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as Gacy once said, “A clown can get away with murder,” and he did—raping, sodomizing, torturing, and strangling to death 33 young men over the course of more than a decade.
    Theodore Robert “Ted” Bundy’s mother considered him an ideal son. His political friends were convinced he was on the fast track in the legal profession and would one day be a governor or a senator. Dashingly handsome, intelligent, and witty, Bundy was a romantic dream come true for many women. Some described him as an attentive, tender lover who sent flowers and penned love poems. A photo shows Bundy immersed in happy domesticity, opening a bottle of wine as he sits with a girlfriend. At the moment the photo was taken, Bundy had already abducted and murdered 24 women and committed necrophilia with their bodies.
    How is it possible for someone who appears to be the guy next door to commit multiple horrific murders? And why are we so fascinated with those who commit such crimes? People have always been gripped by the dark side of human behavior. Our minds follow an inescapable syllogism: “I am human. Serial killers are human. Am I, like them, capable of monstrous deeds?” Most people, having posed this question to themselves, conclude that the answer is “No, I am not even capable of thinking about such evil.”
    The Rope of Evil
    As with pornography, most people recognize evil when they see it. Reaching a universal definition of evil, however, is impossible. Evil is a complicated concept, akin to a thick rope of many strands in which philosophers and theologians become entangled. Evil is in the eye of the beholder, influenced by social, political, religious, philosophical, psychological, and other factors. For example, combatants frequently demonize their enemies as evil, even while each side is certain that God is on its side. The 9/11 terrorists believed that murdering thousands of innocent people would ensure their entrance into Paradise. Antiabortionists who kill doctors or other abortion clinic personnel contend that they are killing murderers. As a psychiatrist and forensic psychiatrist, I will tug at just one strand of the rope of evil, the psychological strand.
    Here, in psychological terms, is a working and admittedly imperfect definition: Evil is the intentional, gratuitous, or, on occasion, unintentional infliction of harm by individuals, committed against other individuals, groups, or entire societies. I include unintended acts in the definition because heedless self-indulgence may lead to negligent deeds that produce unintended harm, as when drunken drivers cause deadly accidents. I exclude wars in which millions of people are killed, and which are declared “just” or “unjust” by participants on one side or the other, both praying for victory and convinced that God is with them and not with their enemies. My purpose is to isolate and focus on the inner psychological mechanisms that play essential roles when humans harm each other.
    Evil is interpersonal. If you doubt that, read the Ten Commandments: their admonishments and strictures apply to the evils that beset our relationships with man and with God, but mostly with man. Evil is the exclusive province of human beings; it does not take place among animals. Harm directed at inanimate objects is not considered evil unless there is a concurrent element of human suffering. Thoughts that are considered evil invariably deal with doing harm to other human beings.
    Psychiatrists are medically trained in and wedded to the use of the scientific method, so they avoid applying the term evil to the aberrant or horrible acts they are sometimes called upon to understand and explain. Psychiatrists observe causes and effects in human behavior and try not to be judgmental about them. The determination that a particular behavior is or is not evil is a moral judgment, and what society may label as evil behavior the psychiatrist tries to understand within the framework of mental illness and