Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream: A Forensic Psychiatrist Illuminates the Darker Side of Human Behavior Read Online Free PDF Page B

humankind can or will examine their darker impulses, consciously control these brooding forces, or harness them for good purposes. History suggests the unlikelihood that most of us will perform that task. This book is for the few who can look inward.
    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.
    As in the first law of thermodynamics, which explains the conservation of energy, our darker side can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only change form. It can be retained in thoughts and feelings, it can be rechanneled into productive activity, or it can be acted out in a destructive way. In my work with patients, I have learned that we essentially have two courses to follow: either struggle to recognize, control, and channel our basic conflicts and impulses, or allow them to luxuriate and perhaps to dominate us. Unfortunately, much of humankind takes the latter road, which is strewn with many of life’s perturbations and miseries.
    It is far better to choose, as my colleague did, to walk in the path that leads to the light, to confront the dark side, and to work through it. In that particular instance, the light was revealed reasonably swiftly. But as psychiatrists know from working with patients, insight and intuition for self-discovery is not accessible to everyone, neither is it an unmitigated good, whenever it does become accessible. For some, psychological insight can be a peak transforming experience. When our antisocial impulses are buried alive, like vampires, they can emerge to harm us. Exposing our dark side to the light does not make our personal vampires disappear as in legend. But doing so offers the possibility that we can develop constructive options once we are clearly able to see the inhabitants of our dark side. This empowering idea is expressed in John 7:28: “For you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
    In a sense, our patients are never the same after an insight is achieved—it is hoped they are changed for the better. For others, insight may be undesirable. For still others, it is ineffective in alleviating certain behaviors. To add insight to the injury already present may worsen some patients’ conditions. The American poet Robinson Jeffers wryly observed that most people would rather face a tiger on the road than confront the truth. We must remember that the majority of people get by passably well in controlling their most dangerous and antisocial impulses through reasonably effective internal controls and such pragmatic restraints as the police officer on the next corner.
    But when we walk the path of light, we are able to see where we are going. We will recognize the landscape around us for what it is, be it beautiful or threatening. My colleague, willing to shed noonday light on a dark corner of the road, channeled a destructive impulse into a constructive growth experience that helped her and her patient. The path that leads to the light is open to anyone who has a native capacity for insight, intuition, and a natural curiosity