Rating: 
Summary: Good beginner's guide
Review: This book is clearly written for laymen to understand. The concepts of psychopathy are superficially covered with little use of statistical data or academic reference. It does however paint a realistic and comprehensible picture of the psychopath at work. The only other flaw was Hare's incessant reference to his own work with the Checklist. It seems more like an advertisement than a necessity in the flow of the prose.
Rating: 
Summary: ESSENTIAL TO HEALING
Review: This book is essential for the healing of family members and/or victims whose lives have been impacted by the puzzling acts and deceptions of a psychopath. Hare does a wonderful job of boiling down the technical research of a body of work pertaining to these individuals to its simplest, palatable form for the layperson. It is an excellent place to start one's research if you are forced to continue your relationship and/or dealings with this dysfunctional and possibly destructive personality type. I couldn't give it a more outstanding review.
Rating:
Summary: A Gold Mine of a book for families of this type of person
Review: This book is invaluable for the psychiatric community. I think it should be required reading. It is also an asset to the lay person, particularly if this type of person is a family member. Dr. Hare "nails" both the personality traits and the behaviors of the psychopath. This book is the ONLY book I have found so far to be as direct and helpful to my family and I as it has been. I found Dr. Hare's approach to treatment of these people to be useful also. While some may find Dr. Hare's conclusions somewhat final, I appreciated his candor. For anyone who deals with these types of people, this book is a "must have"; especially families of these persons. I found the book to provide ideas for action instead of the floundering about offered in so many other texts. My thanks, Dr. Hare, for an excellent and informative read.
Rating:
Summary: A Gold Mine of a book for families of this type of person
Review: This book is invaluable for the psychiatric community. I think it should be required reading. It is also an asset to the lay person, particularly if this type of person is a family member. Dr. Hare "nails" both the personality traits and the behaviors of the psychopath. This book is the ONLY book I have found so far to be as direct and helpful to my family and I as it has been. I found Dr. Hare's approach to treatment of these people to be useful also. While some may find Dr. Hare's conclusions somewhat final, I appreciated his candor. For anyone who deals with these types of people, this book is a "must have"; especially families of these persons. I found the book to provide ideas for action instead of the floundering about offered in so many other texts. My thanks, Dr. Hare, for an excellent and informative read.
Rating:
Summary: A book that needs to be sentenced!
Review: This book is written inside out. It is has been written from inside the mind of a psychopath catching their every thought. It took me two years to read 220 pages, I could only read a couple of pages at a time. For those of you who have had a "Social Predator" come through your life, this book is terrifying. For those of you who have no knowledge of a pychopaths behavior, purchase extra copies of Dr. Hare's book. When I finally put this book down I was left with only one question. "When is Dr. Hare going to write a recovery book for the victims, who are living outside the minds of these "Social Predators."
Rating:
Summary: A book that needs to be sentenced!
Review: This book is written inside out. It is has been written from inside the mind of a psychopath catching their every thought. It took me two years to read 220 pages, I could only read a couple of pages at a time. For those of you who have had a "Social Predator" come through your life, this book is terrifying. For those of you who have no knowledge of a pychopaths behavior, purchase extra copies of Dr. Hare's book. When I finally put this book down I was left with only one question. "When is Dr. Hare going to write a recovery book for the victims, who are living outside the minds of these "Social Predators."
Rating:
Summary: Everyone MUST read this book!
Review: This is a very important subject, especially in today's world (which tends to "create" sociopathic behaviour). This book is an excellent tool in learning more about sociopathic (or psychopathic) behaviour, and learning how to deal with it in a down to earth, practical manner. I believe everyone who can read should read this book in order to protect themselves. I am in my 20's and I have run into three psychopaths so far -- two of them bragged about being adept at "conning" their psychiatrists -- believe me, these people are out there!
Rating:
Summary: I am wiser & much sadder now
Review: This is an excellent introduction to the world of the psychopath. The checklist is an excellent diagnostic tool. I found myself wondering, if the brain scanning work Dr. Hare describes (Chapter 8) is accurate, why we don't skip all the therapy & subjective analysis and just wire 'em up?I would recommend this book as a good basic introduction for the lay person, and an excellent resource for any person in the field of couples counseling, premarital counseling, or any other sort of relationship therapy. Perhaps if people could recognize the signs of psychopathic behavior early enough, their lives would not be destroyed by sick relationships. The best defense against psychopaths is to recognize them for what they are and not get tangled in their web. Here is what left me feeling the most hopeless: the book had no real good advice for what to do when you realize that the person you've chosen as a best friend, spouse, business partner, etc. is a psychopath, long after you've entangled your life & fortunes with him/her. This book left me saddened. There are people in my life I have tried to understand, hoping that if I could only "get where they're coming from", I could develop some empathy & caring for them instead of being utterly repelled. But, if, as Dr. Hare states, Psychopaths are not curable or treatable, what's the point? It's hopeless. Our society is not one in which some authority figure could administer tests, prove that the person is not curable and is incapable of rehabilitation, and then put them to death. For good or ill, that's just not the way we do things. In the case of proven psychopaths, I sort of wish it was.
Rating:
Summary: Good, But Needs to Be Updated
Review: This is far and away the best book on psychopaths. It covers nearly every aspect of them - their behavior, how to recognize one (although Dr. Hare quite properly cautions against making a diagnosis), how to protect yourself against one. It does not cover the psychodynamic issues involve, e.g., conflicts and unconscious processes; Dr. Hare explicitly avoids those issues as not properly the subject matter of his book (p. xii), and I feel that the book is complete without any discussion of them.
It does not offer a solution in the form of treatment for psychopaths individually or in the form of recommendations for families or any larger group to prevent the production of more psychopaths. Dr. Hare is commendably honest in saying that psychopaths are poor candidates for psychotherapy, which may actually make them worse (pp. 195-196).
The copyright on the book is 1993. Dr. Hare notes toward the end of the book (p. 203) that "the Canadian government recently challenged me to design an experimental treatment/management program for [criminal psychopaths]." I truly hope that Dr. Hare updates this book to include the results of that program and of other research done since 1993.
Rating:
Summary: excellent, very illuminating
Review: well organized and very accessibl
|
