I was doing a little reading, about evil people and their
motives, in an effort to become a better writer. To be a
little more clear, I'm trying to understand how to create
a more realistic antagonist/villain, and so I was reading
about what makes people criminals/psychopaths/sociopaths.

During that research I came across a brief article about
oxytocin. The author was of the humanist variety, and
seemed to want to attribute all human behavior to 
chemical actions and reactions in the body. Their take
was that those who are "evil" suffer from a lack of
oxytocin production. Because of that lack, they don't
develop the same response to human interaction, and
don't feel a reward for behaving "properly" so they
tend toward extremes and to not truly understand or
feel when something is "improper."

That is, of course, paraphrased. It was interesting
enough to read, but a bit difficult to accept for a
person who believes in the human soul. I understand that
oxytocin is real, and I understand that it does have
effects, but what I can't understand is why it has to
be seen as the only variable. Could someone, absent of
proper oxytocin release, still make "good" choices? That
is the part that seemed untouched, at least to me, in
that brief article.

I love science, but I also love faith, it's who I am,
or perhaps who I've chosen to become. The truth, I think,
doesn't lie in abandoning or ignorning science (which is,
in my view, simply observation,) but in understanding
that it is connected to all reality. I suppose that is
getting into metaphysics, and is beyond the scope of this,
um, rant.

I'm still searching for some real understanding of the
"evil genius" though. I did find some articles on what
motivates antagonists, and those were helpful.