TheAccidental Reader’s Reviews > Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us > Status Update

First, in spite of more than a century of clinical study and speculation and several decades of scientific research, the mystery of the psychopath still remains....and the fact is, compared with other major clinical disorders, little systematic research has been devoted to psychopathy, even though it is responsible for far more social distress and disruption than all other psychiatric disorders combined.

good tips on how not to get involved with a psychopath, such as: Keep your guard up in high-risk situations. Some situations are tailor-made for psychopaths: singles’ bars, social clubs, resorts, ship cruises, foreign airports, to name but a few. In each case, the potential victim is lonely, looking for a good time, excitement, or companionship, and there will usually be someone willing to oblige, for a hidden price.

"[With] few exceptions, the traditional forms of psychotherapy, including psychoanalysis, group therapy, client-centered therapy, and psychodrama, have proved ineffective in the treatment of psychopathy. Nor have the biological therapies, including psychosurgery, electroshock therapy, and the use of various drugs, fared much better."

“The level of impairment that arose in the 1960s and 1970s in juveniles’ functioning should cause concern about the ability of a proportion of that generation to bring up the next generation. Impaired child rearing practices is one of the factors that influence how antisocial a next generation will be.” In other words, hold on to your hats—we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Psychopaths "frequently change topics, go off on irrelevant tangents& fail to connect phrases& sentences in a straightforward manner..they're notorious for not answering the question posed them or for answering in a way that seems unresponsive to the question. the breakdowns are more frequent, & possibly indicative of an underlying condition in which the organization of mental activity—not its content—is defective."

Well, whaddya know.....now in the littany of psychopath portraits, comes Robert Maxwell. His "business empire collapsed amid charges that hundreds of millions of dollars were illegally siphoned off...a carefully managed public persona can conceal dark deeds and a black heart." He's the father of one of the people who made me want to read all about scammers and psychopaths. Ghislaine--black heart for sure.

Here's something which may seem particularly salient at this time: A "characteristic typically found in psychopaths: facile distortions of reality even when they know that others are aware of the facts."

During my year of reading about scammers and psychopaths, I will probably also watch movies mentioned in some of the nonfiction books I am reading now. And I will read a few of the many accounts of the most notorious of these soulless beings. Every time my books mention another book about the topic, I add that one to my list.