Predators of a Different Sort

Now for predators of a different sort:  The Psychopath Test: a Journey through the Madness Industry, by Jon Ronson.  I enjoyed his previous book, The Men Who Stare at Goats - no one can write about crazies like Ronson! - so I was eager to read his latest effort.   In this book, he takes a light-hearted, bemused approach to the topic of psychopathy, rather than a serious, academic tone (though it is backed up by plenty of scientific research).  He interviews Bob Hare, creator of the PCL-R Test, a 20-question Psychopath Checklist, as well as other psychiatric professionals (some of whom are bat shit crazy in their own right).  While one would expect that psychopaths are well-represented in the violent criminal population, Hare has an intriguing theory: that many top CEOs and politicians are indeed psychopaths.  (Class warfare alert!  More ammunition for the 99 percenters!)  Perhaps these are the higher functioning psychopaths - not content to destroy a few lives through violence, they instead set about wrecking entire economies and countries.  Ronson’s interview with former Sunbeam CEO “Chainsaw Al” Dunlap seems to prove Hare’s point.  What an evil, despicable man!

In case you are curious, here are a few of the indicators on the Psychopath Checklist:

Glibness, superficial charm;
Grandiose sense of self-worth;
Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom;
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions;
Pathological lying;
Juvenile delinquancy,
Criminal versatility; etc.

Apparently an fMRI exam can also show psychopathy - the parts of the brain that should respond to fear and empathy will not light up on the exam.  Of course, it would be kind of cumbersome to administer fMRI exams to the general population to weed out the psychopaths, plus it would raise a few ethical issues, but perhaps someday we'll get to that.

I found this book to be a quick and fascinating read and highly recommend it.  Another worthwhile read on the same topic is The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout, Ph.D.  Stout gives some interesting profiles of sociopaths and tells how to recognize them (hint: watch out for charming and manipulative liars).  Those of you out on the dating scene may find this book especially useful.

Next up:  The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty, by Simon Baron Cohen.