fact, she has admitted that it was her sister Pearl but when she talks about it, she calls my name as the culprit. So in her spirit, she perceives that I am the cause of her present pain and not the fact that she obviously has a growth that is blocking her bowels,. So she continues to refuse to allow the doctor to take the tests necessary to make the final diagnosis.

Who in their right mind, over 70 does not consider death? No one but the narcissist.