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我們都是惡人: 從人際關係到國際政治, 由心理學認識人類生來就要作惡的本性, 我們該如何與惡相處並利用其正面價值?
說來悲哀又弔詭，促進人類締造卓越成就的特質，也很可能導致人類自取滅亡。
如今，人類坐擁威力無與倫比的武器，同時顯然並未內建防止同類相殺的保護機制……
希望有朝一日見到現世安穩，除了考量政治、經濟等因素，也要同等地重視人類的心理層面。
──摘自本書前言
／惡，究竟是什麼？／
霸凌、掠奪、傷害等本能從何而來？
佛洛伊德曾坦承對於人類的攻擊天性「未能充分關注」，
阿德勒提出攻擊性是「追求優越」時卻遭反彈。
明明從嬰兒時期開始，人類就是破壞的天生能手，
為什麼學者曾經如此難以面對「人性本惡」的事實？
更重要的是──我們如何完美維持與惡的距離，並與之和平共處？
◎獨裁政權的高壓治國方式較能維持和平？
◎民主社會確保各種意見的自由，卻也較易動盪不安……
◎動物界中的打鬥，其實是帶來族群和平的儀式？
◎人類是少數會以他人之苦為樂的物種？
◎鄰國的侵略，竟能為一個國家創造團結與幸福……
◎為何人類曾經一度深深接納「猶太人不是人」這種明顯不合理的荒唐說法？
◎為什麼每個社會都存在著遭汙名的弱勢族群？
◎限縮軍武竟無法真正達到世界和平的理想……
人類生來就有想像他人痛苦的同理能力，為什麼同時也有創造仇恨的挑釁慾望？史脫爾對惡的剖析，從個體推至群體，依序藉家庭內虐待案例、凶殺案、大屠殺歷史事件、國際戰爭，試圖從各種社會層面完整闡明惡之天性。
全書共十二章，讀者首先從動物行為學角度認識：但凡必須確保生存的場域，就有所謂「必要之惡」的存在。兒童時期與成年後的惡，又分別展現了對外對內的攻擊性與推動力。在社會事件、法庭案例裡，對「病態人格」、「孤僻人格」的探討，深刻挖掘社會定義之下的「非正常」，或許正是人類理性的危險邊緣。終章意欲總結全書，為紛亂的現世提供打造團結社會的方法──接納「人性本惡」，認可惡的正面意義，於是我們便可能發現：小至說謊大至戰爭，「惡」竟能創造個體存續與群體的和平安定？
惡並不等於仇恨，它同時也是人類對阻礙的克服力，與對險惡環境的主宰力。我們該做的是真正認識它，而非一味壓抑或避而不談。唯有直面人類性本惡，才有機會降低其破壞力，減緩隨之而來的傷害，並善用它正面的力量。作者曾經歷經戰爭，為了積極尋找和平的可能，並在下一次戰亂發生之前防範未然，便寫下《我們都是惡人》，期盼人類能更深刻地認識自己。
如今，人類坐擁威力無與倫比的武器，同時顯然並未內建防止同類相殺的保護機制……
希望有朝一日見到現世安穩，除了考量政治、經濟等因素，也要同等地重視人類的心理層面。
──摘自本書前言
／惡，究竟是什麼？／
霸凌、掠奪、傷害等本能從何而來？
佛洛伊德曾坦承對於人類的攻擊天性「未能充分關注」，
阿德勒提出攻擊性是「追求優越」時卻遭反彈。
明明從嬰兒時期開始，人類就是破壞的天生能手，
為什麼學者曾經如此難以面對「人性本惡」的事實？
更重要的是──我們如何完美維持與惡的距離，並與之和平共處？
◎獨裁政權的高壓治國方式較能維持和平？
◎民主社會確保各種意見的自由，卻也較易動盪不安……
◎動物界中的打鬥，其實是帶來族群和平的儀式？
◎人類是少數會以他人之苦為樂的物種？
◎鄰國的侵略，竟能為一個國家創造團結與幸福……
◎為何人類曾經一度深深接納「猶太人不是人」這種明顯不合理的荒唐說法？
◎為什麼每個社會都存在著遭汙名的弱勢族群？
◎限縮軍武竟無法真正達到世界和平的理想……
人類生來就有想像他人痛苦的同理能力，為什麼同時也有創造仇恨的挑釁慾望？史脫爾對惡的剖析，從個體推至群體，依序藉家庭內虐待案例、凶殺案、大屠殺歷史事件、國際戰爭，試圖從各種社會層面完整闡明惡之天性。
全書共十二章，讀者首先從動物行為學角度認識：但凡必須確保生存的場域，就有所謂「必要之惡」的存在。兒童時期與成年後的惡，又分別展現了對外對內的攻擊性與推動力。在社會事件、法庭案例裡，對「病態人格」、「孤僻人格」的探討，深刻挖掘社會定義之下的「非正常」，或許正是人類理性的危險邊緣。終章意欲總結全書，為紛亂的現世提供打造團結社會的方法──接納「人性本惡」，認可惡的正面意義，於是我們便可能發現：小至說謊大至戰爭，「惡」竟能創造個體存續與群體的和平安定？
惡並不等於仇恨，它同時也是人類對阻礙的克服力，與對險惡環境的主宰力。我們該做的是真正認識它，而非一味壓抑或避而不談。唯有直面人類性本惡，才有機會降低其破壞力，減緩隨之而來的傷害，並善用它正面的力量。作者曾經歷經戰爭，為了積極尋找和平的可能，並在下一次戰亂發生之前防範未然，便寫下《我們都是惡人》，期盼人類能更深刻地認識自己。
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1968
15 people are currently reading
441 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Storr
49 books166 followersAnthony Storr was an English psychiatrist and author. He was a child who was to endure the typical trauma of early 20th century UK boarding schools. He was educated at Winchester, Christ's College, the University of Cambridge and Westminster Hospital. He qualified as a doctor in 1944, and subsequently specialized in psychiatry.
Storr grew up to be kind and insightful, yet, as his obituary states, he was "no stranger to suffering" and was himself allegedly prone to the frequent bouts of depression his mother had.
Today, Anthony Storr is known for his psychoanalytical portraits of historical figures.
Storr grew up to be kind and insightful, yet, as his obituary states, he was "no stranger to suffering" and was himself allegedly prone to the frequent bouts of depression his mother had.
Today, Anthony Storr is known for his psychoanalytical portraits of historical figures.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 18, 2016
A very interesting and comprehensive study (for its time) on the aggressive behaviour of the human species. Poses a lot of interesting questions in the shadow of WWII and discusses the need for further research on the human mind (which, 40+ years later, we are still following). Recommend to anyone with an interest in psychology, but remember that this is not a new piece of scientific literature, and some of the things in it have been debunked by modern research.
November 18, 2025
Concise, depressing read. Sometimes Storr gets a little too Freudian, but I still think many of his instincts are useful.
December 12, 2024
...we know in our hearts that each one of us harbours within himself... savage impulses which lead to murder, to torture and to war.
From this most Jungian introduction ever, Storr goes on to state and "prove" that not only do we all have the capacity for great violence, but that we generally take pleasure in inflicting it upon others. To these underlying fallacies, I call bullshit. Despite the indoctrination called education that many of us endure from adolescence, violence is NOT a natural impulse of all or even the majority of humanity. It is, rather, the provenance of the sociopath--the predators amongst us who wear human costumes and aggressively seek (and thus disproportionally achieve) positions of authority over their prey.
Human Aggression joins Consciousness Explained, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, and Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and other pseudo-intellectual work with the imprimatur but none of the methodology of science. I thus classify these under Science with great hesitation. These and many like them represent scientific approaches to sociology and psychology only to the extent that they have been uncritically accepted as such.
Like its fellows in the cesspool of Spencerian social Darwinist propaganda, Storr here is effectively justifying the atrocities man has inflicted and continues to inflict upon those he sees as inferior, weaker, less-deserving, and different from himself. In other words, "man" described here is the one-dimensional Homus Economus, the caricature invented for the liberal economic model that holds that we act in near-perfect rational economic self-interest, which rationale naturally subordinates any other possible consideration for one's behaviour. Storr is at great pains to show that violent aggression is not only innate but is also necessary for biological survival. It's not clear where the line rests for Storr between acceptable and unacceptable violent expression, and he expressly credits innate aggression with sustaining "necessary" social hierarchies (pp.45-48) and for the strongest humans to "be selected and flourish" (pp.51).
While Storr spends much of the latter half of his essay on overcoming our universal murderous impulses, and indeed devotes an entire nine pages to psychopathic aggression, the basis here is simply post-hoc justification dressed up as objective observation. Storr notes that his observations should be a sobering thought to those idealists who conceive that society's primary link is that of brotherly love pp.51.
One can readily spot these sorts of frauds by their repeated references to a conventional wisdom or the "widely accepted" view, such as Storr's comment on pp.16: It is widely accepted that the infant is potentially aggressive from the moment of birth, and psycho-analysts with special experience in treating small children claim that even infants inevitably entertain destructive phantasies of terrifying intensity (no citations).
A few more:
It is expected that primitive man... would tend to live in a state of perpetual war with other tribes. Such indeed is generally the case pp.57 (no citation).
Spurious arguments for the necessity and even benefits of war in the form of the arts, pp.77-78 (no citations).
Disagreement, controversy, and even competitive striving have a positive function in human existence pp.83 (no citation).
Women only tend to show aggression towards other women who might become a rival for the male's affections pp.86 and it is the aggressive woman who resents the male and who is unconsciously competing with him who constitutes the commoner problem in our culture (source: Storr's own asshole).
The final chapter, Ways of reducing hostility, I thought may be worth a read. Storr points to the benefits of international exchange and the institutional assumption of similarity (the Russians love their children too) in helping humanity reduce irrational hostility. pp.155-8. His suggestion for the UN to take the concept of the Nobel Peace Prize and extend this to nation states, to hold friendly competitions around creativity and human progression (e.g. which nation can design the best council house). While it would of course be better if we could cooperate on such endeavors, it's not a ridiculous suggestion - if we could handicap the wealthiest nations appropriately. Unfortunately, Storr then launches into a fully Malthusian argument that we must dramatically reduce the population of the earth by imposing birth control on all nations receiving some form of humanitarian aid. Want antibiotics? Tie those tubes! If not that, then it's the nukes.
From this most Jungian introduction ever, Storr goes on to state and "prove" that not only do we all have the capacity for great violence, but that we generally take pleasure in inflicting it upon others. To these underlying fallacies, I call bullshit. Despite the indoctrination called education that many of us endure from adolescence, violence is NOT a natural impulse of all or even the majority of humanity. It is, rather, the provenance of the sociopath--the predators amongst us who wear human costumes and aggressively seek (and thus disproportionally achieve) positions of authority over their prey.
Human Aggression joins Consciousness Explained, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, and Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and other pseudo-intellectual work with the imprimatur but none of the methodology of science. I thus classify these under Science with great hesitation. These and many like them represent scientific approaches to sociology and psychology only to the extent that they have been uncritically accepted as such.
Like its fellows in the cesspool of Spencerian social Darwinist propaganda, Storr here is effectively justifying the atrocities man has inflicted and continues to inflict upon those he sees as inferior, weaker, less-deserving, and different from himself. In other words, "man" described here is the one-dimensional Homus Economus, the caricature invented for the liberal economic model that holds that we act in near-perfect rational economic self-interest, which rationale naturally subordinates any other possible consideration for one's behaviour. Storr is at great pains to show that violent aggression is not only innate but is also necessary for biological survival. It's not clear where the line rests for Storr between acceptable and unacceptable violent expression, and he expressly credits innate aggression with sustaining "necessary" social hierarchies (pp.45-48) and for the strongest humans to "be selected and flourish" (pp.51).
While Storr spends much of the latter half of his essay on overcoming our universal murderous impulses, and indeed devotes an entire nine pages to psychopathic aggression, the basis here is simply post-hoc justification dressed up as objective observation. Storr notes that his observations should be a sobering thought to those idealists who conceive that society's primary link is that of brotherly love pp.51.
One can readily spot these sorts of frauds by their repeated references to a conventional wisdom or the "widely accepted" view, such as Storr's comment on pp.16: It is widely accepted that the infant is potentially aggressive from the moment of birth, and psycho-analysts with special experience in treating small children claim that even infants inevitably entertain destructive phantasies of terrifying intensity (no citations).
A few more:
It is expected that primitive man... would tend to live in a state of perpetual war with other tribes. Such indeed is generally the case pp.57 (no citation).
Spurious arguments for the necessity and even benefits of war in the form of the arts, pp.77-78 (no citations).
Disagreement, controversy, and even competitive striving have a positive function in human existence pp.83 (no citation).
Women only tend to show aggression towards other women who might become a rival for the male's affections pp.86 and it is the aggressive woman who resents the male and who is unconsciously competing with him who constitutes the commoner problem in our culture (source: Storr's own asshole).
The final chapter, Ways of reducing hostility, I thought may be worth a read. Storr points to the benefits of international exchange and the institutional assumption of similarity (the Russians love their children too) in helping humanity reduce irrational hostility. pp.155-8. His suggestion for the UN to take the concept of the Nobel Peace Prize and extend this to nation states, to hold friendly competitions around creativity and human progression (e.g. which nation can design the best council house). While it would of course be better if we could cooperate on such endeavors, it's not a ridiculous suggestion - if we could handicap the wealthiest nations appropriately. Unfortunately, Storr then launches into a fully Malthusian argument that we must dramatically reduce the population of the earth by imposing birth control on all nations receiving some form of humanitarian aid. Want antibiotics? Tie those tubes! If not that, then it's the nukes.
October 19, 2014
3.5 stars.
October 29, 2019
Author was very familiar with the subject
Aggression whether Innate or a product of environment
Frustration leads to aggression and aggression leads to war, rampage...
Without aggression the world wouldn't have moved to this present level..
He analysed how sex stimulate aggression and how mentally imbalance people use aggression to exercise their inner wound.
An emotional factor played a vital role balancing and denting the world
Superb book!
Aggression whether Innate or a product of environment
Frustration leads to aggression and aggression leads to war, rampage...
Without aggression the world wouldn't have moved to this present level..
He analysed how sex stimulate aggression and how mentally imbalance people use aggression to exercise their inner wound.
An emotional factor played a vital role balancing and denting the world
Superb book!
Want to read
June 11, 2020Place holder.
Had an interesting discussion with another clueless on twitter and he mentioned this book.
Digital library doesn't have it so I'll have to wait until the physical ones are open.
Had an interesting discussion with another clueless on twitter and he mentioned this book.
Digital library doesn't have it so I'll have to wait until the physical ones are open.
December 27, 2012
Amazing book..
April 1, 2021
Excellent book!
June 10, 2022
not good
April 23, 2015
clumsy and wordy
May 2, 2017
العدوان البشري كتاب مهم للطبيب النفسي انتوني ستور
ورغم ان هذا الكتاب صدر في السبعينات اي ان هناك الكثير من المعلومات والابحاث الواردة فيه قديمة إلا انه يحتوي على معلومات قيمة جدا
الكتاب يشير الى حقائق مهمة عن فكرة العدوان البشري واسبابه ومنها
العدوان البشري جزء غريزي من الطبيعة البشرية يمكن التقليل منه ولكن لا يمكن التخلص منه تماما
لأن العدوان ضروري من اجل اثبات الانسان لذاته ووجوده وتمرده على حياته كما انه يفيد في سعيه للسيطرة على البيئة المحيطة به
ولولا هذا العدوان لما استطاع الانسان ان يتحكم في العالم ويتطور ويخترع كل هذه الاشياء
العدوان لا وجود له في مملكة الحيوان كما يشاع , فالحيوانات لا تقتل بني جنسها مطلقا والحيوانات المتوحشة تقتل الفرائس من اجل الطعام فقط ولكنها لا تتلذذ
بتعذيب الفريسة ولا تكن لها اي كراهية او ضغينة
والحيوانات تتنافس على السيطرة و الزعامة كما تتنافس على الاناث
ولكنها في حالة انهزامها لا تعمد الى قتل بعضها
بينما البشر لديهم ميول سادية وفصامية تجعلهم يتلذذون بتعذيب الخصوم والقتل من اجل المتعة
وقدرة البشر على اسقاط مشاعرهم على الصخية او الخصم هي التي تجعلهم يعمدون الى الانتقام منه والتلذذ بتعذيبه
لا يرى انتوني ستور أن العدوان البشري يمكن أن ينتهي تماما فهو يراه بشكل واقعي كجزء من الصراع بين البشر للسيطرة على الارض والموارد
ولكنه يرى أنه يمكن التقليل والتخفيف منه فقط
ترجمة الكتاب جيدة في المجمل رغم ان هناك بعض العبارات فيها كانت غير واضحة بالنسبة لي
والكتاب رغم حجمه الصغير لكنه سيغير رؤيتك لفكرة العدوان
التقييم 3 من 5
ورغم ان هذا الكتاب صدر في السبعينات اي ان هناك الكثير من المعلومات والابحاث الواردة فيه قديمة إلا انه يحتوي على معلومات قيمة جدا
الكتاب يشير الى حقائق مهمة عن فكرة العدوان البشري واسبابه ومنها
العدوان البشري جزء غريزي من الطبيعة البشرية يمكن التقليل منه ولكن لا يمكن التخلص منه تماما
لأن العدوان ضروري من اجل اثبات الانسان لذاته ووجوده وتمرده على حياته كما انه يفيد في سعيه للسيطرة على البيئة المحيطة به
ولولا هذا العدوان لما استطاع الانسان ان يتحكم في العالم ويتطور ويخترع كل هذه الاشياء
العدوان لا وجود له في مملكة الحيوان كما يشاع , فالحيوانات لا تقتل بني جنسها مطلقا والحيوانات المتوحشة تقتل الفرائس من اجل الطعام فقط ولكنها لا تتلذذ
بتعذيب الفريسة ولا تكن لها اي كراهية او ضغينة
والحيوانات تتنافس على السيطرة و الزعامة كما تتنافس على الاناث
ولكنها في حالة انهزامها لا تعمد الى قتل بعضها
بينما البشر لديهم ميول سادية وفصامية تجعلهم يتلذذون بتعذيب الخصوم والقتل من اجل المتعة
وقدرة البشر على اسقاط مشاعرهم على الصخية او الخصم هي التي تجعلهم يعمدون الى الانتقام منه والتلذذ بتعذيبه
لا يرى انتوني ستور أن العدوان البشري يمكن أن ينتهي تماما فهو يراه بشكل واقعي كجزء من الصراع بين البشر للسيطرة على الارض والموارد
ولكنه يرى أنه يمكن التقليل والتخفيف منه فقط
ترجمة الكتاب جيدة في المجمل رغم ان هناك بعض العبارات فيها كانت غير واضحة بالنسبة لي
والكتاب رغم حجمه الصغير لكنه سيغير رؤيتك لفكرة العدوان
التقييم 3 من 5
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews