Without Consciousness: The World’s Troubled Psychopaths Among Us
Robert D. Hare, PhD
Jeffery Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Gacy, Jeffery Macdonald, Gary Tison, and David Berkowitz. What do they all have in common? Others murders; others serial killers, others artists con. However, they are all bound to be social predators. They were embraced, handled, and lived in disgraceful ways, others with broken hearts, shattered hopes, empty suitcases, sometimes even a funeral. They are all famous psychopaths. Reading, Without Consciousness: The Disruption of the World Psychopaths Among Us, by Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. I learned more than I ever could have imagined about psychopaths. When I read this book, I felt like I was being taken on a journey through the mind of a psychopath. How does he think and feel? How do they act openly? What are some real life examples of psychopaths? They answered all these questions and helped me to know how to protect myself from becoming a victim of psychopathy.
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 a distorted perception of reality, excluding one’s social and moral obligations. But in English it usually means a dangerous person without a conscience, and is often very skilled at lying and lacking charm and emotions. 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 are not insane; for they are usually very intelligent. The most interesting things I learned from the book were the psychopath characters:
No one truly perceives. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. A psychopath does not understand that other people have rights and feelings too. The reason crimes by a psychopath are so horrific is because the psychopath feels no awareness of the fact. When a psychopath hurts or kills someone, he feels the same way you would if you killed your bug, you really don’t care and move with You can live your life without giving the bug a second thought. One example the book uses is when he brutally killed many homeless people, then he said, “Oh well, all those bastards are better off now anyway.”
Psychopaths, particularly con- artists, are witty, superficial and egocentric. They always seem to have some crazy-alec or spur-of-the-moment comment. He must portray himself in whatever character he needs to put himself in the best light. he sees himself as the center of the universe. A psychopath thinks of himself as a superior who has the right to live however he wants and everyone else should be grateful to him for living the way he does. Also, for the most part, a psychopath has no problem with self-confidence. One psychopath, serving a 20-year prison term, was quoted as saying: “On a scale from 1 to 10, I’m a 12.”
Of course, psychopathy is incredibly deceptive and abusive. Anyone who has ever dealt with a psychopath will tell you that he is a constant liar. This attribute helps whoever becomes a psychopath need to hurt their victim the most. This helps explain how serial killers can lure out their victims so easily. Note that killers are known to make up fake illnesses, problems, or stories in order to change their victim’s behavior into whatever they want. Ted Bundy bought a pair of boots and even put his leg on a dummy to help the women get into his car, where he would then abduct and kill them.
Perhaps the scariest quality of psychopathy is that they feel no conscience or guilt. They feel no reason for the damage they have done. In fact, in most cases, the psychopath is trying to make himself the victim! After one man viciously stabbed a man, he told his credit records five years later, “That man was stabbed with a few wounds and spent several weeks in the hospital, not even working! But I’ve had to stay in this prison for a year! Even after five years, this man could not regret what he had done. The book also talked a lot about the social behavior of the psychopath (see book index), such as: morning Having poor behavior control, the constant need for stimulation and the lack of duty. All of this was so interesting that the book gave many specific examples and behavior to relate to my life. But the coolest part of the book was when the psychopaths were real He covered lives.
Throughout the book there would be short stories about real life psychopaths and the things they did that relate to whatever the subject of the book is. Then, at the end of the book, the author focuses on a few of the most famous psychopaths in history such as Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, and Charles Manson. I think I especially enjoyed reading about these because I had heard of them before, and for the first time I could actually put a face to these horrific acts. Although, even after reading all about psychopaths and their tendencies, while the book explained what these people did, I still found myself in disbelief. It is hard to imagine that anyone could commit any of these crimes!
This book is definitely related to psychology, because the whole book deals with how the minds of psychopaths work. Several times throughout the book I would like to recognize terms that are used in the class (eg a lot of brain terms). Also, since the psychologist who wrote this book whenever he put his opinion, there was almost a sense of psychology in everything he said.
I recommend this book to anyone who is into psychology, especially abnormal psychology. Read how their minds work. I liked how the book was broken up into smaller sections so it was easy to follow. Also, real life examples are easy to tell and think about topics in real life, it was really interesting to read how this stuff was made. The only things I would say I didn’t want the book to be that it went a little slow. When he was on the road, I found myself following him in trouble. It’s almost boring in the sense. But it is still a very interesting book that I highly recommend.
