If you think you can see throuh a person, think again....

books:


	• The Sociopath Next Door Ph.D. Martha Stout Broadway Books, 2005 - 241 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

If you think you can see throuh a person, think again....

...because sociopaths (though i prefer the older term: psychopaths) are looking so much like everyone else, are behaving exactly like everyone else, hiding so perfectly their conscienceless/heartless interior world, that walk invisible among us. And if it was only that they walk... it is in their nature to abuse everyone they come upon in order to gain money, fame, sex, whatever their deviant mind decides it wants. With no quilt, no shame, no remorse. So, they are dangerous, and they are invisible. We can't win, here can we?

Yes. By reading this book, where Martha Stout so simply and eloquently describes the characteristics of these people and how to identify them, providing case studies and examples, you gain ammunition towards preserving yourself against sociopaths. And they compose 6% of the population... it's very likely that you will come up one someday (if not already), so better be prepared. And if you already met a person whose behavior was so unlike anyone else, and caused you or people in your life pain and suffering, while he/she walked out completely detached and as if nothing ever happened, you need to read this book.

We owe it to ourselves and the people we love to know who are the predators in our world. In the animal kingdom a species knows their predators from birth. We don't. We have to read to learn. Start with this book.

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What You Can't See Can Hurt You

Who is the devil you know? (or...Are all your friends/relatives/ neighbors/ business associates really who/what you think they are?) Forget divisions you can readily see...like race and gender and culture and weight and height and all that...and realize that the single most significant characteristic that divides the human species is one you can't see...even though it is the one that surely matters most! What is it? - THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF A CONSCIENCE!

"The Sociopath Next Door" is an EYE-OPENER for anyone who thinks that meanness, or the potential for ill-will, can be easily spotted and quickly avoided. Wake-up people! But don't think you are the only one who is unaware of sociopaths. As the author points out in her introduction, "Very few people, no matter how educated they are in other ways, know the meaning of the word SOCIOPATH. Far less do they understand that, in all probability, the word could be properly applied to a handful or people they actually know."

I recommend "The Sociopath Next Door," because it gives the reader the opportunity to understand, once and for all, that the nicest people in the world deserve a second look. Just like it is said about "a deal too good to be true," if someone seems to be too nice to be true, he or she may not have YOUR best interests at heart. The Sociopath Next Door contains the real life stories of sociopaths in action...the stories with incredibly interesting and authentic subtleties that cloud the ability to realize who and what you are dealing with. My recommendation? Read this book and get smart about sociopaths...because they are smart about you.

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A must read for every human being

As the title says, this is a must read book for everyone (that is, everyone who is not a psychopath). The only thing I don't like about it is the use the word "sociopath" instead of "psychopath". But it is a very minor flaw in a great book.

Traditionally, books on psychopathy were mostly about the inmate population, serial killers and so on. That creates a dangerous sense of complacency. After all, the psychopaths are easily recognizable brutal killers and they have all been locked up in high-security prisons, right? Unfortunately, it is not so.

In this book, Dr. Stout has done a great service for humanity in describing, persuasively and chillingly, the psychopaths that are among us. They can be anyone, from a successful and ruthless executive to the neighbor next door. Statistics shows that one in 25 people are psychopaths and they cannot be easily recognized even by experts.

What makes the psychopaths dangerous is that they have no conscience whatsoever. No remorse, no empathy, no emotion to constrain any of their acts even if the act causes great harm to their closest family members. And because of the same characteristics, they are often very successful in our society.

So pick up the book and read it now because chances are good that you will encounter a psychopath in your life. And what you don't know about them CAN hurt you. Also read Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes) by Andrew Lobaczewski.

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Read this book!

We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals like Hannibal Lechter or Ted Bundy.

Martha Stout in this book reveals how a shocking 4 percent of the population have the same chief symptom, namely a complete lack of conscience. The difference is that the majority with this mental disposition operate within the laws and only rarely get caught.

The book is easy to read without having a psych degree and Martha Stout uses many examples to show how these people charm and deceive their way through life in total disregard for the impact on other people.

Martha Stout further teaches how to identify a sociopath and how to protect oneself from the impact of one.

I found the book clear and light and also a celebration of the 96% who do have a conscience.

The book is well worth reading along with "In sheeps clothing" by George Simon, "Political Ponerology" by Andrzej Lobaczewski, "The mask of sanity" by Hervey Checkley and "Without conscience" by Robert Hare, that all deal with different aspects of the phenomenon.

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Look into the mind of the guilt-free predator...

These days, with the abundance of books, movies, and television programs available on demand for instant entertainment, our knowledge tends to be informed by popular culture rather. Because of this,our intake of the dramatic simplification of most topics is outweighed drastically by factual representation.

With this in mind, it is no wonder that most of us envision dangerous people as wild-eyed lunatics noticeable a mile way, disheveled madmen that are encountered far and few between.

As Martha Stout demonstrates in The Sociopath Next Door, there are people capable of unimaginable atrocities all around us, and not only do they appear like everyone else, but they might even be less conspicuous than one would hope.

If Good and Evil are opposites of the same coin, and Good people are those who care and feel for others, then it stands to reason that evil exists as people lacking the ability to care or love. These people exist, cold and calculating sociopaths unfettered by the restrictions of guilt or conscious, and they do so in alarming numbers reaching epidemic proportions. 4% of the US population are afflicted with Sociopathic Personalities, far greater than those afflicted with cancer. Meaning one out of every twenty-five people you meet feel no remorse or regret, and are capable of anything.

Martha Stout's book strikes an elegant balance between clinical facts and anecdotal examples, making this book an easy read that manages not to come off as either a fluffy fear-mongering diatribe or a stuffy jargon-laden medical tome. The examples created from personal case studies perfectly illustrate the points of each chapter, but don't detract from the factual or philosophical topics discussed.

Despite chapters warning of the realities of the sociopaths among us, such as their alarming ability to blend in and even charm us into their confidence, her tone never reaches an alarmist level. This is a book that informs and prepares, with instilling false hope or blind panic in its audience. Also, while this topic is heavy with emotion, Stout never descends into supermarket tabloid prose. Apart from a slight detour into 9/11, which almost has no bearing on the topic at hand, the examination of the origins and ramifications of the human conscious remain informative and exploratory without becoming preachy. Especially interesting is the chapter that delves into the nature vs. nurture debate, in which she examines the genetic, environmental, and cultural influences that can help create or subdue a growing child's sociopathic tendencies.

If you have ever witnessed someone behaving extraordinarily ruthlessly or cruelly, and have wondered how someone could even bring themselves to act in such a manner, this book will go a long way towards satisfying your curiosity.

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reviews: page 1, 2

Martha Stout, Ph.D., advises that sociopaths are more common than most people realize. In fact, Stout says that sociopaths comprise four percent of the population, which essentially is one out of every twenty-five people. "The Sociopath Next Door" serves as a guide to understand how sociopaths work, how to identify them, and how to avoid them and not be affected by their ruthless behavior.

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