Title: The
Psychopath Test
Author: JonRonson
Review: Full
disclosure, I have a degree in Psychology and worked for a number of years in
the industry; so I have a good understanding of where the author is coming
from. I mention this because if this
book has a flaw is it leans to the generic while following an exploratory
conversational style. So if you are
looking for a more specific text book like explanatory book there are plenty
out there. But if you want to hear a
story from a extremely funny guy who went for a swim in the waters of the
madness industry, you can’t do much better than this. So like I said, I spent quite a few years in
the business so I already had the background to enjoy this book an all sorts of
levels.
At one time I used to manage apartments for schizophrenics
and it was great fun. I really enjoyed
all the residents and they on the whole were delightful in their own way. But it was interesting to see people
experience the patients for the first time; either they were totally at ease
and were able to interact, or they were just plain freaked out. It was like they had watch a Hannibal Lecter
marathon the previous day and if they were to relax for just a minute they
patients would turn on them and be eating their kidneys with fava beans before
they could shout for help. And the
really interesting thing was you couldn’t predict how people would react. Their sex, age, size, education, and other
traits did not lend themselves to prediction; they either were ok or they
weren’t.
Well Ronson is a master story teller who goes on a walk
about in the madness industry and specifically lands on psychopaths; people who
do not process emotions like the rest of us.
Now during this journey he meets some fascinating people and even more
theories of why these people are this way.
The whole time he is dealing with his own insecurities and
paranoia. He faces the same questions
you will when you read this; am I a psychopath, are my family and friends, my
neighbors and co-workers, my boss, that guy on TV? And if you are not careful you will come away
seeing psychopaths everywhere which will then feed your own fears and generally
make you uneasy in your own life.
You will, like Ronson, need to take a step back and really
think about what you have learned and how to integrate it into your daily life
as a helpful tool. Some of you
unfortunately will be like those who met my residents and will not be able to
feel calm regardless of the situation.
But most will be able to learn some great things from this book. But for those of you who are a little weary
if you are a psychopath, watch a few of those soldiers surprise their family
videos on youtube (or better yet, they surprise their pets) and if tear up a
little you are okay.
The most important lesson from the book is the dismissing of
the all or nothing attitude a lot of people have towards mental illness,
especially psychopathy. The thing you
soon learn about mental illness if you spend any time with it, it is not a
black and white problem. First of all
there are no normal people in the world, we all have problems somewhere in our
mental capacities. All problems are on a
spectrum and we all land somewhere on it.
Now sometimes a little problem can be no problem and can actually be a
little helpful. Like a little red wine
can be beneficial to you, whereas two liters of vodka just to get out of bed is
a problem. Take OCD (Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder); a little bit will make you a detail orientated individual
that would be amazing for an engineer or the like. But if you can’t leave your house until you
perform a lock check 43 times, or you have to wash your hands 100 times an hour
you might need treatment.
Ronson meets several psychopaths and those who diagnose them
and you get to see a picture where it is not all clear. Yes when the individual decides to murder
people to see what it feels like they should be locked up. But when you begin to see psychopathic traits
in CEO’s and other leaders you begin to see some value to being able to
emotionally separate yourself from hard decisions. It is all a matter of degrees. It is like the Dexter series on Showtime (or the
original Jeff Lindsay book series).
Dexter clearly has a problem so his late step father expresses to him
constructive ways to use his fascinations.
You are who you are, but that doesn’t have to be an end.
So we all have problems, but how are we using them to make
ourselves and the world we live in better?
The Psychopath Test is both an informative and fun book; you will never
look at those around you the same again.
Publisher:
Riverhead
ISBN:
978-1-59448-801-6
Copyright: 2011
Pages: 275
Quick Review: 4.5
stars out of 5
Why I Read It:
Funny psychology book
Where I Obtained the
Book: My local library
Synopsis: The
Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon
Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top
neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry.
An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and
politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying
individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And
so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the
corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized
for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy
has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the
criminally insane who insists he's sane and certainly not a psychopath.
Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also
discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the
madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way
as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more,
defined by their maddest edges.
Author Biography:
Jon Ronson is a writer and documentary film maker. His books, Them: Adventures
With Extremists and The Men Who Stare At Goats were international bestsellers.
The Men Who Stare At Goats was adapted into a major motion picture starring
George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.
He's written the popular "Human Zoo" and "Out
of the Ordinary" columns for The Guardian, where he still contributes
features. He currently writes and presents the twice Sony nominated BBC Radio 4
series, Jon Ronson On...
For Channel 4, Jon has made a number of films including the
acclaimed five part series the Secret Rulers of the World and the
multi-award-winning Tottenham Ayatollah. His most recent documentaries are
Reverend Death (Channel 4), Citizen Kubrick (More4) and Robbie Williams and Jon
Ronson Journey to the Other Side (Radio 4).
In the US, he is a contributor to Public Radio
International's This American Life.
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