Book Report/Summary of Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among Us - Essay Example

Book Report In the introductory chapter Hare (1999, p. 1), describes psychopaths as “often charming – but always deadly – individuals.” Present in all societies, their brain waves are abnormal, which characterizes them with an absence of a conscience, and with a sole objectives of satisfying themselves at the expense of another individual. This is what makes them dangerous elements in society. While some of the psychopaths land up in prisons, many others remain free in society, with the outward innocence and charm they demonstrate, resulting in society remaining in the dark of this danger lurking in their midst.

Violent acts of psychopaths from time to time awaken society to this danger, but fades away when the perpetuators are locked away, leaving society exposed to other psychopaths, who have no care for the pain and suffering they cause through their acts. Family history fails to give us the necessary answer to the cause, even though family violence may be seen in the background of some psychopaths. Not all victims of family violence turn out to be psychopaths. So deeper probing is needed to come up with the critical answer that is needed, if society is to predict the possibility of violent psychopathic acts by an individual (Hare, 1999).

The author then proceeds to give examples of some of his experiences with psychopaths, as a psychologist. The first example is from his time in the British Columbia Penitentiary. Ray (false name) is the individual, who initially tested him with a knife and the gory details of what he intended doing with the knife to another inmate. Ray was an excellent con artist, and subsequently when paroled, sought admission to college, citing having worked as Dr. Hare’s assistant. Checking on his papers, showed all of them to be fraudulent.

The next example pertains to Dan and his entering the life of lonely Elsie, playing truant to her, and finally just disappearing from her life. The final example pertains to a pair of girl twins, where one twin was a high performer, and the other doing everything she could to upset the other twin. In spite of the different approaches to remove this malady from the second twin, it persisted even at their thirtieth birthday, causing the parents to wonder whether the second twin was “crazy? Or just plain bad?

” (Hare, 1999, p.20). Madness or just being bad is the uncertainty that is present with psychopathy. Psychopathy cannot be viewed in terms of usual mental illness, but the problem is that to commit the violent acts of psychopaths there is an element of craziness about it. Movies, like The Silence of the Lambs, highlight this. However, there is a clear distinction between violent acts of mentally ill individuals and psychopaths. The distinction lies in psychopaths being aware of the wrongness of their acts and the consequences of their actions.

However, this does not dissuade them from the violence and cruelty that are present in the actions of psychopaths. Probably as a means of drawing this distinction between mental illness and psychopaths, the term sociapaths has emerged, and is used interchangeably with psychopaths. The choice in use of the terms may have to do with the two different views held. Those who use the term sociopath normally view the origins or determinants of the clinical syndrome or disorder as the consequence of social forces and early life experiences.

On the other hand, those who use the t