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A review by tubegeek
Why They Kill: The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist by Richard Rhodes
5.0
OK, let's get past the title: this book is a summary of the work and career of Lonnie Athens, whose initial studies of the process of violentization led him, in my opinion, to some ideas that are much wider in scope.
Example: Hallucinations are events that exist on a spectrum, including talking to oneself, hearing controlling voices in one's head, remembering the advice of a significant mentor, etc. They are examples of ways we interact with what Richard Rhodes sums up as our phantom community: the self is constantly experiencing events and making decisions in the context of an internal dialogue, the "soliloquy of the self." Constantly. At times of inner turmoil, we experience discord between the various speakers. In the normal course of events, we don't even notice that these conversations are taking place.
One of the important ways in which we define ourselves is by choosing the members of the "committee in our heads," and by disagreeing with the malevolent members while taking support from the nurturing members.
Like a typical faculty meeting, in other words.
Now, Rhodes doesn't spend an awful lot of the book discussing HEALTHY people and the way in which their personalities interact with this committee. And I'll grant that the subject of the creation of violent criminals, while perhaps topical and exciting, may not be everyone's cup of tea. I read about half of this book quite a while ago, and put it down. The recent cinema massacre, and the questions it brings up: "How could someone become so evil?" etc., drew me back to revisit it. Unexpectedly, the book takes a sharp turn about 250 pages in, as Athens' work takes up a broader range of human behavior.
It seems to me that Lonnie Athens' work does no less than put forth a novel, logical, and maybe even useful way of considering personality development and how we cope from day to day with the challenges and decisions of life. The fact that he does so while also developing a radical new way of thinking about justice, societal support, crime and punishment was, frankly, astonishing.
In my opinion, this is a very important book and I hope my review encourages you to read it.
I only picked the book up because I have read and enjoyed other books by Richard Rhodes. As it turns out, Rhodes and his brother underwent some of the process of violentization as children, as did Athens. If you've ever wondered why some people with shitty childhoods turn out very, very bad, while others seem to do much better, this book explains - in detail - how that happens.
Example: Hallucinations are events that exist on a spectrum, including talking to oneself, hearing controlling voices in one's head, remembering the advice of a significant mentor, etc. They are examples of ways we interact with what Richard Rhodes sums up as our phantom community: the self is constantly experiencing events and making decisions in the context of an internal dialogue, the "soliloquy of the self." Constantly. At times of inner turmoil, we experience discord between the various speakers. In the normal course of events, we don't even notice that these conversations are taking place.
One of the important ways in which we define ourselves is by choosing the members of the "committee in our heads," and by disagreeing with the malevolent members while taking support from the nurturing members.
Like a typical faculty meeting, in other words.
Now, Rhodes doesn't spend an awful lot of the book discussing HEALTHY people and the way in which their personalities interact with this committee. And I'll grant that the subject of the creation of violent criminals, while perhaps topical and exciting, may not be everyone's cup of tea. I read about half of this book quite a while ago, and put it down. The recent cinema massacre, and the questions it brings up: "How could someone become so evil?" etc., drew me back to revisit it. Unexpectedly, the book takes a sharp turn about 250 pages in, as Athens' work takes up a broader range of human behavior.
It seems to me that Lonnie Athens' work does no less than put forth a novel, logical, and maybe even useful way of considering personality development and how we cope from day to day with the challenges and decisions of life. The fact that he does so while also developing a radical new way of thinking about justice, societal support, crime and punishment was, frankly, astonishing.
In my opinion, this is a very important book and I hope my review encourages you to read it.
I only picked the book up because I have read and enjoyed other books by Richard Rhodes. As it turns out, Rhodes and his brother underwent some of the process of violentization as children, as did Athens. If you've ever wondered why some people with shitty childhoods turn out very, very bad, while others seem to do much better, this book explains - in detail - how that happens.