Thanks so much, Scott, for elaborating on my question. This is all really helpful. I find an antagonist with a history and a logical, if only in his eyes, reason for doing what he does to be much more compelling than a basic bad guy. Thank you again for this.

All Evil starts at fifteen volts. "Good and evil is the yin and yang of Human Nature" Phillip Zimbardo Here's a TED Talk given by the Stanford Professor of Psychology Phillip Zimbardo, who ran the Stanford Prison Experiment, about the Nature of Good and Evil. I've found his work very helpful in creating believable characters. Warning: This video uses a well known incident of Evil at Abu Gharib to show the Nature of Evil, if you're disturbed by this just skip forward on YouTube from minute 5:01 to 6:43 or don't watch the video. I'll start the video at the 9 minute mark to pique your curiosity and skip the Abu Gharib minutes for you. https://youtu.be/OsFEV35tWsg?t=9m20s

You're welcome, farrtom. Good question and got to a central point of the discussion: That ALL characters believe they are the protagonist in a story because that is their life-experience.

Thanks, chilidogcats. Had not seen this TED Talk, but certainly will now. Looks like it speaks to the 'shadow' dynamic laid out by Jung. There is a natural narrative quality when a writer puts a Protagonist / Antagonist dynamic into motion. Like Yin and Yang, that cries out for some sort of resolution. There's Hegel's formula: Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis. Similar thing. Or in my language system, Disunity implies a journey to Unity. But in order to do that, as Jung would suggest, the individual must become aware of, confront, and somehow integrate all aspects of the psyche, including the shadow. Never ceases to amaze me about how relevant psychology is to writing stories. Again thanks!