Outwitting the Devil

Napoleon Hill’s *Outwitting the Devil*, written in 1938 but withheld from publication until 2011, is a lost companion to *Think and Grow Rich*. Framed as an interview, Hill casts himself as the questioner who induces a personified Devil—called “the Devil”—to explain how he controls human behavior. The central framework is the distinction between “drifters,” who let circumstances and fear dictate their lives, and “non-drifters,” who think independently, set definite goals, and act on them. The Devil admits his power depends on keeping people drifting and afraid. The book’s most distinctive conceptual tool is “adverse thinking,” Hill’s term for the habit of reacting to fear, criticism, and misfortune with clear-minded resistance rather than passive acceptance. He links this to “hypnotic rhythm,” the idea that repeated thoughts and behaviors harden into permanent habits, making escape progressively harder the longer a person drifts. The Devil also describes seven major “negatives”—fear, selfishness, greed, jealousy, suspicion, revenge, and anger—that he uses to manipulate minds. Hill counters these with self-discipline, definiteness of purpose, and what he calls “the master key”: the capacity to control one’s own mind. The interview device lets Hill argue that evil is less a supernatural force than a psychological condition powered by fear and indecision. The book’s later sections examine freedom, education, and the economic system, warning that conformity and dependency breed vulnerability. Hill insists that anyone can outwit the Devil by refusing to drift, facing fear directly, and pursuing a purpose with persistence. Though its metaphysical dialogue is unconventional, *Outwitting the Devil* is widely read as Hill’s darkest and most explicit statement of his philosophy of self-determination.