Dr. Jane McGregor

This is a book about how to deal with sociopaths. The book does a pretty good job of explaining how you can tell if you have a sociopath of your very own. As the authors argue, recognizing this is indeed an important part of the battle. Sociopaths work to break down their victims, making the victims insecure, and making the victims believe that they are at fault for their troubled situation. Recognizing that these people are in your life and who they are is necessary to taking the next step: dealing with the sociopath. Unfortunately, this is one of the places where I felt like the book fell flat. There actually aren't all that many practical suggestions for dealing with a real, live sociopath in cases where the sociopath has some degree of power. I was especially interested in how one should deal with a sociopath in a position of power in the workplace, and, sadly, there doesn't seem to be much practical help there. This may be because there actually aren't any solutions.

I was especially interested in the discussions of the sociopath-apath relationship. Basically, the apath is not the instigator, but they're the sidekick to the sociopath, and they back up and validate the sociopath's activities. People may recognize that the sociopath is a bit off, but the apath seems like a regular person, who gives validity to the situation. In other words, the apath is the sociopath's "yes-man." Interesting stuff.

I feel like I learned some valuable things about sociopathy from this book, I just didn't find the practical solutions that would have been helpful to me.… (plus d'informations)

I read this book as an electronic advance reading copy (e-ARC) provided by NetGalley, and I have submitted my comments to the publisher via that web site.

This book is written, with compassion and insight, for individuals who interact with sociopaths through school, work, or family. Sociopaths (previously known as psychopaths, timelessly known as "assholes") are self serving and amoral, with no conscience or sense of self. Living with these individuals can be depressing and even harmful. The authors posit that empathy--seeing these people for what they are and calling them on their bullshit--is the ideal response but also a difficult one, compared to the apathy that most individuals use as a coping mechanism.

The authors do a good job describing the characteristics of a sociopath, illustrating their points with real life vignettes. They discuss how to recover in the aftermath of leaving a sociopathic relationship--but I wish there were more practical tips for how to leave, especially when the situation is complicated by family/legal relationships such as a sociopathic spouse when there are children in the marriage. Similarly, the authors briefly touch on the difficulties of parenting a child with sociopathic tendencies; more guidance here would have been useful. There are, however, no easy solutions--or even difficult but effective solutions--for this challenging situation, so I do not count it against the authors.

Given the prevalence of sociopathy in the population (4-25%), this book is recommended for public libraries. It is recommended with reservations for academic libraries with psychology, social work, or sociology programs because it is less rigorous and evidence based than a standard science textbook. This book seems geared more toward consumers than mental health practitioners.… (plus d'informations)