Decode Your Dark Side

Good people do – and think – bad things. But, rather than shying away from our darkest thoughts, a new movement is encouraging us to embrace them. Are you ready? Charlotte Philby reports

- Charlotte Philby

What’s the worst thought you’ve ever had? Perhaps it was a desire to see someone you love fail, the anger you felt when a friend fell pregnant quickly while you struggled to conceive, or the jealousy you experienced when your sibling told you about achieving their career goals. Maybe it was darker than that – though whatever it was (and be honest now), chances are you won’t be keen to admit it.

For as long as slogan tees and upbeat wall hangings have existed, popular thinking has told us to embrace our better selves, to say nothing if we have nothing nice to say, to constantly project the best version of ourselves and bury the dark. We want to be defined by our most attractive attributes, not our most repellent. Yet a growing school of thought suggests we should be embracing, rather than shying away from, the full spectrum of our emotions.

This month sees the publication of a compelling new book Making Evil: The Science Behind Humanity’s Dark Side by Dr Julia Shaw, which seeks to help us understand the deviance that lies within ourselves and others. The author, an academic psychologist who works as an expert witness in criminal cases, argues that to some degree we all have a propensity to do, and think, ‘bad’ things, and that in ignoring this fundamental truth, we are doing ourselves a disservice.

‘We have a tendency to avoid thinking deeply about difficult topics, particularly our own moral shortcomings. This is partly because we like to think of ourselves as “good” people, and doing “bad” things threatens our self-image. But it’s important to think deeply about that which scares us about ourselves. If we don’t, we can’t possibly change for the better. If we all spent more time trying to understand our own dark side, the world would be a better and more empathetic place.’