The Psychopaths Among Us: A trip to the corridors of power by Jon Ronson Review

What is that – a psychopath? The main feature of severe personality disorder afflicting the psychopath is that he has empathy incapable consequently lack empathy and social responsibility knows, (some use “sociopath” as a synonym). Apart from that psychopaths usually seem quite sympathetic to their surroundings. They know how to win their fellow man for himself and maintain superficial relations to their advantage. In the vernacular, the label “psychopath” is often awarded to cold-blooded criminals or generally emotionally to call Uncontrolled.

The British author Jon Ronson, who has made a committed journalist and documentary international reputation, made a mental note to investigate how the “official” psychology with this disorder deal – so how can you define psychopathy, diagnose, treat, evaluate? – and he wanted to critically illuminate the usual theories and practices, however,

Ronson is not a traditional science journalist who objectively critical distancing the facts and presented properly verifiable, but a representative of the popular in the English-speaking world “Gonzo.

journalism “in which research results are conveyed in an entertaining mix of reporting, narrative, scenic reportage, dialogue, explanation and commentary.

The continuous self-reflection that personally embossed fabric choice and perspective as well as the included irony and cynicism laced with subjective statements text make such tracts of course vulnerable, but also emotionally potent. On the other hand, the omission leads to a systematic structure (with definitions and stringent argumentation including complex sentence structure and differentiated conjunctions) in the worst case, lead to non-binding ramblings and kitchen Psychology fills the pages …

Ronson talked to in the UK and North America “psychopath” (real, perceived, misdiagnosed – depending on the definition), with psychologists, Scientologists (the natural enemies of the official psychology), with murderers, conspiracy theorists, the leader of a brutal political death squad from Haiti, with pharmaceutical lobbyists and CEOs … he attended seminars, clinics, prisons and boardrooms, recapitulated grotesque treatment methods from the fifties and sixties, and he “flipped” specialized texts – especially the DSM-IV-TR manual that human for each of the 374 types of behavior one or mood variations – Criteria set lists, and initiated by Robert D.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified

Proficient in: Character Traits

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Hare checklist for psychopathy.

An examination of a “patient” with the help of such catalogs, therefore rated as with 0 to 2 points, the extent to which each criterion applies to it, a formed (supposedly) objective diagnosis. These compendia are grown from edition to edition more comprehensive and sophisticated, the person skilled in the meantime also offer customized questionnaires, and they have to explode the number of people with an officially konstatierten personality disorder because each / r will collect the one point or another of us, and already the threshold is reached of about 20 to 30 points …

benefits from this questionable development attract the pharmaceutical industry, the psychiatrist and the insurance companies; Victims are the people who will be provided for the rest of their lives with no more tilgbaren, probably ambiguous diagnosis. That, tragically, more and more children, which one (already four years old!) A deviant psyche attested to her medication to get to grips with, even though their behavior is simply childish perhaps, marked by curiosity and experimentation, but too strange or unadjusted for their parents …

the findings, revealed the Ronson during his chats are varied, sometimes shocking, the bottom line but undecided and contradictory: you can be a thing so look like, but also different … This is of course because that the human psyche is now even a incredibly complex thing that all categorization frees itself once again. Positivist hopes ( “Modern science will one day be able to solve all the problems.”) Makes Ronson however, clearly put an end

So much for Jon Ronson’s quite interesting and -. If you like the “Gonzo” style – entertaining book, which I would give as such 3 stars. (I’m not a “Gonzo” fan.) The key words in the title – ” The Psychopath Test – A Journey Through the Madness Industry < ” Jon Ronson:” the psychopath test – A Journey Through the Madness Industry “buy (opens new browser tab)” What the tropics publisher and his translator Martin Jaeggi have made of it, has the book . not done well

the German title “the psychopaths among us: a trip to the corridors of power” pushes the actual core content – the test, the problem, what is actually a “psychopath” and the commercialization of the phenomenon – aside to replace it with lurid phrases: Our society is permeated by psychopaths, especially the “what to say who” had disturbed personalities. The summit is the phrase on the back cover: “Most psychopaths are sitting at the levers of power” – this claim has to let herself melt in your mouth

A buyer who now provocative criticism of the! mighty expected will be disappointed, because for Jon Ronson that was just a side issue. On the other hand, someone who wants to learn about psychopathology and their development more, leave a book with such a title unnoticed, although it is actually just the thing for him would be … Who eventually bought it take – if he as is reasonably sensitive language – a high tolerance threshold to get through the reading of this work without suffering. (If linguistic weaknesses do not bother with a non-fiction book, you do not do anything more.) translator and proofreading work apparently under time pressure – at least listless and sloppy. The text is mechanistically, ie Word for word, translated from English, without any attempt to find a match the original sound in German. Therefore, the narrative is usually as dry as cardboard.

Has anyone thought along with sentences like “If your total score at 30 or more than 40 possible points is …” “And < em> you then you you somewhere stuck … “,” Tony voice rose with anger and frustration to “? All three can be found on page 65; emphasis added are mine There is no page jumps to the not at least one error in the eye. often it’s a half-dozen. Since missing syllables and whole words, the syntax is shot to pieces. The subjunctive is unknown. Whoever is responsible, not the spelling  noticed nor satzgliedernde commas. The apostrophe is Jaeggi even after English rules wrong, “Sarah’s house” (p 138); “In the Steven Nolan Show BBC Five Live’s” (instead of “BBC 5 live”); “Take ‘the bottle!” – in German it belongs here anywhere

Many formulations are not only bumpy, but unidiomatic.. “Have you ever hurt someone in a fight on the school grounds?” (P 100) Why not “… at a schoolyard brawl another child hurt”? How can a professional translator “would” ignore for habitual actions? “In a typical attack, the attackers would penetrate into a house” – here no “possibility” but is meant but “In their raids they usually broke …” . And “to ask” is not always “ask”: Instead of “Hare was asked Nicole Kidman … to provide advice” , they say in German rather “Hare was asked …”. That may be a Helvetismus, as well as the “resting place” or consistent (multiple) treatment of the feminine “squadron” as masculine or neuter: “(An) leader of a death squad”

Finally, a few beads. which are included in the purchase price of € 19.95 “This is not something that comes and goes It makes the person out rather..”  Hotel “teaching them empathy and they will …” (p 91) “I hung an advertisement to the message board.” (P 115) Hotel “and appeared for a second Rachel easier carrying.” Hotel “Is not that just another way of saying that they had never even?” (P 245) Hotel “… that he would never work again as an officer … a listed company” …