Finished Su 3/6/22
According to the flyleaf I bought the book on the internet in late August of 2007 and finished on We 9/5/07
The premise is that one out of twenty-five people have no conscience. This condition is far more common than colon cancer, yet the lack of empathy is rarely mentioned. 4% of the population is afflicted with this condition which is essentially an absence of guilt.
Einstein quote: "The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
"Wasting Away Disease"
In the late 80's Nicolae Ceausescu, the dictator of Romania, was running a country that was crippled by poverty and ignorance. He banned all birth control and abortions and hundreds of starving children were the result. Ratio of children to staff was over 40 to 1. The kids were fed, but never touched and largely ignored. People from around the world rushed to adopt these children, but later it was found that these kids suffered from all kids of behavioral issues. "Children who suffer from attachment disorder are impulsive and emotionally cold, and are sometimes dangerously violent toward their parents, siblings, playmates, and pets."
The author helps you to identify these people who lack a conscience. And, what she says is that you should leave. Count your loses and get out.
The review at Kirkus:
"Readers eager for a tabloid-ready survey of serial killers, however, will be disappointed. Instead, Stout (Psychiatry/Harvard Medical School) busies herself with exploring the workaday lives and motivations of those garden-variety sociopaths who are content with inflicting petty tyrannies and small miseries. As a practicing therapist, she writes, she has spent the past 25 years aiding the survivors of psychological trauma, most of them “controlled and psychologically shattered by individual human perpetrators, often sociopaths.” Antisocial personality disorder, it turns out, occurs in around four percent of the population, so it’s not too surprising that treating their victims has kept Stout quite busy for the past quarter-century. Employing vivid composite character sketches, the author introduces us to such unsavory characters as a psychiatric administrator who specializes in ingratiating herself with her office staff while making her patients feel crazier; a captain of industry who killed frogs as a child and is now convinced he can outsmart the SEC; and a lazy ladies’ man who marries purely to gain access to his new wife’s house and pool. These portraits make a striking impact, and readers with unpleasant neighbors or colleagues may find themselves paying close attention to Stout’s sociopathic-behavior checklist and suggested coping strategies. In addition to introducing these everyday psychopaths, the author examines why the rest of us let them get away with murder. She extensively considers the presence or absence of conscience, as well as our discomfort with questioning those seen as being in power. Stout also ponders our willingness to quash our inner voice when voting for leaders who espouse violence and war as a solution to global problems—pointed stuff in a post-9/11 political climate.
Deeply thought-provoking and unexpectedly lyrical."
Part of the book concerned the Milgram Experiment:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
60% of people will inflict pain on someone they don't know if 'an authority figure' tells them to do it. So it's a 'perfect storm' if 4% of the populace has no conscience and 60% of people will inflict pain if told to do it. Does this explain Trump's presidency.
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