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Adolph Eichmann's deceptions and crimes are emblematic of an attempted disguise of evil and the consequences of the absence of empathy (i.e., Arendt's “thoughtlessness”), for understanding the world and constructing “reality.” Both relativistic and absolutist approaches to evil are rejected in recognition that the themes that define evil are not only ambiguous and contradictory, but also entangled with each other. Eichmann's crimes are viewed in different contexts which, when contrasted, clarify evil as reciprocally located in individual and social processes. “Evil” emerges as a conceptual framework for making the world intelligible and a source of meaning. It involves both a construction of and assault on reality. Evil acts become comprehensible only within the web of beliefs in which they occur. The imbrication of ideology and deception as cause and effects of evil become evident as the “banality of evil” is contrasted with “radical evil.”

Using the Ferenczi–Freud relationship, which culminated in Ferenczi's decision to read his Confusion of Tongues (1933) paper to Freud as a clinical example, the conflict between the need to belong expressed through sharing ideas and the need for individuation by being faithful to one’s own beliefs is explored. The need for the group to enforce conformity of thought, the vehemence of the response to deviant ideas, the need for and costs of membership, as well as the sacrifices the individual is willing to endure for both belonging and individuation, are taken as evidence of the centrality of psychological issues involved, including love, power, submission, and separation raised by the poles of the conflict that may exceed the ultimate validity of the particular idea, its role in psychic structure at least as important as the idea itself. The various sources of vehemence, as well as the fate of deviant ideas, are discussed. The problem of dissidence in psychoanalysis is compared to the problem of dissidence...

(2012). A Dallas Doctor Who Spoke Truth to Power: Three Perspectives. Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings: Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 254-264.

The extent of the winner-loser anomaly on the Austalian equities market for the period 1974–91 is examined. Documentation of the contrarian strategy is argued as being invalid unless compensation i...