The Psychopath Whisperer
A compelling journey into the science and behavior of psychopaths, written by the leading scientist in the field of criminal psychopathy. We know of psychopaths from chilling headlines and stories in the news and movies--from Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy, to Hannibal Lecter and Dexter Morgan. As Dr. Kent Kiehl shows, psychopaths can be identified by a checklist of symptoms that includes pathological lying; lack of empathy, guilt, and remorse; grandiose sense of self-worth; manipulation; and failure to accept one's actions. But why do psychopaths behave the way they do? Is it the result of their environment-- how they were raised--or is there a genetic component to their lack of conscience? This is the question Kiehl, a protege of famed psychopath researcher Dr. Robert Hare, was determined to answer as he began his career twenty years ago. To aid in his quest to unravel the psychopathic mind, Kiehl created the first mobile functional MRI scanner to study psychopaths in prison populations. The brains of more than five hundred psychopaths and three thousand other offenders have been scanned by Kiehl's laboratory--the world's largest forensic neuroscience repository of its kind. Over the course of The Psychopath Whisperer, we follow the scientific bread crumbs that Kiehl uncovered to show that the key brain structures that correspond with emotional engagement and reactions are diminished in psychopaths, offering new clues to how to predict and treat the disorder.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
3mentions
2people
2014–2023years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I dove into the science of psychopathy a few years ago after a family incident where my father imploded his life and much of the family's through self-destructive activities and there is actually a bunch of smart people studying the neuroscience of pyschopaths.
Two great books to start with:
- The Science of Evil: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Evil-Empathy-Origins-Cruelty/...
- The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscious: https://www.amazon.com/Psychopath-Whisperer-Science-Without-...
- "It is exciting to read about a fraud — from a distance. It is not so funny to live through one."
This is a great summary.
My estranged father is a professional con artist: He has multiple lies on his social media about his alleged wealth and committed credit card fraud while I was in high school resulting in my parents' formally declaring bankruptcy.
I have found it very difficult in life to convey in words what being exposed up close and personal to con men is really like, because normal people lack imagination to put themselves in the mind of someone who doesn't care at all about humanity.
Author Chuck Klosterman has a chapter about con artists in his book "I Wear the Black Hat" which covers similar ground as Harford: people enjoy these stories and con men because of a mix of admiration (life is easier in some ways if you literally biologically can't care about anything except base biological needs of sex, power, and consumption) and curiosity for the different.
Having known multiple con men in my life, including family, I can definitely claim it's less entertaining in person than in media.
The other book I recommend on this topic is Dr. Kent Kiehl's "The Psychopath Whisperer" for its mix of neuroscience and personal stories.
"I Wear the Black Hat - Grappling with Villains Real and Imagined": https://www.amazon.com/Wear-Black-Hat-Grappling-Villains/dp/...
"The Psychopath Whisperer": https://www.amazon.com/Psychopath-Whisperer-Science-Without-...
- One of the authors of the paper is Dr. Kent Kiehl, who is famous for using a mobile fMRI to scan thousands of inmates in multiple prisons, including many psychopathic offenders.
His book on his research of psychopathy in prisons, "The Psychopath Whisperer", is excellent (despite a terrible name). Easily one of the best books on the topic. I want a sequel.
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