Learn how to The Psychopath Test
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"In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them. 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
… More »"In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them. 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"--
« LessThe man who faked madness
Psychopaths dream in black-and-white
The psychopath test
Toto
Night of the living dead
The right sort of madness
The madness of David Shayler
Aiming a bit high
The avoidable death of Rebecca Riley
Good luck
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Summary
Add a SummaryThis is a story about Ronson's quest to find out what constitutes a psychopath. He starts with someone who is merely obsessive and goes on from there to individuals incarcerated in mental institutions. From there, he interviews others who are psychopaths but have been successful in business possibly because of their condition.
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Add a QuoteThere is no evidence that we've been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things.
You're standing on an escalator and you watch the people going past on the opposite escalator. If you could climb inside their brains, you would see we aren't all the same. We aren't all good people just trying to do good. Some of us are psychopaths.
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Add a CommentNow I know what happens when an overly anxious journalist becomes empowered with the ability to spot psychopaths. But Ronson's story isn't just an amusing tale of spotting psychopaths everywhere (and it's very amusing!), he makes us wonder where, exactly, should the line between the sane and insane be drawn and who should be allowed to determine that line.
I read this entire book on a plane journey (with layovers) from the East Coast to the West Coast. It kept me captivated from beginning to end. Mr. Ronson is a great storyteller and the content was quite provocative.
I sometimes wonder if this author isn't just pulling our collective leg. He writes a good story about strange situations.
A non-fiction stunner that reads like fiction - especially when half of it is too zany to believe! A great look into the history of psychiatrics by the man who wrote "The Men Who Stare at Goats", a journalist with no boundaries. Now you may be able to answer the question about that strange neighbour you've always wondered about...
I loved this book, if I had the time I would have read it cover to cover in one sitting. I highly recommend it. Hilarious, well told, great characters, and some very obscure history from the psychiatric profession. GREAT READ!
Sort of an oddity of a book, wherein the author attempts to define just what is a psychopath. He meets a lot of people who might qualify and considers others, and in the end doesn't come up with much. There seem to just be too many variations in human behavior. Hearing about the investigation is a hoot, however.
It's okay, but it wasn't able to hold me till the end. There was usually no strong suspense element or clear main goal. The beginning is riveting and fascinating, but after that it gets a bit redundant.
I reserved this for my husband because he saw an interview with the author on the Colbert Report or some such thing and thought it would be good. He wasn't reading it, so I picked it up. I enjoyed it enough to finish and start assessing everyone I saw afterwards. Fun times!
Simply OK. Neither fish nor fowl (neither clean memoir or clear science), so a bit disappointing to me. I would more strongly recommend Dr Robert Hare's books if a reader wants to get a chilling picture of psychopathy all around us.
What a great mix of research and humor! Provocative, too: Can a psychopath make a succesful CEO?