By Jon Ronson (Find this book)
In this engrossing exploration of psychiatry's attempts to understand and treat
psychopathy, British journalist Ronson (whose The Men Who Stare at Goats was the
basis for the 2009 movie starring George Clooney) reveals that psychopaths are
more common than we'd like to think. Visiting Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital,
where some of Britain's worst criminal offenders are sent, Ronson discovers the
difficulties of diagnosing the complex disorder when he meets one inmate who
says he feigned psychopathy to get a lighter sentence, and instead has spent 12
years in Broadmoor. The psychiatric community's criteria for diagnosing
psychopathy (which isn't listed in its handbook, DSM-IV) is a checklist
developed by the Canadian prison psychologist Robert Hare. Using Hare's rubric,
which includes "glibness," "grandiose sense of self-worth," and "lack of
remorse," Ronson sets off to interview possible psychopaths, many of them in
positions of power, from a former Haitian militia leader to a power-hungry CEO.
Raising more questions than it answers, and far from a dry medical history
lesson, this book brings droll wit to buoy this fascinating journey through "the
madness business." --- Publisher's Weekly
