The Psycopath Test
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 6:48 pm
Good quick read. Subtitle is, A Journey through the Madness industry.. Written by the guy who wrote, Men who Stare at Goats.
Amazon's copy reads thusly...
Amazon's copy reads thusly...
Author weaves together kind of a rambling narrative that pulls in indictments of the DSM, Scientologists, CEO assholes and well meaning but misguided therapists and mental patients. Can't properly sum it up beyond that other than if you have a flight of less than 3 hours, it's perfect.They say one out of every hundred people is a psychopath. You probably passed one on the street today. These are people who have no empathy, who are manipulative, deceitful, charming, seductive, and delusional. The Psychopath Test is the New York Times bestselling exploration of their world and the madness industry.
When Jon Ronson is drawn into an elaborate hoax played on some of the world’s top scientists, his investigation leads him, unexpectedly, to psychopaths. He meets an influential psychologist who is convinced that many important business leaders and politicians are in fact high-flying, high-functioning psychopaths, and teaches Ronson how to spot them. Armed with these new abilities, Ronson meets a patient inside an asylum for the criminally insane who insists that he’s sane, a mere run-of-the-mill troubled youth, not a psychopath—a claim that might be only manipulation, and a sign of his psychopathy. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud, and with a legendary CEO who took joy in shutting down factories and firing people. He delves into the fascinating history of psychopathy diagnosis and treatments, from LSD-fueled days-long naked therapy sessions in prisons to attempts to understand serial killers.