Illyria
03-28-2005, 05:51 PM
New book tells you how to tell if your next-door neighbor is a sociopath. Hint #8: You're invited to dinner the same day your cat goes missing :suspect:
From The Journal Gazette:
Suckers for sociopaths can learn avoidance
Reviewed by Norman E. Rosenthal
“What’s this book about?” the airport security guard asked me, having minutely inspected all the other contents of my carry-on luggage. “How to tell if your neighbor is crazy?” He laughed appreciatively. He’d taken the hook: The person living next door to you may look normal but could actually be about as benign as a pod person in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” so you had better avoid him or risk having your life ruined.
That is the intriguing core of Martha Stout’s “The Sociopath Next Door,” a self-help guide to the detection and avoidance of sociopaths – or people without consciences.
Whenever the author sticks to this theme (which, unfortunately, is only part of the time), the book works. Its topic is certainly worthwhile and timely.
In their various guises, sociopaths can devastate the lives of others. The author’s well-done composite case studies read like short stories. Although Stout, a clinical psychologist, informs us at the outset that “any resemblance ... to any actual person is entirely coincidental,” the characters she presents – a ruthless tycoon, a cunning mental-health professional, an extra-grouchy neighbor and an inveterate moocher – feel authentic.
Stout’s chapter on possible causes of sociopathy is fascinating. She produces data suggesting that sociopathic traits may be partly heritable and that environmental factors may exert a lesser influence on people with those traits than it does on their normal counterparts.
The author’s 13 rules for dealing with sociopaths in everyday life are useful.Valuable clinical insights include, for example, her identification of the sociopath’s tendency to look for sympathy, then use this normal emotional reaction as a snare to entrap a conscience-ridden neighbor.
The second major theme of the book deals with the nature of conscience, its origins and values. Why, Stout wonders, is the moral life superior to the sociopath’s id-ridden joyfest? Whenever the book meanders too far into these speculations, it becomes didactic and dull. In the end, the author answers her own question about the value of conscience by pointing out that most sociopaths end up as losers, rejected and unwanted by most people outside law enforcement.
Another problem with the book is Stout’s overly sharp division of the world into sociopaths and people with consciences. In my experience, a substantial gray zone lies between the two.
The book’s self-help section is also flawed. I would have liked to read more about how to identify those personality traits that make one more vulnerable to sociopaths. After all, why are some people more susceptible to being conned or more gullible to a sociopath’s lies? Who tends to fall in love with sociopaths, to marry them or write love letters to them in jail? Lonely people, perhaps, or rescuers, risk-takers or those who’ve been abused early in life. Many might have benefited from more discussion of this topic, yet it is dealt with only in passing.
In summary, I recommend this book, especially to those who think they may be vulnerable to sociopaths. It contains good stories, useful advice and clinical and scientific nuggets. But these are diluted by musings about the nature of conscience that many will find extraneous.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/editorial/11244377.htm
From The Journal Gazette:
Suckers for sociopaths can learn avoidance
Reviewed by Norman E. Rosenthal
“What’s this book about?” the airport security guard asked me, having minutely inspected all the other contents of my carry-on luggage. “How to tell if your neighbor is crazy?” He laughed appreciatively. He’d taken the hook: The person living next door to you may look normal but could actually be about as benign as a pod person in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” so you had better avoid him or risk having your life ruined.
That is the intriguing core of Martha Stout’s “The Sociopath Next Door,” a self-help guide to the detection and avoidance of sociopaths – or people without consciences.
Whenever the author sticks to this theme (which, unfortunately, is only part of the time), the book works. Its topic is certainly worthwhile and timely.
In their various guises, sociopaths can devastate the lives of others. The author’s well-done composite case studies read like short stories. Although Stout, a clinical psychologist, informs us at the outset that “any resemblance ... to any actual person is entirely coincidental,” the characters she presents – a ruthless tycoon, a cunning mental-health professional, an extra-grouchy neighbor and an inveterate moocher – feel authentic.
Stout’s chapter on possible causes of sociopathy is fascinating. She produces data suggesting that sociopathic traits may be partly heritable and that environmental factors may exert a lesser influence on people with those traits than it does on their normal counterparts.
The author’s 13 rules for dealing with sociopaths in everyday life are useful.Valuable clinical insights include, for example, her identification of the sociopath’s tendency to look for sympathy, then use this normal emotional reaction as a snare to entrap a conscience-ridden neighbor.
The second major theme of the book deals with the nature of conscience, its origins and values. Why, Stout wonders, is the moral life superior to the sociopath’s id-ridden joyfest? Whenever the book meanders too far into these speculations, it becomes didactic and dull. In the end, the author answers her own question about the value of conscience by pointing out that most sociopaths end up as losers, rejected and unwanted by most people outside law enforcement.
Another problem with the book is Stout’s overly sharp division of the world into sociopaths and people with consciences. In my experience, a substantial gray zone lies between the two.
The book’s self-help section is also flawed. I would have liked to read more about how to identify those personality traits that make one more vulnerable to sociopaths. After all, why are some people more susceptible to being conned or more gullible to a sociopath’s lies? Who tends to fall in love with sociopaths, to marry them or write love letters to them in jail? Lonely people, perhaps, or rescuers, risk-takers or those who’ve been abused early in life. Many might have benefited from more discussion of this topic, yet it is dealt with only in passing.
In summary, I recommend this book, especially to those who think they may be vulnerable to sociopaths. It contains good stories, useful advice and clinical and scientific nuggets. But these are diluted by musings about the nature of conscience that many will find extraneous.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/editorial/11244377.htm