The Mindset of Evil: A Writer's Reflection

I am fascinated with human psychology and the human mind—to be more specific, I'm super interested in criminal psychology: what makes people do the truly bad things that they do. I watch my fair share of crime documentaries and TV shows. These shows only reinforce the fact that we live in a broken world, one where evil is a real thing. The question becomes, can we explore evil without becoming it?

One show in particular that I have been working my way through is Criminal Minds. It's a show about the team at the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) and the cases they are called on to help solve. Every case deals with some sort of serial criminal. Each episode, the characters go on a wild ride to tell the story of some truly heinous crimes against humanity.

While I understand that this is a television show, and not necessarily real, many of the principles behind the writing stem from real cases and real behaviors that serial criminals have exhibited.

There are many aspects of the show worth talking about, but today I woke up thinking about the show from the writers' perspective. The creativity of the writers of that show is amazing—and disturbing—at the same time. And it makes me wonder how they are able to tell these stories without the evil taking it’s toll on their own minds.

As an fiction author, you have to be able to articulate the thoughts and actions of the characters you write about. It's a process of allowing your characters to communicate through you. The stories writers tell are all about setting the scenes, introducing the characters, and speaking on their behalf. Without the ability to do these things, the stories fall flat; the characters feel fake, and the whole thing collapses.

With something like Criminal Minds, it amazes me that there are people out there who can dive that deep into the psyche of characters that are that disturbed. Imagine getting inside the head of the worst person you know and living there long enough to be able to communicate their thoughts to others.

We live in a fallen world—a place where both good and evil exist. There is real evil in the world. There are people who have no respect for human life. They are governed by a set of principles that goes against everything that is good. They do not care whether they hurt others; they only care about their own self-indulgence and gratification.

I am not sure whether it is good or bad to write about these people. There is a school of thought that says by doing so, authors are feeding the beast, so to speak. If done properly, however, I believe writing about these evil people can help further our understanding of what makes them tick. Knowing how they think is an important part of being able to stop them.

However, in getting into the mind of evil people, writers must protect themselves against the evil they encounter. They need to make sure they don't spiral into madness, as it were. The best way to do this is to highlight the good guys in the story and make your readers understand that evil has consequences.

What do you think? Should we write about evil people and the things they do? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

—Daniel