The Psychopathic Mind: Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment

by J. Reid Meloy

Forensic psychologist Reid Meloy identifies psychopathology as a deviant development disturbance characterized by inordinate instinctual aggression and the absence of a capacity bond. It is the definitive book on the subject.

A Jason Aronson Book

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Psychiatry

498 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 1977

Reviews

[Feather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great abnormal psyche read but the value of this book is that I will continue to reference this for years to come. Kerberg's three levels of personality organization, neurotic, borderline, and
psychotic does explain the primitive levels of defense mechanism. Hehe, I'm glad they put a name to the psychotic stare, "Reptilian predatory stare!" I know exactly how this stare feels as a target and it makes you feel like a sheep being drawn into the eyes of a wolf!

I've been fascinated for many years with serial killers such as the night stalker, Richard Ramirez and Albert Desalvo. I like how the author refers to the range of emotions such as envy, et al. to specify what drives the psychopath to navigate the driven envy-greed-devaluation triad so adeptly. The infantile analogous references were quite astonishing and gives the reader insight into object desire.

What's across the board with psychopaths is the intrinsic need to devalue others so that they can be CONTROLLED. It's a scary but a real premise that I know to be true. After all, how can someone mistreat you so badly unless they make YOU into something horrific in their minds. This gives them permission to do so. What I suspected for years and years has a name for the reason why a certain someone was so drawn to my good ways, it's called project identification. Basically once you establish what this is...it is them not separating themselves from the "object of desire."

[Jesus Armando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, solid, fascinating

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains the sociopath and psychopath better than the popular book, "Without Conscience". However there is a lot of psychoanalytic language and object relations, which could easily turn off the casual reader. Meloy is a highly intelligent, even humorous writer. Some of this book is not for the faint of heart - I skipped the descriptions of the worst crimes. Meloy interviewed many criminals for court cases.

[Kristine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a text book I would expect to read in a PhD program, which means I skipped several portions of object relations material because I'm reading this for personal education, not as a classroom assignment. Incredibly comprehensive; very Freudian based & includes great information on alternative scoring measures for the Rorschach.

[L D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone studying forensic psychology should include this in their reading list.

[Michael Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too specialized for my level. Fascinating and scary.

[Yingtai]

Too technical (Freudian and pharmaceutical) for me. Not as annoying as that Kernsberg one, admittedly.