The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
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.
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Community Reviews
An easy, interesting read. It reaffirms some things I already knew or suspected. Reading it reminded me of a specific family member. I'm glad we cut ties with him. It does make you question the whole psychiatric medical profession and the drug companies as well. But I was questioning the drug companies already.
As someone who is extremely interested in studying and working with psychopaths (among other criminals), this book was super interesting to me. I know that some people felt that the author meandered too much, but I really liked following his stream of consciousness. When I'm reading nonfiction, I'm always more interested and invested when I can get into the author's head and really hear his voice rather than some dry book talking about facts and ...read more
I ignored the fact this guy wrote Men Who Stare at Goats, because that was a book I just couldn't finish. His interview on the Daily Show sealed the deal for me and I got this book. HIGHLY entertaining look at psychopaths and other mental illnesses. Which sounds weird, I know.
One of the theories that Ronson worked with here is that higher ups in the business and political worlds are psychopaths. He wasn't able to fully validate that theory but I ...read more
One of the theories that Ronson worked with here is that higher ups in the business and political worlds are psychopaths. He wasn't able to fully validate that theory but I ...read more
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