Phirun 1

Sophal Phirun (Ted)

ESL 33B
Dr. Salazar-Romo
Evil Pathology
Every day in life, there are many sequence and event relate to what people belief what is
right and wrong. As day one born as a baby, it is impossible to absorb the environment to create
someone to be another person. To me, evil is part of emotional belief relate to humanity that
cause the effect to other. How do psychologists understand such transformation of human
behavior? Why Hitler became one of the world ruthless genocide leader in the world committed
an act and show no mercy to human life and hunt down Jewish religious people? When it comes
to define a truth about evil, there are tremendous explanation and thought in every aspect in the
world.
To begin with, according to H. Fenchel stated that the existence of the concepts of good
and evil can found in most human beings as they define their relationship to the universe and to
each other. There needs to be a duality for the sake of definition and therefore human beings live
life within such duality. Neither concept can exist without reference to other. Whether we define
the polarities in religious terms that foreshadow what may become of us when our earthly
existence is terminated or define it in existential terminology, polarities drive us as long as we
are live(86). The author believes that each and everyone of us born as a harmless human being,
but the evil is part of us whom created it in ourselves because of what we belief and turn the
thought of evil in us in to actions. H. Fenchel points out that we can only be certain of one
fact: human nature is expressed with exhibited affect most of time the time. The emotions most

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universally exhibited are joy, grief, excitement and sympathy (84). As we explored the aspect
define of evil from one prospective, and now we move on to the next definition of good and bad.
Pursuing this further, the word evil offers variety of lesson. Its use as a foundation
theological or philosophical principle relates to human being. More people have let go of their
faith and belief because of the evil problem. Ervin Staub, Presidential column, contends that To
me, evil means great human destructiveness. Evil can come in an obvious form such as a
genocide. Or it can come in a smaller acts of persistent harm doing, the effects of which
accumulate, like parents being hostile and punitive, or a child being picked on by peers day after
day for a long time(Ph.1). The author emphasizes that, What is the role of psychology in
relation to goodness and evil? One obvious role is to study the influences that lead to great or
persistent acts of harm or benefit. We can study the psychological processes, such as anger,
hostility, the devaluation of people, empathy or its absence, and a feeling of responsibility for
others welfare, that make a person act in destructive or caring ways(Ph.2). From time to time
human being emerges because of the lack of empathy when we are connected, and we become
more offensive and emotional.
Dr. Philip George Zimbardo, A psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford
University, demonstrates that There are three ways of human character define evil. The main
way is called dispositional. We look at whats inside of the person, the bad apple. Second,
Situational: External: the bad barrel, and the third one is Systematic: Broad influences: political,
economic, legal power: the bad barrel- makes. Dr. Zimbardo also mentioned that This is the
foundation of all of social science, the foundation of religion, the foundation of war. Social
psychologist like me come along and say, Yeah, people are the actors on the stage, but youll
have to be aware of the situation. Who are the cast of characters? Whats the costume? Is there a

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stage director? And so were interested in what are the external factors around the individual,
the bad barrel? The power is in the system, the system creates the situation that corrupts the
individuals, and the system is the legal, political, economic, cultural background. And this is
where the power is of the bad-barrel makers. If you want to change a person, change the
situation. And to change it, youve got to know where the power is, in the system. What do the
people bring into the situation? What does the situation bring out of them? And what is the
system that creates and maintains that situation. Zimbardo, Philip. The psychology of evil.
TED. February 2008. Lecture.
Base on my personal of my home country define a bitter story of evil effect people lives
and trauma stress disorder. Tyner, Sirik, and Henkin justifies that between 1975 and 1979,
approximately two million people were killed in the Cambodia genocide. The Communist Part of
Kampuchea (CPK better known as the Khmer Rouge) is considered one of the most brutal and
repressive regimes of the twentieth century. Between April 17, 1975, and January 6, 1979, the
CPK carried out a program of organized mass violence that resulted in the death of
approximately two million people. Upwards of one million died from direct violence: torture,
murder, and execution. The remainder dead from starvation-related causes, lack of medical care,
exposure, and exhaustion. The authors comments that There is a second and equally
important component of CPK administrative practice that bears on the geographic manifestation
of violence. It is well documented that many building were demolished by the Khmer Rouge, or
employed for other uses. Many banks and other governmental buildings were destroyed, while
religious structures, for example, were used as armories or granaries. This CPK practice,
however, was again not indiscriminate. Instead, the socio-spatial organization of activities,
whether economic or military, was determined by two factors: conversion and continuity (282).

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My mom has been a victim of this cruel genocide era that under a leader which destroy and
killed their own blood peoples. She described when she was young during that time, she was
assigned to harvest the rice and cooking. She mentioned that everyone doesnt have enough food
and supplies except to those are working with the CPK. CPK taught kids to use guns and brainwasted to be another kid for the CPK. She witness a cold blood armies that will kill innocent
peoples for no reason or being accused for not listen to the leader. Everyone in that era has to
dress in black color, and they cant betray the order. Lacks of food and rest made peoples sneak
outside at night tried to find fruit on the tree, or hunt any insect or animals they possibly can find.
If they got caught by the peoples from CPK they will be told that they have to on to another
shelter in another province, their eyes will be cover, and its a lie because they will bring them to
executed. Peoples were forced to move outside the city and live in the province and kept the city
for their prison and personal uses. Smart and knowledge peoples such as government or used to
have previous education from abroad will be executed.
This genocide era compared to Dr. Zimbardo definition is relate to Systematic or the
barrel maker because the leader of CPK named as Pol Pot use the strategy as a leader and
killed any smart peoples to gain his dominance and create his own world. Such as armies and
peoples that followed him should be listen and respect him as a dictator leader. I believed that
Pol Pot is the only dictator leader who against his own race and enjoy his killing spree on two
millions peoples.
To wrap it all up, evil followed us everywhere and everyday, even in the happiest country
or the poorest country. Evil changed every aspect of human being life from become a better
person. Acts harm to other people and acts in internationally way. The phycologist of evil will
never disappeared and its all started from human act.

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Worked Cited
Fenchel, Gerd H. "Good And Evil." Issues In Psychoanalytic Psychology 35.1 (2013): 78-87.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Georgescu, Peter. Understanding the Meaning of Evil. Huffpost Religion. 28 March, 2013.
Web. 3 March. 2016.
Staub, Ervin. Good and Evil and Psychological Science. Association For Psychological
Science. Vol. 14. May/June, 2001. Web. 3 March. 2016.
Tyner, James, Savina Sirik, and Samuel Henkin. "Violence And The Dialectics Of Landscape:
Memorialization In Cambodia." Geographical Review 104.3 (2014): 277-293. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.
Zimbardo, Philip. The psychology of evil. TED. February 2008. Lecture.

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