Judge a book by it's cover - More Ideas/ artist influence

There is a lot of debate in 'The anatomy of the human destructiveness' concerning human aggression, and whether man's aggression and violent habits can be attributed to primitive instincts (e.g. hunting) and within that, how far can those instinctual tendencies inform what one would assume emotional decisions/ reactions and sadistic, seemingly calculated cruelty and violence which is enjoyed by it's perpetrator. That is to say, can unprovoked violence and sadism still be said to have evolved from primitive intuitions motivated purely by the need to survive? 

Erich Fromm suggests that in fact, the development of intelligent thought in humans has caused subsequent development in the factors considered necessary for survival, posing that it is "reductionist" to assume man's instincts are qualified through purely physiological requirements, but rather that instinctual drives are necessitated by the need of the "whole organism" to survive, promoting both physical and mental/ psychological growth. He goes on to say that mental drives, as well as the physical ones, lie at the core of what it is to be human, quoting Von Hollenbach (the philosopher of the French Enlightenment) - "A man without passions ceases to be a man" and stating that these passions express man's desire to "transform his state of being unfinished into one with some goal and some purpose." 

In this sense, both the "good and evil" passions can be seen as a "person's attempt to make sense of life." This idea I was drawn to, especially his further description of this concept - "Even the most sadistic man is human, as human as the saint. He can be called a warped and sick man who has failed to achieve a better answer to the challenge of being born human, and this is true; he can also be called a man who took the wrong way in search of his salvation." 


I was inspired by this idea to create something which might express this inner conflict or existential crisis as one of my cover ideas for the book. I intended to use quite aggressive drawing techniques and naive imagery to capture the frustration that is inherent to human existence and decided that portraying a screaming face would perhaps be the simplest and most expressive way of representing this concept, in the same vein as Francis Bacon's 'Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X' or Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'. 

Artworks pertaining to this idea

'The Scream - Edvard Munch

Self Portrait - Annagret Soltau

 Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X - Francis Bacon

Pie Fight Interior 2 - Adrian Ghenie

Pie Fight Interior 8 - Adrian Ghenie

I am a little worried there is a risk my outcome might become too derivative, or that I won't be able to replicate the same level of emotional impact as is evident in these influences (highly probable). I also feel like it might be a little bit of a lazy route, ideas-wise. 

I have just also thought about developing the idea from a screaming face into a person ripping their face into two halves (still drawn in a similar fashion) but haven't tried that out yet. I may face the same issues I suppose.