Why you must read The Psychopath Test

Can't speak for political judgments, but have read a bit of economics to gauge how the entire edifice of an academic subject, centred on choices, pretending to be science, stands on an all-important 'ceteris paribus' (all things being equal/constant) condition: which is, that people are rational.

What if there are more powerful engines in the human brain that wholly overshadow our inclination towards rationality? And I mean from a macro decision-making level, that determines lives of billions, or where we are headed as a collective.

Of course, most people (the bulge of the global bell curve) follow patterns of behaviour that constitute the norm, and so we call it that. But the fact of being 'away from the norm' or, literally, being 'abnormal' throws up so many kinds of despicable medical possibilities, widely clubbed as madness, that the moment we think of the lowest level in the psychological pyramid - the psychopath, for instance - we only imagine a dangerous serial-killer type, whose lack of moral restraint is coupled with getting turned on by killing; or blood-lust without a moral hang-up.

The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson

Such folk are usually behind bars, at high-security prisons, or correctional facilities, which is where author Jon Ronson starts his journalistic exploration and, interviewing/researching top psychiatrists and psychologists along the way, discovers that the much reviled, specific term, psychopath (sociopath being its interchangeable synonym), is in fact erroneously associated with merely hardened/famous/obvious criminals.

The same human traits exist as strongly among those who aren't in prison - but among top echelons of society; in fact, pretty much the ruling class, as it were! Not all of 'em at the top, of course. But significantly, as much as four to five times, higher than among the general population, which isn't in jail! And people are born psychopaths, rather than turn into one.

As Martha Stout from Harvard Medical School, author of The Sociopath Next, puts it, "Serial killers ruin families. Corporate, political and religious psychopaths ruin economies, societies. Sociopaths love power. If you take loving kindness out of the human brain, there's not much left except the will to win."

Where does this complete lack of human empathy come from? Amygdalae in the brain, and our central nervous system, which control our potential to feel (guilt, fear, remorse). Or not, actually, and so psychopaths are forced to literally observe and mimic responses to emotions, to be able to fake empathy instead.

I'm essentially quoting entirely from Ronson's 2011, part-hilarious, totally breezy read, The Psychopath Test, that one finds people posting about on social media. What calls for this resurgent interest? I suspect never in my memory have we wondered as much about the mess the world is deliberately in. And perhaps psychology has an answer. Ronson does well to walk in as someone suspicious of psychology first; since, like economics, it is also a pseudo-science, wholly dependent on contestable theories.

But one of them, top criminal psychologist/researcher Bob Hare's Checklist (or PCL-R) is "gold standard in diagnosing psychopaths", with remarkably consistent results. And detection is all that psychologists care for, rather than cure (which one is still debating over).

How do you spot a psychopath on top of the ladder of success, besides that more often than not, they are extremely dapperly dressed ("a classic psychopath symptom," according to Hare's detailed research)? The other most commonly noticed character is their inherent/perennial need to be liked by people, which in turn is linked to the power they can then hold over them ("like a puppet-master pulling the strings"). Let's quickly glance through the checklist, the first item of which only makes likeability (among vast followers) possible.

1. Glibness/superficial charm.
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth: He (surely there are considerably more men) may claim that others respect him, envy him, dislike him, and so forth.
3. Pathological lying.
4. Cunning/manipulative: His statements may reveal a belief that the world is made up of 'predators and prey', or that it would be foolish not to exploit the weaknesses in others.
5. Lack of remorse/guilt.
6. Callous/lack of empathy: Any appreciation of the pain of others is merely abstract.
7. Lack of realistic long-term goals.
8. Impulsivity: Unlikely to spend much time considering the possible consequences of his actions.
9. Shallow affect: Displays of emotions are dramatic, shallow, short-lived, leaving the impression that he is play-acting.
10. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions: He usually has some excuse for his behaviour, including rationalisation, and putting the blame on others.
Don't know if this reminds you of anyone you've met privately, or known as a popular public figure. But, mind you, these are only 10 of 40 signs on the conclusive check-list. Scoring anywhere around 30 or above is confirmed diagnosis, worth severe incarceration, critical care, according to Ronson's research at prison cells.

But then again, according to Harvard Med's Martha Stout, who believes psychopaths are to blame for this "brutal, misshapen society", if you do sense a creeping anxiety (the opposite of psychopath trait/behaviour), recognising these traits within yourself: You're not the one!

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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