December 23, 2012

• The Psychopath Test

  JDN 2456285 EDT 22:47.

   

  Many reviewers praised The Psychopath Test for its irreverence; personally, I think that’s its greatest flaw. The book is certainly engaging, and a very quick read; Ronson writes like a journalist, so his style should be accessible to just about anyone. He makes a lot of cute jokes, some of which are quite funny, and they certainly do lighten the mood tremendously.

  And yet… I’m not sure I wanted the mood lightened. The topic is psychopaths, after all; and increasingly we are finding that a long list of terrible things can be attributed almost entirely to the 1% of people who are psychopaths: rape, murder, car theft, bank robbery, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, tyranny, genocide, the list goes on. At the end of the book Ronson takes a step back and wonders if we are over-diagnosing or over-stigmatizing psychopaths; yet all the evidence I’ve seen says quite the opposite: We should be rooting them out and locking them away until we can find a way to cure them. The cost of such a program would be great, but the benefit is almost unfathomable: Imagine a world without rape. Imagine an end to war, to tyranny, to genocide. These things might literally be possible if we could eliminate psychopathy.

  Maybe some mental illnesses are over-diagnosed: It can be argued that “autism spectrum disorders” are too broad a category, for example, since they range from the brilliant but socially awkward (like myself, or Bill Gates) to children who can’t speak and bang their heads against walls. ADHD is a real condition, but some of the kids diagnosed with it might just really be hyperactive kids who need more recess. Bipolar disorder can be debilitating to those who really have it, but lately we’ve been slapping it onto children for the weakest of reasons.

  But psychopathy? No, it is not over-diagnosed. It is under-diagnosed; millions of psychopaths are lawyers, bankers, executives, politicians, and military commanders, and their reckless and callous actions endanger us all.

  Ronson definitely knows how to write, and sounds like a very interesting character himself. The book reads quickly and is difficult to put down. It feels like he’s sitting with you in a bar, telling stories of all the crazy things he’s done in his life.

  Perhaps the best part of The Psychopath Test is in fact the psychopath test itself; Ronson presents a simplified form of the actual Hare checklist that is used to diagnose psychopathy. You may be tempted to apply the checklist to people you know, but you should be careful doing so; even with appropriate training it’s difficult to make the necessary judgment. That said, if you know someone who fits a lot of the criteria, it makes good sense for you to be cautious around them. I know a guy from high school who fits so many of the criteria that honestly, I don’t think I want to have anything to do with him ever again.

  The book is worth reading, not least because you can finish it in a few days. But don’t believe Ronson when he suggests we should leave more room for madness: Psychopathy is one form of madness we certainly cannot leave more room for.

  • 11:18 pm
  • 1 Comment