Manufacturing Social Distress

Toward the Psychology of Malefaction This is a book about human wickedness. I would like to identify two obstacles in the path that this book seeks to traverse. One obstacle is an inappropriate scientism; the other is an inappropriate moralism. There is a kind of scientism that prevents us from seeing that human beings are responsible for what happens on the planet. It is a view that, in the name of science, downplays the role of human beings as agents in what takes place. This view is often expressed in a paradigm that regards human conduct as the "dependent variable," while anything that impinges on the human being is considered the "independent variable." The paradigm further takes the relationship between the dependent and independent variable to be the result of natural law. It charac teristically ignores the possibility that individual or collective deci sion or policy, generated by human beings and not by natural law, is and can be regulatory of conduct.

Texte du rabat
This bold new book proposes a completely new discipline - "the psychology of malefaction", a frank study of the role of evil in human hehavior that does not explain an act of murder, for example, as simply a symptom of the murderer's psychosis. Having been long successful in explaining psychopathic behavior, the author maintains, psychology has in a sense tended to excuse the destructive acts of the psychopath, or at least has appeared to do so. Rieber reexamines the various phenomena of family violence, violence in films and television, modern war, and serial killers regarding them as wicked, not merely insane. This provocative book rethinks the nagging problem of evil as it manifests itself in our society, rigorously questioning to what degree persons must be responsible for - and held accountable for - their actions.

Résumé
Toward the Psychology of Malefaction This is a book about human wickedness. This view is often expressed in a paradigm that regards human conduct as the "dependent variable," while anything that impinges on the human being is considered the "independent variable."

Contenu
Introduction: The Lay of the Land and the Currents of the River.- 1. Social Breakdown and the Social Distress Syndrome.- 2. The Prince of Darkness and the Heart of Darkness.- 3. War and Social Distress: Images of the Enemy.- 4. The Banks, Media, and Social Distress.- 5. Dreams Money Can Buy.- 6. Terrorism, Organized Crime, and Social Distress.- 7. Being Good in Bad Places: Toward a Principled American Lifestyle.- Notes.