The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

"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"--

Not sure if I should have enjoyed this or not, but I did. I'm sure everyone sees a little of themselves in Bob Hares checklists. The David Shayler chapter was a surprise and all the better for it, I knew nothing about him after the MI5 stuff.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit–the author notes his own neuroses as he travels among the folks who study psychopathy, who rail against psychology (he got to hang out in Hubbard's mansion), folks diagnosed as psychotic; this isn't a polemic against diagnosing folks as psychotic, but rather a journey through a land that makes it clear that “psychotic” is a spectrum.

Really engrossing. Quite funny in places. Recommended.

I would welcome if author went even deeper and actually spent a chapter or two explaining the psychopathy and similar disorders in depth. For example the book mentions that psychopathy and sociopathy are the same disorder and psychologists are using the terms interchangeably. Why is that? If it's the same disorder why does it have two names?

What about the history? How were patients treated before Bob Hare's experiments? He mentions LSD trials but is that it? What about lobotomy and other crazy “treatments”. What about homosexuals? This book isn't only about psychopaths but about “mental disorders” in general, which sadly included, until recently, also homosexuals.

The book covers only the surface of “madness industry” while opening and spending the whole first chapter on completely unrelated “mystery”. Waste of time in my opinion. I'd welcome more facts and perhaps interviews.

However, it's still an awesome book that shows a bit of hidden truth. Psychopaths exist and they walk among us. After reading this book I'm pretty sure I know a few - normal people don't look at videos of beheadings and then talk about it as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. You know who I'm talking about, doc.

Author also spends some time to explain the boom of diagnosing children with disorders while in reality they might just behave... like children do.

It truly is a must-read - well, unless there's a better book about it because from the writing I had a feeling Jon Ronson had no idea what he was doing most of the time. Professional journalist, huh...?
Still, the subject is too interesting to pass by.