Rating: 
Summary: The creepy folk
Review: Robert Hare's book is a landmark publication and very frequently referenced by other professionals, which speaks to the respect in which his colleagues hold his research and writings. This is an excellent book. It is well-written, lucid, and aimed at the lay person. His clarification of the terms "psychopath," "sociopath" and "anti-social personality disorder" are quite useful.
My only problem with the book is that Hare's examples come largely from the criminal world, where many psychopaths end up, and in which he worked for many years. Because of this, we may lose sight of the fact that many "psychopaths" are NOT criminals, but produce enormous chaos and emotional mayhem in the lives of others -- others who do not understand this disorder and cannot make sense of what has happened to them.
Psychopaths by their very nature are con artists, but not all are thieves and murderers. Some are just emotionally abusive, cruel, manipulative, controlling and bring families, employees, employers and acquaintances to ruin in a hundred other ways.
Empty, pathetic and destructive, they run the gamut from the emotionally frozen, disengaged, cruel parent to the serial killer -- all marked by one thing, their inability to relate empathetically to others.
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: 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: Whoever Fights Psychopaths!
Review: WOW. I just finished reading this book & I must say, it was a thorough read. Dr. Hare covered a wide range of levels of the psychopath, how to deal with a psychopath if you love one, how to view the "ethics" or "morals" of this type of criminal, & he gave plenty of case studies. This is a great read for those who are interested in criminal psych / criminal justice!
Rating:
Summary: Whoever Fights Psychopaths!
Review: WOW. I just finished reading this book & I must say, it was a thorough read. Dr. Hare covered a wide range of levels of the psychopath, how to deal with a psychopath if you love one, how to view the "ethics" or "morals" of this type of criminal, & he gave plenty of case studies. This is a great read for those who are interested in criminal psych / criminal justice!
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