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Psychiatry and the Concept of Evil

Sick in heart or sick in mind?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Herschel Prins
Herschel Prins*
Affiliation:
Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Loughborough
*
Professor H. Prins, 1 Home Close Road, Houghton on the Hill, Leicester LE7 9GT
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The Editor's initiative in seeking this Editorial was inspired no doubt by a number of recent cases and events in which the behaviour of those concerned seems to have defied rational explanation, and the power of ‘evil’ has been invoked in order to provide one. Perhaps the most compelling was that of the trial for murder of two ten-year-old boys for the murder of the infant James Bulger.

Type
Editorial
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 165 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 297 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994 

Footnotes

1.

Midgley offers a useful review of the topic from a moral philosopher's perspective. Peck (1988, 1989), combining the roles of pastor and psychiatrist, offers guidance at a more practical level. The theological perspective provided by Hick (1985) is highly regarded. Peterson (1992) has brought together a very interesting collection of papers, with contributions from theology, philosophy, and literature. All five books afford useful guidance for those wishing to pursue the subject further.

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