The Psychopath Test

"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. Along the way, Ronson discovers that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their most insane edges. The Psychopath Test is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness."

 -Amazon book synopsis

People who are psychopathic prey ruthlessly on others using charm , deceit , violence or other methods that allow them to get what they want. The symptoms of psychopathy include: lack of conscience or guilt, lack of empathy , selfishness , pathological lying , repeated violations of social norms , disregard for the law, shallow emotions, and a history of victimized others. "
- Robert Hare , Ph.D

You might have also heard about another one of Jon Ronson's books, The Men Who Stare at Goats which is a great book, and The Psychopath Test does not disappoint either.  The author gets to the meat of important topics and asks intriguing questions.  His style is that of sharp observational humor and wit, journalistic rigor, and he often shows the less glamorous side of human nature.  The Psychopath Test goes through the themes and topics of psychiatry, psychopathology, medication and incarceration of "dangerous" individuals.  This book is hard to put down because you must know what happens next, there is always another payoff or reveal around the corner.

The story begins with a meeting between Ronson and a history student who has received a mysterious book entitled "Being and Nothingness " by mail. The same book was received by many people around the world , most of whom work in psychiatry. The book contains 42 pages every other white.

Ronson 's journey leads him to ' Tony' in Broadmoor , a famous mental hospital in Britain who - when charged with GBH and facing prison 12 years earlier - had faked insanity in the hope of being sent to a psychiatric hospital in pleasant surroundings. Instead he was sent to Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital, where he was detained indefinitely. Tony explained that he had taken on the characteristics of different movie-goers then assembled character "crazy " . Enter Broadmoor had been easy , but getting out was much harder to prove. One of the main psychiatrist admits to knowing that Tony is not crazy like a crazy person really does not make a new personality in hopes of avoiding prison ... but a manipulative psychopath would .

Ronson meets Bob Hare , creator of the PCL -R test, a list of 20 steps psychopath , which gives individuals scores between zero and forty, the higher the score , the higher the person is a psychopath. Hare reveals that inmates in prisons and psychiatric institutions are not the only ones who have a high score on his test " psychopath . " Many entrepreneurs and executives in companies considered psychopaths also This raises the question Ronson ' If sometimes the difference between a psychopath in Broadmoor and a psychopath on Wall Street was fortunate enough to be born into a wealthy stable family.

Al Dunlap closed Shubuta Sunbeam factory ( the economic heart of this community ), showing no empathy while firing workers and effectively killing the town. Bob Hare flags Dunlap as a psychopath , so Ronson wanted to meet the man . When Ronson asks probing questions based on the checklist PCL -R , Dunlap answers mark him as a textbook psychopath .

Hare explains the science of psychopathology : a part of the brain called the amygdala does not function in psychopaths as it does in others. When a regular person experiences extreme violence or carnage (or even photographs of these scenes) , his amygdala excited that cause extreme anxiety response in the central nervous system . When a psychopath experiences the same stimuli , his amygdala does not respond : no anxiety response occurs. This is what explains the lack of empathy for the psychopath .

The Psycopath Test is by all measures a wonderful book, I highly recommend it.