new book, the psychopath next door

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2004
new book, the psychopath next door
12
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 5:25pm

I read about this in O magazine.

Linda

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-31-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 5:34pm

Uh, Linda? I think I'm one of those 4%. JUST KIDDING!!! Seriously, I think the book sounds very interesting. I'm just afraid it would scare the bejesus out of me and then I'd never date again. 15 dogs, here I come.

Ann

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 5:50pm
Wow!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-18-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 5:58pm

Holy crap. Perhaps this OLD thing really is hazardous to your health?

Don't forget ABM...20 cats with thos 15 dogs. One housecoat. One pair support hose. One set curlers and matching hairnet. One gallon of Jim Beam. Removable Teeth-optional. Dixie cup (for the JB) also optional. Phone with long cord to stretch across the kitchen and underneath the kitchen table, where you will camp out in this outfit, getting drunk, and drunk dialing all your friends and relatives.

Double crap. Yep, I am one of those 4%.

(ummmm...did I happen to mention have a lunch date on Sat? Shhhh. heehee)

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-31-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 7:05pm

Let's not forget..... one shotgun, with which I will camp out on my front porch scaring little children by screaming "Git off my land!!!!" JUST KIDDING again.

Xriver, are you holding back? OK, woman, spill the beans about that lunch date on Saturday!

ABM

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 7:10pm
Yes, SP, that's the book!
Linda
Linda
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-10-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 7:19pm

A couple of things worth noting...

First, the title is "The Sociopath Next Door", not "psychopath", if you're looking for it.

Also, according to the inner flap (and from my college study days) not all sociopaths are murder-killer-rapist types. Many (if not most) live and work among us. What sets them (sociopaths) apart is that they don't really have a conscience.

This doesn't mean they're killers; many/most sociopaths have, through behavioral (operant) conditioning, learned that there are limits to what they can "get away with" in terms of their behavior.

(In other words, the reason they're not killers isn't because they would feel guilty; it's because they do not want to put up with the results of getting caught if they DID kill someone.)

The sociopath living next door is more the person who you work with who does nasty/bad things to someone else and has absolutely no remorse about it. They honestly don't care if it makes someone feel bad.

Well, heck, I'll quote the book flap (allowed under copyright law since that's basically a promotional use and we're critically discussing it).

There ARE no doubt plenty of sociopaths among us. Many of us notice that we frequently seem to wind up in relationships with the same kind of people. If you are always winding up with sociopaths, this book would probably be an excellent purchase.

Personally, I need to find the book called "The Unable To Commit Girl Living Next Door" or "The Woman (Who Thinks Being Constantly Critical And Mean Is Communication) Living Next Door".

(From the Inside Flap)

"Who is the devil you know?

"Is it your lying, cheating ex-husband?
Your sadistic high school gym teacher?
Your boss who loves to humiliate people in meetings?
The colleague who stole your idea and passed it off as her own?

"In the pages of The Sociopath Next Door, you will realize that your ex was not just misunderstood. He’s a sociopath. And your boss, teacher, and colleague? They may be sociopaths too.

"We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.

"How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They’re more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others’ suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.

"The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.

"It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know."

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-16-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 7:22pm
wow you sure know alot about Sociopaths..
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-10-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 10:04pm

You got some kind of problem with that, Buster? Huh? HUH? DO YA?

Yeah, didn't THINK so.

:P

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-24-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 10:10pm

My mistake.

Linda

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