The Psychopath Test
Book
This is an utterly compelling and often unbelievable adventure into the world of madness. Jon Ronson...
Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated The Butterfly Effect in Books
Oct 10, 2017 (Updated Oct 10, 2017)
So You've Been Publicly Shamed
Book
From the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant...
BookblogbyCari (345 KP) rated The Psychopath Test in Books
Sep 11, 2018
It logs the course of events taken by Jon Ronson as he interviews some people who are deemed crazy, or psychopathic, and some people who diagnose psychological traits. The start of Ronson’s journey is intriguing - it begins when various academics, predominately neuroscientists, are sent mysterious and cryptic packages. They all rush onto online forums trying to figure out what it’s all about. Unfortunately, this section comes to an abrupt and disappointing conclusion (no spoilers).
This all changes in Chapter 2, however. Here, Ronson meets a man, Tony, who claims to have faked mental illness in order to get put into a psychiatric facility rather than a traditional prison. The Scientologists are on his side, and they send Ronson Broadmoor’s file on Tony, but with significant omissions, which shed a whole new light on why Tony should be incarcerated.
Chapter 3 describes how in the 1960’s psychiatrist Elliot Barker, held several nude LSD-induced psychotherapy sessions for psychopaths. In Chapter 4, Ronson goes on a conference to learn about Bob Hare’s psychopath checklist, and by Chapter 5, he’s using it in an interview with a leader of a death squad, Toto Constant. In Chapter 6, he uses it in an interview with Al Dunlan, who apparently enjoyed firing 6.000 people from their jobs.
Following a brief interlude to discuss the media, conspiracy theorists and the second coming, the theme of psychopathy is picked up again in Chapter 9 which looks at criminal profiling, and how it was once used to lure one particular suspect into an unwarranted arrest.
Ronson goes off on another tangent in Chapter 10, which discusses the (very real) problem of an apparent ballooning of mental illness diagnoses. Here he tells the tale of what happened when a 4-year-old girl was given 10 pills a day for “childhood bipolar” disorder.
In Ronson’s concluding chapter, he attends a tribunal for the Tony of Chapter 2, and Tony’s fate is decided (no spoilers). By this point, Tony’s charisma has got Ronson taken in, in spite of Tony showing several psychopathic traits.
My take away from the book is that people will have eccentricities, diagnosis or not, and the way to tell if someone is dangerous, is by their actions. Ronson himself has spotted psychopathic traits in himself, despite being overly anxious and not the slightest bit evil. The book sheds a lot of light, not only on the nature of obtaining a diagnosis, but also on its implications.
Whilst I do recommend the book, this book is most definitely not a thorough analysis of the mental health industry, nor the criminal profiling industry. But for entertainment purposes it gets top marks. If you are looking for a more authoritative book on the mental health industry and diagnosis, I recommend Saving Normal by Allen Frances.
The Skeptic Zone
Podcast
The Podcast from Australia for Science and Reason. Join Richard Saunders and his team of reporters...
Them: Adventures with Extremists: Picador Classic
Book
With an introduction by Russell Brand What if a tiny, shadow elite rule the world from a secret...
How to be a Writer: Conversations with Writers About Writing
Book
David Quantick interviews some of the best writers in a variety of field to provide a detailed...
Distraction Pieces
Book
The Times Bestseller (Non-Fiction) Join Scroobius Pip as he gets to the bottom of what matters most...
Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness
Book
Jon Ronson's subjects have included people who believe that goats can be killed by the power of a...
Alan Partridge: Nomad
Book
Praise for Nomad: 'Funniest book of the year' Sunday Telegraph 'Alan Partridge's Nomad is almost...