The Sociopath Next Door: Martha Stout ph.d

This story explains who Sociopaths are and the introduction provides examples of different behaviors. The section that mentioned most people don't go through the day thinking "should I send my child with lunch money? Should I steal my coworker's brief case? Should I leave my spouse today" was shocking. Things that your conscience makes decisions for is missing from a sociopath in everything in daily life. There was a section that talked about an experiment where the test subject thinks they are inflicting pain in someone and they are told to give stronger and stronger punishments. The study showed the more authoritive the person is who is giving instructions, the more likely the test subject is to follow out the orders. It went on to explain how this also happens in war. Soldiers will shoot a lot more when ordered to do so by a commander and less when the commander is gone. There is also the idea of making the "enemy" less human with derogatory names. This section also goes on to show that those with a conscience are the ones who suffer from post-traumatic stress when they return. I related to a lot of this with my grandfather when he spoke of the Vietnam War. This book is weird in that is clearly defines a sociopath as one who has no conscience, not a murderer or villain, but then throughout the book it includes thoughts of "the world is unsafe with them". The section dealing with evolution and is sociopath-ism? a form of evolution was an interesting way to end the book.