Reply #28: I recently read a book by a psychiatrist, Justin Frank

[Time for change]

who comes to much the same conclusions about this that you have. It's called "Bush on the Couch":
http://hnn.us/articles/7106.html
It is essentially a psychoanalysis of Bush, and it expresses many of the ideas in your above post.

I have no doubt that the issues that you describe and that are described in Dr. Frank's book are real and pervasive in our world.

But Peck's idea of evil was something beyond that, and which is less common. It's hard to explain the differences, but I can think of one important one. You note that this problem "aint going away unless treated", and and Frank says much the same thing.

But the evil that Peck talks about is not even treatable. And mainly it's not treatable because the patient has no desire whatsoever to be treated. It's also more malignant than what you're talking about, though it's difficult to explain in what way. Suffice it to say that Peck was talking about the evil of a Hitler.

I would very much like to know if he would put Bush in that same category. I strongly suspect that we would.