The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success

That if you don’t go a little extreme, you can’t be successful. But you need to temper your weakness.

This is an interesting book. It is written by an academic (25% of the book is notes); the author Kevin Dutton, is a professor of Experimental Psychology at Oxford. He does approach the topic with academic rigours and makes a number of pragmatic and very interesting observations. However he admits also that the desire to understand his father, an East End market trader was another (Freudian?) reason for writing the book.The book begins with a Aristotelian observation `There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.' Dutton argues that there are times when madness can be helpful and psychopathy in particular can confer significant advantages. Dutton then considers a number of successful examples where the emotional detachment of the psychopath is combined with the ability to focus totally on the present. Among these examples are the landing by Armstrong on the moon with only 10 seconds of fuel, bomb disposal experts, SAS assassins, a top surgeon making his first incision and investment banking traders. In times of stress the heart rates of most people rise, for psychopaths it drops.In the second chapter Dutton tries to fit the psychopath into theories of the personality. starting with the Greeks and moving onto the 16 personality factors of Cattell. However when Dutton tries to map psychopaths onto the Five Factor personality model, he runs into difficulties. It is such a pity Dutton is not familiar with the seven factor Humm-Wadsworth.Five of seven factors in the Humm match the OCEAN Five Factor model, but it is one the two remaining factors, The Hustler, that includes psychopaths in all their glory. According to the Humm, Hustlers contain some mix of five subcomponents: egocentricity, anti-social tendencies, gambling, cynicism, scheming. Besides their psychopathy, they are Machiavellian and narcissists. According to the Humm model about 15% of the population have a stronger than average Hustler component and they are often successful. Good examples are John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Indeed as Dutton points out corporate psychopaths are successful because their psychopathic traits morph in the characteristics of the influential leader and these traits are not excessive.Is it wrong to add another component to the Five Factor Theory? As Dutton himself points out even Eysenk added Psychopathy as a third trait to his original two trait model of Extroversion and Neuroticism.Another good section of the book is when Dutton talks about the empathy of psychopaths. Far too many people immediately conclude that empathy and psychopathy are mutually exclusive. Dutton demonstrates that while psychopaths do not have emotional empathy, they certainly have cognitive empathy. Indeed they have superior persuasion and manipulation skills because they can spot emotional weaknesses in other people and can fake emotions (crocodile tears) if they need to.In the final chapter Dutton examines whether you can become a partial psychopath. He argues that ability to totally disregard the past and future and live only in the present can be taught. He quotes Buddhist monks after years of meditation reaching a stage of only present mindfulness and suggests that we can train people to have cooler heads. Psychopaths have an advantage in that they have a natural talent for `coolness under pressure.' I would consider this chapter the weakest.On other hand this book does cover psychopathy in a model psychological framework and for that reason alone is worth a read.

This is a review from someone who's opinion counts..I am a psychopath. This is one of the first books I have ever read that has not labelled us all as kinds of inhuman monsters lurking along the outskirts of life, looking for our next "victims" - and it's the first volume I have ever read which made me understand that I do not have a "personality disorder"...Psychopath's do not have "disorders", we are a different breed of human being. I suppose just as there are different breeds of wolves, or antelopes, etc. all which fall under the same broad stroke species..Our brains are formed, wired and function very differently than the brains of non-psychopathic people. This book is chock full of studies, tests and social experiments which confirm this; and more than that which show in many instances that the right amount of psychopathology in a personality can actually be a very valuable asset, especially when it really counts in life.This is a totally impartial, insightful, and incredibly well written (and humorous) work of literature, which finally takes a slant on psychopathology which is not stained with automatic negativity and disdain toward us as human beings. We are different yes, less fit for normal society in many ways than our non - psychopathic counterparts in life (normal people); Yet more fit and ept in many ways and for the newer society emerging before us, the fast pace, cut throat, capitalistic feeding frenzy which is becoming the world. This book does an amazing job of pointing this out, and trying to discover what "our" psychopathic purpose and origin may be on earth, and among the human race.Finally people may begin to understand that some of the bravest, successful, and outright phenomenal people on this earth are psychopaths. Unfortunately some of us with the psychopathic "dials" turned all the way up (as Dr. Dutton so perfectly puts it) have also been responsible for some of the worst atrocities ever recorded in history...In my humble opinion, this is a matter of choice. We as psychopaths are basically capable of doing whatever we want to do, without any "internal" turmoil, guilt or remorse attached.That does not mean however that we do not have a free will, and do not have a choice as to the actions we take or how we utilize that gift (if we can call it that). This book does an excellent job of illustrating this point very subtly and reminding us of the fact that people choose their own paths, and that a psychopath can be anything from a top CEO, to a firefighter, to an SAS agent - right down to a notorious serial killer. It may be harder for a psychopath to be a "good person" as defined by society due to our limitations and lack of conscience..But it is possible for us to integrate and do the right things. I do it everyday, its a choice I make.It is very, very difficult to put this book down, and the information within is relayed in such a way that it leaves you thinking much more deeply than when you picked it up...You will certainly never think of psychopaths the same way again..Personally I can't wait to read it again..A very big thumbs up from this psychopath Dr. Dutton...Thank you.

A very good book that gets a bit more scientifically technical than, for instance, the Jon Ronson book on the same subject. I'm baffled as to some of the lower ratings that this title has received, except I suspect that the people who gave the low ratings didn't care to invest the amount of thought process into its reading that this sort of a book requires... or they just wanted to complain to hear themselves complain, especially when questioning the author's credentials... which is all a fault of the reader rather than the writer. In fact, I suspect this book might be worth five stars, but there were more than a few times when an "interesting tidbit" seemed to be thrown in without a whole lot of reason behind it other than "Hey, this is a cool factoid, so I'm going to hammer it in-- somehow!" This fault extended itself to the point that I was left scratching my head a few times because the book's flow was disrupted by a short chapter that, frankly, didn't fit. Or maybe I was really tired when I read that chapter. Or not. Nonetheless, a good book on the subject of pyschopathy that is worth reading.

This book is not a quick read but worth it if you can muffle through. It reads like a thesis but some of the stories and anecdotes are fantastic. It definitely made me feel smarter.

The impression of 'if we could some how get the psychopaths to rein it in a bit we'd have a super-human' is a strange concept but appears to be the book's aim.This proposition fails within the first few pages.Here's two vile characters mentioned that prove the point they were anything but "fearless" (as the book appears to suggest is one notable noble psychopathic characteristic).I aren't aware Gacy attacked anyone other than unfortunates he knew he could physically get the better of without any risk of harm to himself. The other one being Bundy who it has been said couldn't eat and cried with fear the night before execution, he's supposed to have looked visibly shocked the moment he saw the last chair he'd ever sit in. Not fearless in the least these two. Indeed the term psychopath is largely avoided by psychologists. I'd say this book is a good example of why.

I'd read the previous edition of this book and found it fascinating. This updated edition is even more fascinating if you want to find out more about psychopaths and they way their minds work. The psychopaths in clear sight of us, living their lives is particularly chilling - a Must read

An interesting subject covered in a rambling narrative style often elevating the author through his association with psychopaths and whose low point is the trivialisation of a young boys death choosing to use this as an intellectual prop. Stylistically this is pulp fiction and unlike the film of the same name , there is no way to re-assemble the narrative to make sense. It's an enjoyable buffet and there is a selection of intellectual morsels but is lacking structure.

Bought for my granddaughter who is studying psychology at Lancaster wanting to do criminal work so this I hoped would be useful. It is I am glad to say, she is enjoying it enormously

The second foray into this vexed subject for Kevin Dutton. He adopts a rather pseudo American style of breathless crecendo that will grate on some readers. His examples are manifold as he tries to explain the innermost workings of the psychopath brain. He puts forward the notion that there is a sort of sliding scale of psychopathy, and that some psychopaths lack one or two of the essential traits, so making them benign, or even beneficial to society.If you could't before, this book will teach you the warning signs to look out for. Psychopaths are all around, they are not only brutal murderers or master criminals, but also tend to be drawn to become policemen and lawyers.