What if we were to discover that a different type of human being is living among us? And what if we found out that this type of person is responsible for most of the violence and greed in our world? Amazing as it may seem, that is exactly what modern psychology is telling us.

A small proportion of people who suffer from psychologically abnormal personalities have, throughout history, had an immeasurable detrimental impact on our societies, our politics and our world. Enabled by their ruthlessness to readily acquire positions of power, they have long dominated the psychologically normal majority of the world’s population.

However a historical change of fundamental importance for the future of the human race is underway, in which the psychologically normal majority have begun to overcome the tyranny of this pathological minority. This change has gathered pace over the last three centuries as the majority have devised various means to protect themselves, namely democracy, the rule of law, and protection for individual human rights. Today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the struggle for the emancipation of humanity continues as people with dangerous personality disorders still remain in positions of power around the world – in governments, corporations, religious organisations and local communities.

My forthcoming book Imperfect Design explores what we know about the dangerous personality disorders that cause so much of the world’s suffering, and the ongoing struggle to wrestle power from those with these disorders in order to create a more humane world.

You can find out more about my book here and visit my blog here.

Header photo credit: The PIX-JOCKEY (photo manipulation) via photopin cc