The Insanity of Normality

The Insanity of Normality: Toward Understanding Human Destructiveness is a book about the root causes of cruelty and violence written by psychoanalyst Arno Gruen.

It is Gruen's answer to Freud about human destructiveness. According to Freud, human beings are born with an innate tendency to destruction and violence; in The Insanity of Normality, Gruen challenges that assumption, arguing instead that at the root of evil lies self-hatred, a rage originating in a self-betrayal that begins in childhood, when autonomy is surrendered in exchange for the "love" of those who wield power over us.