Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us [Paperback]

Robert Hare has delivered a fascinating insight into the terrifying world of the psychopath. Without Conscience is aimed at the layperson, as opposed to the academic, and is pitched perfectly. It is detailed enough to properly explain and simple enough to be intelligible to the average reader.

A concise background to the condition sets the scene before the main traits of the psychopath are revealed and explained along with pertinent anecdotes to demonstrate how these traits operate in practice. Hare also explores psychopathy in children and young adults, charting their development to adulthood as well as the pernicious influence of non-criminal psychopaths in the workplace.

This book is of particular importance because it brings the danger of psychopaths to the everyday reader who may well suffer at their hands in future, if they have not already. It appears that the public are largely ignorant to the extent of the threat posed by psychopaths because of ignorance to what a psychopath is, how many of them are out there and their incredible ability to appear to be what they are not.

Hare provides some strategies to combat the effect of psychopaths at close hand. While less than cast-iron (due to the nature of the disorder, not Hare’s writing) they might provide some assistance to people trying to cope with, or escape from one.

Hare goes on to mention how research is developing strategies to limit the negative behaviour of psychopaths. I look forward to reading the results in years to come.

A highly recommended read for anyone looking for a beginners insight to psychopathy or has been victimised by a psychopath.

This is an excellent resource book for those working in the criminal justice field and the lay person alike. With all the myths and hype surrounding the term "Psychopath" this text provides a realistic description of these disturbing and predatory individuals within our society. I defy anyone to read this and not wonder if it's someone they know...

There is certainly no shortage of reviews which heap praise on this book and author. The problem I found with the ones I read, was that they failed to show the limitations of the book. This book is mainly about PSYCHOPATHS who have committed crimes and ended up in prison. It does not deal with the inbetweenies who have some of the characteristics and would not be labelled psychopaths.

My interest in the subject was stimulated by references, in several TV programs, to the presenter being diagnosed as psychopathic, although they appeared to have perfectly normal lives. Twenty five percent of prison populations are psychopathic and one percent of the general public are psychopathic; so it is reasonable to assume that we all know at least one and don't realise it.

To quote the author - `When I agreed to write this book I knew it would be difficult to present hard scientific data and circumspection in a way that the public could understand' and also `It is my hope that this book will help the general public and the criminal justice system to become more aware of the nature of psychopathy'.
The author has successfully removed most of the medical technical jargon, but the language used shows that his target audience is the `university educated members of the general public'.

Like so many psychology awareness books it carries the usual `don't try this at home' warning. The author quite rightly points out that the public interpretation of `psychopath' and the psychologist's interpretation is totally different. It was pointed out to me some years ago, that virtually every medical word that is used in everyday speech is technically inaccurate. This is hardly surprising since the record of the medical profession, educating the `working class general public' is virtually non-existent. This book deals with psychopaths in Canada and US; we are left to assume that the information is relevant to the UK.

On the plus side - the book shows that psychopaths are actually more dangerous than the public think they are; why? .... because even the experts have difficulties in identifying them.

This book will give the reader an excellent understanding of what a psychopath is and how much devastation they can introduce into your life.

If you are interested in human behaviour, you will find a great deal of knowledge in this book; unfortunately it is very dry and boring to read. Non university educated readers should not stray far from a good dictionary. This book just about gives you enough information to fire up your interest in the subject, but is likely to leave you with more questions than answers. This is a good place to start but it should leave you with a feeling that it simply doesn't cover the subject adequately; but does such a book exist?

This book does have an important message for the general public, but how do you persuade them to read it. If academics are serious about educating the general public, they must learn to communicate in plain English.