The evil self
(1988)
Reviews the differing approaches to aggression in the psychoanalytic theories of Freud, E. FROMM, and H. Kohut in order to demonstrate how the problem of evil is not reducible to the vicissitudes of aggression. The author cites Hitler as one whose behavior can be clearly explained by traditional psychopathology. The case study of former US Secretary of State Kissinger is presented as a paradigmatic example of an >evil self< in which a malignant value system serves as the center of a successfully functioning system of compensatory structure. The author proposes a broader definition of good and evil that hinges on how a person functions as part of a larger whole.