The Psychopath Test. Chapter 4

In chapter 4, "The Psychopath Test", in Jon Ronson's book, The Psychopath Test, Ronson describes the process he went through with Bob Hare in order to understand the characteristics of a psychopath and how to detect them in society. Bob Hare starts out by telling Ronson about his early discoveries with shock testing. These shock tests could determine if someone was a psychopath because they wouldn't show any fear leading up to the shock and would not be expecting the pain even the second time he told them it was coming. When electric shocks were outlawed Hare held a conference for people who were interested in identifying psychopaths so they could put together a list of criteria that would characterize someone as a psychopath. They came up with the Hare PCL-R Checklist. Hare then taught Ronson how to use the checklist by looking at numerous case studies and identifying the characteristics that classified someone as a psychopath. Jon Ronson will now use the information that Hare taught him about identifying psychopaths to his quest, but he has to be careful because he can't trust anyone.


Chapters 4 and 5 were also quite interesting sections in The Psychopath Test. I was wondering if the list that Bob Hare describes in chapter 4 that he created to identify a psychopath is universally used by doctors and psychiatrist to diagnose a psychopath. I also find it interesting that as Jon is learning about these traits of a psychopath that he is questioning his own self and wonders, at times, if he is a psychopath. In chapter 5 I find it very interesting that the people know that Toto did all those murderous acts in Haiti, but yet they just sent him to Queens without any real punishment. Toto also demonstrates the same behaviors as the psychopaths from Oak Ridge because he fakes to try to get out of this institution.

Psychopaths Dream in Black and White

         In chapter 3 of Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test entitled "Psychopaths Dream in Black and White", Jon Ronson tells of his journey through the studies of Elliot Barker to answer the question: How could psychopaths be cured? Elliot Barker was a psychiatrist in the 60's that took a year long trip to explore the diverse therapeutic communities. From each place that Barker visited he took a little bit of therapeutic techniques with him. Until he came to the Oak Ridge hospital in Ontario for the criminally insane patients, where he put all his findings into action. He set up "The Capsule", which was a room where patients were secured, completely naked and required to talk about their feelings. This capsule appeared to heal these psychopaths that were held in Oak Ridge, and in time they were released back into society. Almost immediately after being released these psychopaths went right back to committing crimes, such as rape and murder, once again. This technique of curing psychopathic behaviors created by Elliot Barker turned out to be an aid to these criminally insane patients, teaching them to manipulate themselves to act normal.

         This chapter was very interesting because of the fact that the whole time they explained a process that was developed to end psychopathic behavior by sitting in a room naked with other psychopaths, but then at the end it was decided that this process didn't help at all and actually taught criminals how to manipulate themselves even more. Another part of this chapter that was interesting to me was the descriptions of Kingsley Hall. I was extremely baffled while Ronson was talking to Adrian Laing about how different one schizophrenic can be from another. He described the room of one schizophrenic to be adorned with silk drapery and costumes compared to another schizophrenic patient who was kept in the basement where they smeared feces all over the walls. I thought these two patients seemed on two opposite sides of the spectrum, but then i realized that they both were actually very similar, in that they both were very creative. Each schizophrenic just expressed their creativity differently. The differences of symptoms in 2 very similar diagnosis is something that intrigues me and I want to learn more!

Test Post!

blog blog blog :)