Sobraj-like Duplicity
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Why psychos rule
Ross Bilton From: The Australian June 18, 2011
PSYCHOPATH. the word alone sends a shiver down your spine. But you can console yourself with the thought that these scary people are only a tiny, inconsequential fringe in our society, right?
Well, perhaps not. In his new book The Psychopath Test, published this month, journalist Jon Ronson explores the idea that psychopaths in fact wreak far-reaching (and very damaging) effects on society. Theirs is truly “the madness that makes the world go around”, he says. How so? Because some of the very traits that define psychopaths – superficially charming, manipulative, having a grandiose sense of self-worth, and incapable of feeling empathy or remorse – are also traits that take them to the top in business, in politics, in all sorts of positions of authority and influence. Assuming they don’t end up in prison first, of course.
Psychopathy is not a mental illness that comes and goes. It’s just the way some people’s brains are wired up (specifically, their amygdala – a part of the brain that processes emotions – doesn’t function normally). It’s surprisingly common, too, affecting about 1 per cent of people, according to Ronson’s book.
If you’re reading this in a crowded café, take a good look around. Psychopaths are difficult for the untrained eye to spot, but there’s a standard diagnostic tool – a 20-point checklist of traits devised by Canadian psychologist Bob Hare. In a clinical interview, each of the traits on the Hare Checklist – which include sexual promiscuity, a parasitic lifestyle and poor behavioural controls, along with those mentioned before – is scored either with a zero (for not at all), a 1 (for slightly) or a 2 (for strongly). The maximum possible score is 40; if you get 30 or above, you’re a psychopath.
The ability to identify psychopaths is important, because there is no known cure. (Although some weird attempts are described by Ronson, including one mental institution that in the ’60s put a group of them through an 11-day intensive psychotherapy course, carried out completely naked and under the influence of LSD. It didn’t work).
The Hare Checklist isn’t always clear-cut, though. There’s a telling moment when Ronson interviews Al Dunlap, the ruthless corporate downsizer known as “Chainsaw Al”. Dunlap gamely agrees to do the psychopath test, and when Ronson asks him if he’s manipulative (item 5 on the Hare Checklist) Dunlap coolly responds: “I think you could describe that as leadership.”
Ross Bilton From: The Australian June 18, 2011
PSYCHOPATH. the word alone sends a shiver down your spine. But you can console yourself with the thought that these scary people are only a tiny, inconsequential fringe in our society, right?
Well, perhaps not. In his new book The Psychopath Test, published this month, journalist Jon Ronson explores the idea that psychopaths in fact wreak far-reaching (and very damaging) effects on society. Theirs is truly “the madness that makes the world go around”, he says. How so? Because some of the very traits that define psychopaths – superficially charming, manipulative, having a grandiose sense of self-worth, and incapable of feeling empathy or remorse – are also traits that take them to the top in business, in politics, in all sorts of positions of authority and influence. Assuming they don’t end up in prison first, of course.
Psychopathy is not a mental illness that comes and goes. It’s just the way some people’s brains are wired up (specifically, their amygdala – a part of the brain that processes emotions – doesn’t function normally). It’s surprisingly common, too, affecting about 1 per cent of people, according to Ronson’s book.
If you’re reading this in a crowded café, take a good look around. Psychopaths are difficult for the untrained eye to spot, but there’s a standard diagnostic tool – a 20-point checklist of traits devised by Canadian psychologist Bob Hare. In a clinical interview, each of the traits on the Hare Checklist – which include sexual promiscuity, a parasitic lifestyle and poor behavioural controls, along with those mentioned before – is scored either with a zero (for not at all), a 1 (for slightly) or a 2 (for strongly). The maximum possible score is 40; if you get 30 or above, you’re a psychopath.
The ability to identify psychopaths is important, because there is no known cure. (Although some weird attempts are described by Ronson, including one mental institution that in the ’60s put a group of them through an 11-day intensive psychotherapy course, carried out completely naked and under the influence of LSD. It didn’t work).
The Hare Checklist isn’t always clear-cut, though. There’s a telling moment when Ronson interviews Al Dunlap, the ruthless corporate downsizer known as “Chainsaw Al”. Dunlap gamely agrees to do the psychopath test, and when Ronson asks him if he’s manipulative (item 5 on the Hare Checklist) Dunlap coolly responds: “I think you could describe that as leadership.”