Product Details

Journal of Analytical Psychology

Powerful....[F]ascinating....[Diamond] conducts a critical audit of the contemporary American zeitgeist, cataloguing examples of the epidemic of 'senseless' violence and of antagonism between the sexes. He asks what produces serial killers, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Bobbitt castration case, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and explores more generally the male response to the rise of feminist anger....[E]njoyable, extremely readable and accessible....[A] sincere, thought-provoking contribution to an important subject.

Ernest Becker Foundation Newsletter

[A] comprehensive, [very valuable] work detailing the powers for good and evil of which humans are capable....[Diamond] presents disturbing and insightful biographies of Kipling, Melville..., van Gogh, Wright, Beethoven, and Bergman, each wrestling with their personal daimons through the creative process....His cataloguing of the history of the phenomenology of the unconscious--from medieval beliefs that the voices people heard were demons or angels, to Freud's Id, to Jung's Shadow--is both brilliant and an indispensable resource for every student of human personality.

Psychoanalytic Books

[R]ecommended.... [Dr. Diamond] . . . draws on the discoveries of Freud, Jung, Adler, Rank, Reich, and Rollo May, as well as cultural and religious myths, to discuss with impressive scholarship and insight the origins and psychodynamics of destructive people.

Contemporary Psychology

In this remarkable book, Stephen Diamond follows the work of his mentor, Rollo May (1969), in focusing on the ancient Greek idea of the 'daimonic' which he distinguishes from the 'demonic'....Diamond stresses the dual nature of the daimonic and the failure of modern society to distinguish it from the wholly evil demonic as a factor in two, for Diamond, linked problems: first, the rampant outbursts of violence...,and second, the failures of contemporary cost-effective psychotherapies to address those forces in the human being that evoke antisocial behavior and at the same time have the capacity to free up the same individual's deepest creative energy.

What People Are Saying

An excellent book....I have always felt that Dr. Diamond's emphasis on the 'daimonic' was extremely timely and important in our day....[V]ery readable.

What People Are Saying

Evocative, very thorough and succinct, Stephen Diamond's superb book will remain the seminal work on this shadowy subject for a long time to come. -- (Jeremiah Abrams, author of Meeting the Shadow and The Shadow in America)

What People Are Saying

An impressive, prodigious work; so comprehensive, so rich, and very creative. This excellent book is unique in making sense of the 'senseless violence' that permeates American society today.

What People Are Saying

I hasten to endorse this remarkable book. The author covers every aspect of both evil and its curious connection with the creative daimonic. This study is balanced, objective and exhaustive. In a world that cannot forget Hitler and our modern atrocities, it is very timely. I recommend it without qualification-from one who has written on and studied this subject for fifty years. -- (Morton T. Kelsey, University of Notre Dame)

What People Are Saying

A fine book, well written, succinct, psychologically sound, and socially relevant. -- (John A. Sanford, author of Evil: The Shadow Side of Reality)

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents