The Sociopath Next Door

· Sold by Harmony
4.3
85 reviews
Ebook
256
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Who is the devil you know?

Is it your lying, cheating ex-husband?
Your sadistic high school gym teacher?
Your boss who loves to humiliate people in meetings?
The colleague who stole your idea and passed it off as her own?

In the pages of The Sociopath Next Door, you will realize that your ex was not just misunderstood. He’s a sociopath. And your boss, teacher, and colleague? They may be sociopaths too.

We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.

How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They’re more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others’ suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.

The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.

It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.

Ratings and reviews

4.3
85 reviews
A Google user
May 14, 2008
This book is disturbing not because of what the author talks about, but how she talks about it. The main message of the book is: 1) There are people who are not like you and me. 2) These people are born evil and cannot be cured. 3) Almost all of the problems in the world are caused by these people. 4) Psychologists know how to identify these people and protect you from them. I exaggerate somewhat. I do not really believe that the author has some kind of dark plot to gain power by scapegoating a class of people. She admits information that works against her main point. This is nothing like a well-crafted propaganda piece; it is a logically flawed account of a real and confusing problem. Let me list some contradictions in the book: The author complains about how Western societies embrace individualism, because this encourages the antisocial actions of sociopaths. However, she also insists that we all need to teach our children to question authority and listen to their own conscience. The author repeatedly insinuates that almost all of the evil in the world is directly or indirectly caused by sociopaths. She claims that everyone else has a conscience that makes them basically good. However, she admits to many ways that this conscience repeatedly and systematically fails to prevent people from doing evil. The author celebrates 'postconventional morality' as the highest form of moral development. This ethical system basically says that you can break the rules if you think you have an important reason. This is exactly the thought process of the sociopath. They feel that they can break the rules because their needs are more important. Overall, the book seems to be a desperate attempt to preserve a myth that most people are basically good. The author looks at all the evil in the world and tries to convince us that a small minority are responsible. She says that if only we can identify them and remove them from society, then everything will automatically improve. The irony is that the author specifically identifies scapegoating as the favored tool of sociopathic tyrants throughout history. In fact, this book contains all of the facts and tools you need to see how wrong it is. She is intellectually honest; this is an academic discussion and not a political screed. The fact is that evil can be found in anybody. Bad things usually happen not because of some evil plot by a soulless demon, but because normal people react hastily and emotionally to a complicated world.
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Susan Pa
November 20, 2015
Uses case studies to illustrate how different types of sociopaths operate. They are all remorseless, but differ in their focus, it's always to "win" but their targets may differ. The corporate superstar, the covetous co-worker, the freeloader, the petty criminal who delights in seeing the chaos they've caused, and many others teach us how to protect ourselves and avoid becoming victims of these cold-hearted, emotionless predators. Highly recommended.
12 people found this review helpful
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Joseph Ross
May 28, 2015
A must read for anyone who has the slightest interest in mental disorders. This book may very well change your live by helping you identify sociopaths and how to protect yourself when you come across one. Also, of you arnt sure if you have a conscious, then you will know for sure after just reading the first 50 pages. Couldn't stop reading after I began and would recommend to any one of my many friends. 10$ is nothing for this brilliant read!
10 people found this review helpful
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About the author

Martha Stout, Ph.D. was trained at the famous McLean Psychiatric Hospital and is a practicing psychologist and a clinical instructor in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is also the author of The Myth of Sanity. She lives on Cape Ann in Massachusetts.

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