EVIL
THE DARK SIDE OF HUMAN MIND
by Lauri Nummenmaa
Pahuus. Ihmisluonnon pimeä puoli, Tammi 2022, 384pp
Why do people commit acts of evil?
This groundbreaking work by one of Finland’s leading brain researchers explains why some of us slip from minor misdeeds to crime and violence.
To truly understand evil, we have to look it straight in the eye. Only then can we tame the cruelty of the human mind and control its killer instincts, argues leading Finnish psychologist and neurobiology expert, Professor Lauri Nummenmaa.
Human history is full of murder, abuse, enslavement, rape, and crime. In hunter-gatherer times, straying onto another tribe’s land was a death sentence. In the present day, despite environmental and societal changes, acts of evil continue to be perpetrated as the human mind is unable to understand the true nature of evil.
Proximity and other people in our lives are of immense importance. Yet conflicts inevitably arise when individuals’ goals conflict with those of others. That’s why some of us fight, bully, and pursue others’ interests at all costs, sometimes leading to bullying, racism, domestic violence, rape, and war.
And yet, no one admits to being evil themselves, nor do they want to accept anyone else is evil.
Authoritative, engaging, and relevant, Nummenmaa’s book opens up the dark side of the human mind to examine the biological, psychological, and moral nature of evil as well as how the new, technological advancements in neural imaging enable us to look more deeply into the mind.
RIGHTS SOLD: Finland Tammi (orig.)
Materials available: English sample and synopsis, Finnish edition
is one of Finland’s leading brain researchers and an internationally renowned name in emotion research. He works as a professor of medical image processing and modelling at the University of Turku, leading the Human Emotion Systems laboratory and heading up the Psychology department at the university. Nummenmaa has studied emotions for more than 15 years and published more than 130 scientific articles on the psychology and brain mechanisms of emotions and sociality. He is a former Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge (2007-2008). Nummenmaa is also a licensed psychologist and sought-after lecturer and speaker.
Author portrait by Jenni Virta
