As it’s almost Halloween, it seems like a good subject to bring up is true human evil. It is thought that 1% of the population could be labeled a psychopath. Isn’t that 1 out of every 100 people? Yikes!
When thinking about evil, true evil, connotations of religion sprint to mind. Good versus bad, light versus dark. Does evil really exist? And if so, what is evil, why is someone evil, and not just a bad egg?
I believe that evil does exist, and it is in the form of psychopathology. From my understanding, Psychopath is a broad description covering several different kinds of mental illnesses, including anti-social personality disorder. If you are interested, you can start reading about it on Wikipedia.
Our minds are powerful. Daily we are given choices between right actions or a wrong actions. Right and wrong is hard to define, but I would say that a right action is one that is beneficial to yourself or others, and does not cause harm. A wrong action is one that by doing or not doing causes harm. These decisions may not be good ones, but they are not evil. Right and wrong doesn’t have to be big things, and neither can evil.
Evil is a complete disregard for anyone but oneself. Evil is completely lacking in empathy and an unwillingness or disinterest in following any kind of societal rules except ones made up by themselves. Evil, in big ways and in small ways, corrupts (more in a later blog).
I think we all know what evil is. We see it on the news or in the papers. We see it in movies or tv shows. The family who locked up all their foster kids in small cages for a decade, or the murderer or rapist who does it just because that’s what they want to do, or the pimp who drugs young girls and boys and turns them into prostitutes.
Evil disregards the value of human life, believing that only theirs is worthy.
An evil person, and a really bad person are different. A bad person, knows right from wrong, and chooses the wrong option. A bad person might be good in ways that you would never expect–for example being kind to animals, or loving to their mother, even while they are doing the worst possible thing to someone else. A psychopath is not capable of any kind of good actions based only on feeling. They may do good actions, but they are self-serving. There are also people who do extremely bad things while convincing themselves that it is a good thing. Their actions are evil, but I don’t know that they could be considered psychopaths. However, these people obviously need help too.
Evil exists, and it’s terrifying. If you are in a relationship with someone that you believe is a psychopath, I really don’t know what to tell you except to get whatever help you need to protect yourself. There are domestic abuse hot-lines found all over the internet, and I understand that restraining orders are easy to get. Most importantly, take care of yourself! The psychopath in your life sure isn’t going to.
I would love to hear your stories if you feel inclined to share them. I share my stories on these blogs with the hopes of having people feel comfortable enough to share their own. Even if you just want a compassionate person to hear what you’re going through, you can always comment anonymously.
All best,
Rose
