Dark Side: Mind
The proposition that not very much separates “good” and “bad” persons is
difficult for many people to acknowledge. To some who consider themselves good,
the very idea is an abomination. But I view the belief that we are good and
that badness exists outside of ourselves as a fiction—the fiction that drives
the engines of prejudice and discrimination, and, on a larger scale, of
terrorism, wars, and genocides. It destroys the healing potential of empathy,
not only for others but also for ourselves.
Humankind
has a dark side, and its existence ought not to come as a surprise to those who
think of themselves as good people. Most religions conceive of humankind as
bad, unregenerate, and in dire need of redemption. The story of Adam and Eve
depicts man’s fall from grace and descent into a desperate condition. From that
day on, the history of the world has been filled with violence.
Glimpses
of the demons that peek out from the dark recesses of our minds come from some
of the greatest writers, such as Goethe, Dostoyevsky, Poe, Stevenson, and
Shakespeare, who have written classic tales about humankind’s darker impulses. La
Rochefoucauld observed that “We would often be ashamed of our best actions if
the world knew the motives behind them.” Joseph Conrad wrote in Heart of
Darkness that “A man’s most open actions have a secret side to them.”
Sigmund
Freud delved deeply into just this notion in many of his works: Civilization
and Its Discontents viewed the human being as a creature driven by powerful
instincts of aggression and primal passions that lead to rape, incest, and
murder, imperfectly contained by social institutions and guilt.
What
about the good people among us? Most humans go about the daily business of life
without robbing, raping, or committing murder.
- Well, there
is no great gulf between the mental life of the common criminal and that of the
everyday, up-right citizen. The dark side exists in all of us. There is no
“we-they” dichotomy between the good citizens, the “we,” and the criminals, the
“they.”
But good
men and women are far from perfect in their behavior. We are neither all good
nor all bad. To varying degrees, we are a combination of both. An unexpected
situation may become the occasion for one side or the other to win out. Combat,
for example, may incite the same person to acts of heroism or cowardice,
depending on the circumstances. In peace time, a former sadistic concentration
camp guard may slip into the role of the respected but feared cop on the beat.
Bad men such
as serial sexual killers have intense, compulsive, elaborate sadistic fantasies
that few good men have, but we all harbor some measure of that hostility,
aggression, and sadism. Anyone can become violent, even murderous, under
certain circumstances. Therapists who have undergone their own psychoanalysis
or insight psychotherapy have a humanistic recognition of the universality of
human intrapsychic experience. These therapists acknowledge in themselves many
of the same psychological struggles they find in their patients and in others.
This idea
is very difficult for many people to accept. Perhaps our dark side comes from
our evolutionary heritage, in which aggression ensured our survival. Maybe it
is the result of faulty wiring in our brains. The depletion of certain brain
neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, has been found to parallel aggressive
behavior. Our brains are wired for aggression and can short-circuit into
violence. All of us have
aggressive impulses.
Forensic
psychiatrists often examine criminal defendants who have committed all manner
of antisocial acts, persons that they would not generally see in private
practice. We evaluate defendants for competency to stand trial. One of our
duties is to assist the judicial system in determining whether a defendant was
sane or insane at the time of the crime. Forensic psychiatry is involved at all
levels of the criminal process, from assessing a person’s competency to confess
to a crime to the extremely controversial matter of evaluating competency to be
executed. We make pre-sentence evaluations, offer recommendations for
disposition and treatment, and advise judges, parole boards, and other law
enforcement agencies.
Society,
religion, and the law all take moral positions about right and wrong, about the
acts of “bad” men, often labeling such persons and their behavior as evil. Medically
trained and wedded to the scientific method, psychiatrists do not ordinarily
apply the term evil, even to the aberrant destructive acts they are sometimes
called upon to understand and explain.
Restraint
of antisocial impulses is learned from the cradle, within the family and
through many other social structures. Parents and caretakers help children
internalize the ethical, philosophical, cultural, and religious values that
also restrain antisocial impulses. Later on, a society’s political system
attempts to ensure through law and custom that destructive tendencies remain
curbed—and largely unexamined. But even the healthiest genes, the warmest
parents and family, the most morally unassailable community, the best
education, and the most humane society cannot eradicate the dark and
destructive forces in our personalities. Nor should they, for our dark side is
an inextricable part of our humanity. When it is denied or run from, there is
always some price to be paid. Moreover, the darker side of men and women cannot
be snuffed out by building more prisons and carrying out more executions. This
is not society’s purpose; rather, its goal is to deter, punish, restrain, and reform.
One of
the greatest, most ennobling human characteristics is the ability to turn one’s
mind back upon itself in a momentous act of personal discovery. We can
celebrate, with the psalmist’s song of praise, that personal knowledge is “a
light unto my path.”
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