The tyranny of malice: Exploring the dark side of character and culture - Softcover

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Berke explores the implications of unacknowledged envy, greed, and jealousy originating in latent feelings of inferiority. These malign influences range from invidious sibling rivalry to journalism's pandering to public envy of the successful and even to the group rancor of unbridled nationalism. But the dark imperative of aggressive envy is Berke's major focus; and the antidote is to acknowledge its narcissistic origins and to acknowledge our fundamental desire to admire. Though there is an extensive and valuable set of bibliographic notes, the book is a conglomeration of unsystematic miscellanea with too few conclusions. For larger collections. William Abrams, Portland State Univ. Lib., Ore.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Berke's premise is that envy, greed and jealousy are the hidden engine of human behavior, forged in the crucible of interpersonal conflict between sibling and sibling, parents and children. These destructive impulses are said to ultimately find expression in competing nationalisms and global wars. It is a promising thesis, but this entertaining hodge-podge does not support it. Berke, a British doctor, crams in a wealth of intriguing material on advertising tactics, womb envy, the nurturing breast, phallic amulets, witches and fairy tales as archaic memories of childhood, Victorian attitudes toward child sexuality, and much else. Trenchant observations ("Ivan Boesky was proud of both his financial success and his greed") appear side-by-side with glib generalizations and oversimplifications (" . . . the whole of Genesis is essentially a discourse about sibling rivalry"). In discussing institutionalized envy, Berke betrays his own biases against "ingrateful" Third-World nations, trade unions and welfare recipients.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.