Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
Robert D. Hare, PhD
Jeffery Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Gacy, Jeffery MacDonald, Gary Tison, and David Berkowitz. What do all these men have in common? Some were murders; others were serial killers, and some were con artists. Yet they all shared the bond of being social predators. They charmed, manipulated, and ruthlessly lived their lives in ways that left others with broken hearts, shattered expectations, empty wallets, and sometimes…even funeral arrangements. All are famous psychopaths. By reading, Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, by Robert D. Hare, Ph.D I learned more than I ever could have imagined about psychopaths. As I read this book I felt like I was being taken on a journey through the mind of a psychopath. How does one think and feel? How do they act in public? What are some examples of real-life psychopaths? All of these questions were answered, and helped me know how to protect myself from becoming the victim of a psychopath.
Just what is a psychopath? What goes on in the mind of a psychopath? The dictionary definition of a psychopath is a person who is emotionally and behaviorally disturbed, characterized by clear perceptions of reality except for the individual’s social and moral obligations. But in ENGLISH, it basically means a dangerous person without a conscience, and is often highly skilled at lying and charming and at faking the emotions they lack. A psychopath knows exactly what he’s doing, but he just doesn’t care. That’s why insanity pleas don’t work with psychopaths. They aren’t crazy; in fact they are usually extremely intelligent. The most interesting things I learned from the book were the characteristics of a psychopath:
He feels no empathy. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. A psychopath doesn’t understand that other people have rights and feelings too. The reason the crimes committed by a psychopath are so horrific is because a psychopath doesn’t feel any remorse for what he’s done. When a psychopath hurts or kills someone, he feels the same way you would if you were to kill a bug-you don’t really care and you can move on with your life without giving the bug a second thought. The book uses one example of when a man brutally killed several homeless people he later said, “Oh well, all those bums are better off now anyway.”
Psychopaths, specifically con artists, are known for being witty, superficial, and egocentric. They always seem to have some smart-alec or spur-of-the-moment comment. He can mold himself into any character he needs to in order to put him self in the best light. He sees himself as the center of the universe. A psychopath thinks of himself as a superior being who has the right to live however he wants and everyone else should be grateful to him for just being alive. Also, for the most part, a psychopath has no problem with self-confidence. One psychopath, serving a twenty-year prison term was quoted as saying, “On a scale from 1 to 10, I’m a 12.”
Of course, a psychopath is incredibly deceitful and manipulative. Anyone who has ever come into contact with a psychopath would tell you that he or she was constantly lying. This attribute helps the psychopath become whomever they need to be in order to hurt their victim the most. This helps to explain how serial killers are able to lure their victims so easily. Serial killers are notorious for making up fake illnesses, problems, or stories in order to manipulate their victim into doing whatever they want. Ted Bundy bought a pair of crutches and even put his leg in a fake cast in order to get women to help him get into his car where he would then abduct and kill them.
Perhaps the scariest quality of a psychopath is the fact that they feel no remorse or guilt. They feel no reason to be concerned with the damage they’ve caused. In fact, in most cases, a psychopath tries to make himself the victim! After one man viciously stabbed a man, he told his parole board 5 years later that, “That man only had a few stab wounds and spent a couple weeks in the hospital, he didn’t even have to go to work! But I’ve had to stay in this prison for year! It’s just not fair!” Even five years later, this man was still not able to feel any regret for what he’d done. The book also talked a lot about the social deviance of a psychopath (see book log), such as: having early behavior problems, having poor behavior controls, the constant need for excitement, and a lack of responsibility. All of these things were so interesting to read about because the book gave a lot of specific examples and ways to relate the topic to my own life. But the coolest part about the book was when it covered real-life psychopaths.
Throughout the whole book there would be short stories about real-life psychopaths and the things they’d done that relate to whatever the subject of the book is. Then, at the end of the book, the author goes more in-depth about a few of the more famous psychopaths in history like Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, and Charles Manson. I think I liked reading about these people the most because I had heard of them before and for the first time I could actually put a face to these horrific actions. Although, even after reading all about psychopaths and their tendencies, while the book was explaining what these people had done I would still find myself to be in disbelief. It is hard to imagine anyone being able to commit some of those crimes!
This book definitely relates to psychology because the entire book dealt with how the minds of psychopaths work. Several times throughout the book I would recognize terms that we have used in class (ex. a lot of the brain terms). Also, since a psychologist wrote this book whenever he would put in his opinion, there was generally a sense of psychology in whatever he was saying.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in psychology, especially abnormal psychology. It was fasinating to read about how the minds of these people work. I liked how the book was broken up into a lot of smaller sections so that it was easy to follow. Also, the real life examples made it easy to relate and think about the topics in the real world, plus it was really interesting to read about how this stuff actually happened. The only thing I would say I didn’t like about the book was that it went a little slow. After getting about ¾’s of the way through I found myself having trouble following along. I almost got bored in a sense. However, it is still a very interesting book that I would highly recommend.
