Bookworm Wednesday

Happy Hump Day.  Today's book of choice is...

The Psychopath test by Jon Ronson

This book is a bit of a departure for me, for it is non-fiction.  Ronson takes a look at psychopathy.  He speaks with both psychopaths and the psychiatrists who diagnosed them as such.  He looks at the system devised by Robert Hare in deduces who has psychopathic tendencies, and visits a young man imprisoned in a psychiatric unit for being a psychopath.  He meets with the heads of corporations who have been dubbed "psychos".  He also delves into the sometimes odd treatments used on psychopaths. 

The best part about this book is Ronson's writing style.  While some research books read like textbooks on extremely boring subjects, this book is written more like a novel.  From a first person perspective Ronson describes his travels and meetings.  I never felt like I was 'studying', the book was kept light despite its rather heavy subject matter and I moved through it quite quickly. 

This book was actually quite fascinating.  First there are the riddles and conspiracy theories, there are the psychopaths themselves, and there are some really whacked out psychiatrists who had some very odd ways of dealing with these "mental conditions" including a whole lot of LSD.  Surprisingly Canada plays a large role in treating psychopaths, Robert Hare being a Canadian himself. 

Overall I found this book to be a really interesting, and educational read with the feel of a mystery novel.