Good, the author is narcissistic and it comes across in his writing. Otherwise an interesting insight in the psyche of the psychopath.

author must be a weird fella to hang out with

There are some interesting bits and pieces of information in here, but this book should be taken with a grain of salt. Mr. Dutton doesn't exactly have the cleanest academic record and doesn't work within this area of research. Additionally, this book is peppered with his own quips and asides or opinions on what psychopathy is. You can't have that if you're attempting to produce a scientific and validated piece of literature.

Excellent book! I found the subject matter to be incredibly interesting although the book itself is not necessarily an easy read as some parts are quite dry and clinical.

So, who is a psychopath? Well, perhaps we've all got some of the psychopathic traits in our personality. And if we do, that might actually be a good thing! In fact, while reading the book you realize that being considered a psychopath isn't exactly the worst thing in the world. There are actually some traits that are admirable if you want to have a successful career etc.

Dutton covers off on personality traits, a theory that suggests that psychopathic traits might be the next step in evolutionary development, the breakdown of the psychopathic meter and that psychopaths and Tibetan monks actually have something in common! If any of that interests you, than there's a whole lot more in this book that will grab your attention!

Another reviewer mentioned that Dutton did not identify any women in this book that may have fit the psychopathic description....I'm not sure why this is. This is an area worth learning more about.

I personally did not enjoy this book. Putting it politely I felt that it said a lot without saying a lot. So much of it was “reaching”, such as the description of the experiments about psychopathy and what they show and taking all of the results as complete fact rather than an analysis of possible biases or misinterpretation of the data etc etc.

Finally, much of the book had what felt like white privileged male dick swinging with random descriptions of the expensive food and drinks the author had at expensive restaurants with top scientists and researchers and businessmen that added absolutely nothing to the book or to the analysis of psychopathy. There were also hints of misogyny coming through now and again.

I think I was looking for what makes psychopaths tick. I'm interested in the nature vs. nurture debate and if society can do anything to prevent the disastrous results of psychopaths on the rampage.

The author admitted that both his father and his best friends were psychopaths, despite his best friend doing an unforgivable thing to him. In the next breath, he went on to defend their personalities.

The author makes a case for psychopaths in this book and argues that everyone's personality runs on a circular spectrum. Instead of lumping all psychopaths together as sadists, he argues that psychopaths have some qualities that can make them better adapted than those who are more empathetic than them - to a point. I was disappointed that this book ended up being more of a treatise on the benefits of psychopathy than reducing what he'd learned from interviewing psychopaths to prevent people from falling victim to them.

Really enjoyed learning what we can learn from psychopaths to be better at life. Interesting exploration of the types of psychopaths and how in some cases those that have psychopath traits can be valuable members of society. Some really fascinating findings of experiments on how psychopaths are able to see when others are vulnerable and how they are somehow immune to circumstances us regular folk find harrowing.

Fascinating!

A few quotes that really got me, and I'll happily share them now; so, spoilers:

And the question becomes one of utility: what we do with this all-encompassing ‘now’, this enormous, emphatic present, once we have it. Do we ‘savour’ the moment like a saint? Or ‘seize’ it like a psychopath?

When it really mattered, they were significantly more likely to step up to the plate than were their fellow (supposedly, at least) warmer, more empathic counterparts.

I, less of a humbug than you, neither applaud myself for my pleasure nor demand your admiration.

‘So the bottom line, strange though it may seem, is this: sadistic serial killers feel their victims’ pain in exactly the same way that you or I might feel it. They feel it cognitively, and objectively. And they feel it emotionally and subjectively too. But the difference between them and us is that they commute that pain to their own subjective pleasure.’

Particularly loved the poem that ends the book; 2 exerts:

we get bored with the routine and crave beauty and excitement fire is beautiful and we know that if we get too close it will kill us but what does that matter it is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while

i do not agree with him myself i would rather have half the happiness and twice the longevity but at the same time i wish there was something i wanted as badly as he wanted to fry himself