Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do some people abuse children? Is there some psychological reason for this?“

It is due to the human ego, which is the nature of every person and holds us back from relating to others as to ourselves.

Some people find themselves harming others—whether children, the elderly, or others whom they perceive as able to be their prey—simply because they enjoy such abuse. They feel a great pleasure of control that suddenly fulfills them.

Nothing can get such people out of this need to control. We see how abusive tendencies surface even in well-educated and well-mannered people who might have been philanthropic their entire lives, and all of a sudden, they cannot hold themselves anymore and explode. Usually, it is because they feel that nobody can control them, and so they express their own control.

There will be no end to such upsurges taking place in certain people until the human ego—the desire to benefit at the expense of others—inverts into its opposite form—a desire to positively connect with others above the ego’s harmful drives.

Moreover, we can expect more and more such incidents to occur since the human ego is constantly growing, demanding more and more fulfillment, if we fail to undergo this transformation.

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