The Psychopath Test [Kindle Edition]

'People who are psychopathic prey ruthlessly on others using charm, deceit, violence or other methods that allow them to get what they want. The symptoms of psychopathy include: lack of a conscience or sense of guilt, lack of empathy, egocentricity, pathological lying, repeated violations of social norms, disregard for the law, shallow emotions, and a history of victimizing others.'
- Robert Hare, Ph.D

I've been hooked on Jon Ronson's writing since 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' was first published. Ronson cuts right to the heart of important topics by having the guts to ask the difficult questions. His literary style is equal parts journalistic rigour, deep compassion and incisive observational humour that often shines the light of ridicule on darker human behaviours. 'The Psychopath Test' explores psychiatry, psychopathology, medication and incarceration of 'dangerous' individuals. The book reads like a mystery novel, which - driven by Ronson's compelling prose - makes it difficult to put down.

The story begins with a meeting between Ronson and a history student who has received a cryptic book called 'Being or Nothingness' in the mail. The same book has been received by several individuals around the globe, most of whom work in the field of psychiatry. The book contains 42 pages, every second one blank. (This made me wonder...in 'The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy', the ultimate answer to life, the Universe and Everything was 42. Was this relevant? Was the mysterious author of 'Being or Nothingness' implying that his cryptic messages, if decoded, could lead to enlightenment?)

Ronson's journey leads him to 'Tony' in Broadmoor, who - when charged with GBH and facing prison 12 years earlier - had faked insanity in the hope of being sent to a comfortable psychiatric hospital. Instead, he had been sent to Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital (home to Britain's most dangerous psychotic prisoners), where he was being held indefinitely. Tony explains that he had picked characteristics of various movie lunatics then pieced them together into his 'insane' persona. Getting into Broadmoor had been easy, but getting out was proving immeasurably harder. A senior psychiatrist admits to knowing that Tony isn't insane, as a truly insane person wouldn't manufacture a new personality in the hope of avoiding prison...but a manipulative psychopath would.

Ronson meets Bob Hare, creator of the PCL-R Test, a 20-step Psychopath Checklist which gives individuals scores between zero and forty; the higher the score, the more psychopathic the person. Hare reveals that inmates at prisons and psychiatric institutions aren't the only ones who score highly on his 'psychopath test': many CEOs and directors of corporations qualify as psychopaths too. This prompts Ronson to wonder 'if sometimes the difference between a psychopath in Broadmoor and a psychopath on Wall Street was the luck of being born into a stable, rich family.'

Al Dunlap closed Shubuta's Sunbeam factory (the economic heart of that community), showing no empathy while firing workers and effectively killing the town. While laying off employees, he even spouted jokes such as, "You may have a sports car, but I'll tell you what you don't have. A job!" Bob Hare flags Dunlap as a psychopath, so Ronson sets out to meet the man. When Ronson asks probing questions based on the PCL-R checklist, Dunlap's responses mark him as a textbook psychopath.

Hare explains the science of psychopathology: a part of the brain called the amygdala doesn't function in psychopaths as it does in other human beings. When a regular person experiences extreme violence or carnage (or even photographs of such scenes), his amygdala becomes overstimulated, provoking an extreme anxiety response in the central nervous system. When a psychopath experiences the same stimuli, his amygdala does not respond: no anxiety response occurs. This explains the psychopath's lack of empathy.

'The Psychopath Test' is a compelling read. Ronson's fluid style is the perfect balance of rigorous research, keen observation, poignancy and humour. Congratulations to Jon Ronson on another phenomenal achievement.

This is a great read, witty and peppered with amusing self-deprecating excursions. I couldn't put it down - but only a small part of it concerns 'psychopaths'. It also seems that Jon Ronson hasn't quite got his head around the concept of psychopathy/sociopathy, and this is more than a shame - it's a little dangerous.

We start with a mysterious publication that leads Ronson to a neuroscientist who piques his interest in psychopathy. Then we go to someone who is classified as a psychopath but may not be; then to the Hare Psychopathy checklist and a ramble through ways of treating psychopaths in the past. Next step a shallow look at a corporate psychopath...but then it all comes a bit unstuck. We get an account of the unfeeling selection process for reality TV shows; the exceedingly strange behaviour of whistleblower David Shayler; and other stuff that doesn't really relate to the title of the book, or even the critique of psychiatry. If he'd stuck to the topic it would have been excellent. As it is, it really was a fascinating read, but the grasshopper approach to the subject matter seriously detracts from it as an informed study. 3.5 out of 5!

Jon Ronson's latest book seems to follow the meandering path of "Them: Adventures with Extremists", as he meets and talks to what appear to be diverse and unrelated, but all fascinating, people at the fringes of society or the fringes of normal behaviour. In this case he's looking at various aspects of what he calls "the madness industry". Although sweeping and scattershot at first glance, concentrating on the amusing and odd, what emerges is a well balanced book that raises serious and focused questions about how we recognise and deal with "madness" in society.

Ronson is remarkably open and relatively non-judgmental in his approach. He rightly finds issue with the current and disturbing trend of over-diagnosis in psychiatry (the rate of rise in the number of children in the USA with "mental illness" is frightening until you realise it's simply the result of a new diagnosis, not new illness) while also being harsh on the other extreme, opponents of any form of psychiatry such as the Scientologists. In a key part of the book, Ronson comments on a Scientology leader laughing at the idea of giving children drugs to stop them picking their nose, which would be a ridiculous thing to do until you realise the children in question were picking their nose so violently and so frequently they produced deep wounds allowing facial bones to show through.

There's much discussion of the psychopathic personality especially the observation that psychopaths are unable to understand that other people have thoughts, feelings and rights. While clearly this personality defect is present in a number of serious criminals, Ronson delves into the realm of corporate pyschopaths too. Not being able to understand that other people have feelings, let alone caring about those feelings, is a rather useful trait if your job is CEO of a company saving money by cutting jobs. Amusingly Ronson also sees psychopathic traits in AA Gill, mainly because he gives bad reviews of Ronson's TV shows - something that may not change if Gill reads the book!

The book is perhaps strongest on how we use "madness" in entertainment and how little we've moved from the pre-Victorian organised tours of asylums for amusement. Ronson describes the callous and deliberate way people are selected to go onto the daytime Jeremy Kylie-style TV shows as well as the new type of talent show that glories in the early "eccentric" and terrible auditions, the people selected being far from mentally stable and yet not so unstable they would be off putting to the baying audience. Likewise Ronson describes the sad story of David Shayler: in demand on radio and TV when he was just irrational enough to be a "9/11 truther", talking about holographic planes around cruise missiles hitting the World Trade Centre, but kept well away from the media spotlight when he continued to slide into more serious illness and proclaimed himself the second coming of Jesus.

Ronson has written a funny, and simultaneously serious, book. Highly recommended.