Books for Prep | |
 - Fascinating and InformativeThis book gives insight into a phenomenon that is misunderstood by many in America: psychopathy. Use the word "psychopath" amongst your peers, and the first people they will think of are high profile serial killers. Yet your miscreant son, your untrustworthy stock broker, or your transient, cheating spouse may all be psychopaths. Dr. Hare gives the reader a specific set of characteristics displayed by psychopaths, how their actions effect those around them and society at large, and possible solutions to minimize those effects. The book is a fascinating, well-written, and concise look at this destructive personality disorder. My only major criticism is that Dr. Hare seems content to simplify the language too much, needlessly buffering the reader from the more technical, psychological language. He should have given his readership more credit. Overall, this was an excellent read. I highly recommend it. Rating:  - A Truly Insightful BookThis book explains the problems with identifying and dealing with antisocial personality disorder. It describes the disease in specific terms that are very helpful to the reader desiring an understanding of this challenging mental illness. Rating: - Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among UsThis is a great book for the layman from a leading researcher and clinician on the subject of the pyschopathic personality. It is very readable and brings a good deal of clarity to a confusing and very difficult area of human relationships. It was actually a relief to read this book and recognize the "wolves in sheep's clothing" who have upset and victimized friends, family members and myself. I think it should be part of any training program for managers, clergy and anyone responsible for the well-being of a group of people. I wish I had had the information in this book under my belt when I left college and entered the "real world" -- it would have spared me and several loved ones a lot of trouble and grief. Rating: - ASSISTANCE IS FUTILE!This is a fascinating book. It's like you get to see inside the minds' of people whose reality is totally different from yours - hopefully! As the author says, their's is a black and white world, devoid of many emotions that normally color a person's life. Scary stuff. But good for realizing some things, like how to look for cues to identify such people, how to spot the techniques they use to con others, and how futile it is to think they will truly change for any reasons whatsoever. The studies, the experts, all say they will NOT. If there is such a thing as demon seed, this book describes it in detail. Rating: - Highly readable intro to psychopaths by world's leading expertIt is not often that top level scientists can write a popular introduction to the field and successfully combine insights drawn from decades of clinical experience blended with anecdotal mini-histories that make the concepts come alive. The renowned researcher Dr. Robert D. Hare--the creator of the most widely used tests for analyzing psychopathy around the world--has written just such a book. It is concise, packed with new information, and compellingly written! Though originally published some 15 years ago, Without Conscience remains a best-seller in its field because no one else has described the inner workings of the psychopath with such clarity and verve while remaining absolutely true to the scientific field he himself helped create. Let me be clear about what this book "isn't" and doesn't pretend to be: the book is based on the famous PCL-R testing procedure Hare and his colleagues have developed over many years, but it does not show how to use the testing procedure (which requires very substantial training) nor does it provide all of the current footnotes some might want. (Those are easily available elsehwhere--see the recent and technical handbook, The Psychopath, edited by Herve and Yuille with contributions by Hare for current references and refinements in research.) Who are psychopaths? Hare shows how the key psychological characteristics--glib and superficial, egocentric and grandiose, lacking in remorse, lacking in human empathy, deceiptful and manipulative, and shallow in their emotions--are combined with behavior problems (often problems going back to childhood) to produce a completely unique profile of people who are potentially highly dangerous and lack any internal "brakes" on whatever havoc they create in the lives of others. They are a dangerous breed and a breed apart. If you're interested in what makes these often charming and normal-acting tricksters work, how and why they camoflage their own deadliness, this remarkable book is the place to start. It will be fascinating for both general readers as well as psychology students and people in both the mental health fields and law enforcement. In association with Amazon.com | |