Helpful Score: 1
While not the most evocative writing, and while the book is about 15 pages of content crammed into 218 pages of text, still, the message is important enough that I think this is a great book.
Sociopaths (which the author says make up about 4% of the population, or 1 in 25 people, with cites to 1997 and 1998 studies, although the stat bandied about the internet is 1% of females and 3% of males, but no matter, they're out there) live among the rest of us. Most are not killers or bank robbers, but the live with absolutely no sense of conscience, no remorse over any action of theirs.
Imagine you had no guilt over any action of yours, and no emotional attachment to anybody in your life. What would you do? Stop and think.
*** *** ***
There are people out there doing that. Scary, huh? So, you know, the book says here are clues to watch for, and how to protect yourself. And don't feel guilty about it. The sociopath will feel nothing emotionally.
OK, so, having gotten that out of the way, which is all you need to say this book's message is important, I have to wonder - what is the prevalence of sociopathy (which wikipedia says is an obsolete term for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD))? The book, and most places on the internet, agree it's hard to diagnose because sociopaths can imitate people with consciences pretty well.
Also, the book presents it as pretty binary. Intuition tells me that every other aspect of human behavior, and even physical traits, exist along a continuum, and therefore possession-of-conscience probably does too. How little conscience does one need to be a sociopath? There are probably people who wouldn't flinch about keeping money they found, even if there were means to try to find the owner, but who wouldn't injure somebody else because it's wrong. Probably not a sociopath. What about somebody who might injure somebody to get what they wanted, but wouldn't kill because the guilt would haunt them? Is that a sociopath? Don't know.
I wish the book had gone into stuff like that, but no matter, really. If a person is willing to injure you or steal from you without remorse, and the only thing keeping that person at bay is the likelihood of punishment or sheer effort required, I may as well act as though that person is sociopathic. And whether it's 1% or 4%, you and I are going to encounter these people in our lives. So, if I may, I recommend a reading of this book.
Sociopaths (which the author says make up about 4% of the population, or 1 in 25 people, with cites to 1997 and 1998 studies, although the stat bandied about the internet is 1% of females and 3% of males, but no matter, they're out there) live among the rest of us. Most are not killers or bank robbers, but the live with absolutely no sense of conscience, no remorse over any action of theirs.
Imagine you had no guilt over any action of yours, and no emotional attachment to anybody in your life. What would you do? Stop and think.
*** *** ***
There are people out there doing that. Scary, huh? So, you know, the book says here are clues to watch for, and how to protect yourself. And don't feel guilty about it. The sociopath will feel nothing emotionally.
OK, so, having gotten that out of the way, which is all you need to say this book's message is important, I have to wonder - what is the prevalence of sociopathy (which wikipedia says is an obsolete term for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD))? The book, and most places on the internet, agree it's hard to diagnose because sociopaths can imitate people with consciences pretty well.
Also, the book presents it as pretty binary. Intuition tells me that every other aspect of human behavior, and even physical traits, exist along a continuum, and therefore possession-of-conscience probably does too. How little conscience does one need to be a sociopath? There are probably people who wouldn't flinch about keeping money they found, even if there were means to try to find the owner, but who wouldn't injure somebody else because it's wrong. Probably not a sociopath. What about somebody who might injure somebody to get what they wanted, but wouldn't kill because the guilt would haunt them? Is that a sociopath? Don't know.
I wish the book had gone into stuff like that, but no matter, really. If a person is willing to injure you or steal from you without remorse, and the only thing keeping that person at bay is the likelihood of punishment or sheer effort required, I may as well act as though that person is sociopathic. And whether it's 1% or 4%, you and I are going to encounter these people in our lives. So, if I may, I recommend a reading of this book.
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