I like the perspective of talking about healing rather than evil.

I used to believe there were truly no "evil" people in this world, only broken ones. I am no longer so certain of that. But it's an issue not easily discussed in a forum. And I'll pass on that one.

I think the key for an individual is a certain amount of humility. That is learning to have a matter-of-fact and balanced view of ones weaknessess and one's strengths and learning to lessen the one and build on the other.

We've been raised to believe that our inadequacies are cause for shame and I think that's where the problem lies for many. We think we need to hide our weaknessess. But in trying to hide them we never are able to own them and work on them.

When some hear, "You are defensive." they hear some kind of blame being cast because they haven't yet been able to understand that there is no blame involved. And, of course, it does matter on how the information is given.

That's why, while I appreciate psychiatric labels as a handy-dandy method of conveying a great deal of information in a single word, one must be careful to not assign a value judgement to the label.

There are degrees of illness for all of us and we are not necessarily stuck there. Knowing the truth about ourselves is the beginning. And recognizing that a person seeking health is not in stasis.

We are all either moving toward the light or the darkness.