The name Jon Ronson sound familiar? That's because he also wrote the book The Men Who Stare At Goats which was also made into a movie with many famous actors (an amazing movie, if you haven't already seen it). I originally picked up this book because of the interview I saw Ronson do on The Daily Show. The whole idea of a book being written about "the madness industry" sounded too interesting to pass up because instantly I was struck with images of Rod Blagojevich and Bill O'Reilly, but I wanted to find out more, and specifically more about Ronson's experience with them.
The book is entirely written from Ronson's perspective and his trail of encounters with different people, industries, doctors, and professionals, all having to do with something involved in the world of psychopaths. The book starts with Ronson being requested to investigate into a strange package that academic professionals throughout the world were sent, a handmade book titled Being or Nothingness. From then on Ronson's world entirely revolves around psychopaths, how to determine who is a psychopath, and the many personal worlds of people who can be determined psychopaths. He meets with a man named "Tony," who, according to "Tony" himself, was put into a mental institution because he "faked his way in" to get out of longer prison time. From there, Ronson meets with the famous Robert Hare, the man who created the "Psychopathy Checklist" (or "PCR"), which can rate anyone given certain characteristics on a level, and once you get past a certain number you are clinically titled as a "psychopath."
The entire road that Ronson is lead on creates many questions in the readers minds, because having the power to determine if someone is "sane" or "insane" can be something that can drive someone to become power hungry, a "holier than thou" kind of view of others.
I tend to think that making a career out of classifying weather or not someone is a psychopath, would obviously not be my first choice. There is definitely a difference between someone who acts strange and aggressive towards others and the general population that can live coherently with one another, but it does lead me to question the people who are in the middle. The people who make bad decisions at one point or another, because a single person isn't inherently evil or good, right? At the end of the day, I'm not 100% positive. I've made bad and horrible decisions in my life, while at other times I've made wonderful decisions. So it makes me wonder, what really classifies someone as a psychopath?
Maybe you should take some ideas from Jon Ronson and come to you're own conclusion. Plus, this book also brings up the discussion that many people higher up in our economy's totem pole are borderline or entirely mad with power, therefore classifying them as psychopaths, and Ronson's encounters with many of those people do not disappoint.
This book gets you to think on you're own and I believe that a quality like that is enough to want to pick up a book for no other reason besides that.
Here are some videos relating to the book:
"What is a psychopath?", Jon Ronson's own description of his book in "THE PSYCHOPATH TEST by Jon Ronson", and Jon Ronson's interview on The Daily Show
"What is a psychopath?", Jon Ronson's own description of his book in "THE PSYCHOPATH TEST by Jon Ronson", and Jon Ronson's interview on The Daily Show
No comments:
Post a Comment