Soul Slayer– Psychological ‘Evil’, Spiritual ‘Evil’, or Both?

The one adjective I hear repeatedly connected to pathology is the word ‘evil.’ Spiritual, unspiritual, heathens, pagans, Christians, Jews, Buddists – it doesn’t matter. The word ‘evil’ is the chosen adjective-of-choice to describe pathology. But what IS evil? Is it more psychological than it is spiritual? Or is it a spiritual issue that has been picked up and defined psychologically? Are they the same thing?

I am not going to translate the lists below for you. They are self explanatory. I have taken the list from Old Testament (of the Jewish faith) and New Testament (of the Christian faith) as examples of the definition of ‘evil.’ You could most likely find similar definitions of evil in other religious texts.

Draw your own conclusions.

Description from the DSM About Socio/Psychopathy & Narcissism	Descriptions of Evil (Lucifer, Satan, etc.)
Grandiose, self important and pre occupied with self	Wants people to worship him
Fantasizes about power, brilliance, success, and money	Says to God “I WILL ascend, I Will Rise…” Showing power fantasies
Requires excessive admiration	Says “You WILL bow down to me”
Is entitled	Wants the same power as God, feels he’s as powerful as God
Exploits all relationships	Tries to lure others to do his dirty work in the world
Lacks empathy	Envious of others
Arrogant	Fails to follow laws or rules/uses unethical, unlawful and immoral behavior
Deceitful, lies, cons for fun or profit	Impulsive, wants it/takes it, sees it/does it
Aggression	Disregard for the safety of others, puts others at risk
Irresponsible–bad with supporting others	Lack of remorse, rationalizes stealing, lying, etc.

Other Characteristics (also mentioned in the Women Who Love Psychopaths book)

Description from the DSM About Socio/Psychopathy & Narcissism	Descriptions of Evil (Lucifer, Satan, etc.)
Pretends to be wonderful, helpful, supportive	Masquerades as the ‘Angel of Light’
Powerful	Often beautiful or handsome; Lucifer called ‘the most beautiful’, name means ‘the shining one’
Superior attitude toward others	Is superior to other angels in power and authority
Contempt for others, especially authority figures	Fights against God and wants His power
Uses power and authority over others	Called the Prince of Power
Prideful	Heart is filled with pride and contempt
Splits people against each other	Turned 1/3 of the angels against God and took them
Often rejected, expelled, dismissed, broken up with because of behavior	God expelled him from Heaven
Places are created to contain them: jail, prison, mental institutions, probation	God created a place to contain him in the future–Lake of Fire
Fights against any rules and others who try to make him conform	Fights against God to ruin and hinder His plans
Destroy and deceive others (and enjoy doing it)	Called ‘The Destroyer’ and “Deceiver”
Masquerades as anything you want him to be	Masquerades as the ‘Angel of Light’
Likes to scare others and show power so others fear him	Prowls like a roaring lion
Looks for someone to overpower and control	Prowls like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour
Bold, cunning, self ambitious	Boldness, subtlety in his cunning
Self willed and strong	Prideful self will
Narcissistic - wanting to be better than everyone else	Said “I will be like the Most High”
Fakes being wonderful, helpful, virtuous	Many false prophets have gone in the world (like him), performs lying ‘signs and wonders’
Accuses others	Called ‘The Accuser’
Adversary, enemy to any who turn against him	Called the Serpent or ‘Adversary’
Liar, tempter, thief	Referred to as a liar, thief and tempter
Motives are destructive to others	Motives are to deceive and afflict

It is clear in some spiritual texts that spiritual evil has almost no separation from psychological evil, or vice versa. There are some things we don’t totally understand such as how the spirit realm can affect the psychological realm, or how one’s pathology may taint their spirit. But it has been clear to me, and hundreds of survivors, that ‘evil’ straddles the vocabularies of both psychological definitions and spiritual ones as well.

The spiritual union of souls when united to a psychopath, is like none other. Those who have united in the spiritual realm can attest to the evil witnessed in that sharing.

There is still much to learn about how psychology and theology meld. A large portion of one of the chapters in Women Who Love Psychopaths as been devoted to this issue. Please check the chart in the book for a better grasp of this concept.