The Organization of Evil

Abstract

That men and women organize to commit evil can hardly be denied. But what is the ultimate source of these evil acts? Are most evildoers just following the orders of a twisted few? Or do even the bureaucrats of evil, such as Otto Adolf Eichmann, use their positions in the bureaucracy as an opportunity to satisfy their own rage and hatred? Drawing upon the psychoanalytic theory of Melanie Klein, this essay argues that there is indeed an in every one of us. The question is whether the part of us that Eichmann represents can be integrated with the part of us that loves and cares for others. The answer, it turns out, depends upon social as well as psychological forces.

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