The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry Paperback – 5 Jan. 2012

I had already read and enjoyed The Men who Stared at Goats, so had no hesitation on buying this book on the recommendation of author M. G. Harris - and it is even better.The book starts with a mystery - a strange, expensively produced book that is being sent to a number of academics. No one knows what it means, or who has written it. Ronson solves this mystery, which leads him to taking the plunge into what he describes as the 'madness industry'. It might seem this is a subject that couldn't produce much humour, but what Ronson does so well is brings out the essential human funny bits, while not holding back on some of the surprising and sometimes horrific realities.Whether he is dealing with a man who apparently is in a secure unit because he pretended to be mentally ill to avoid a jail sentence and now can't get out, to the mind-boggling possibility that over a million US children are being medicated for a mental condition that most of the rest of the world doesn't think exists, the book is a wonderful set of revelations, all tied together in an effortless, page-turner style.Like Louis Theroux on TV, you sometimes get the feeling that the author is being a touch manipulative, telling us just a bit too much of his own anxieties and feelings to get us engaged - but you can forgive Ronson, because these are just such good stories, so well told.Is it all true? You could almost say some of this stuff is so weird you couldn't make it up. I think it probably is, even if coloured a little to make the story tell well. Take the plunge and you will meet some fascinating and scary people, understand a lot more about why mental health issues are so difficult to deal with (anything that is diagnosed by the percentage score on a checklist is, at least, worrying) and realise that whether you love or hate psychiatry, there were some prejudices you had that were wrong. Oh, and there are even Scientologists. (Who really hate psychiatry.) What's not to love. Great holiday reading.

I bought this because I have always enjoyed the 'Jon Ronson on...' series on BBC Radio 4. One happy result of approaching the author in this way was that I could 'hear' Jon's voice through the narration as I read, which helped the natural flow. I noticed that some of the episodes and interviews related here (such as his chapter on the Madness of David Shayler) were also some of those covered in his radio series, which was fine by me - it was interesting to see them treated textually as well as aurally.Ronson's style is consciously egocentric, mildly self-deprecating and deceptively rambling - I say 'deceptively' because there is actually a carefully-considered structure which holds together the apparent meandering. All of the above I see as positive traits in this case because they allow Ronson to lace humour into even the most serious topics without being forced or inappropriate, and to narrate with an apparently effortless informality that is personable and extremely readable, as engaging as his radio presence.I learnt a lot (at least superficially) about the characteristics of psychopathy and have found myself, as the author did, analysing friends, acquaintances and family looking for the psychopaths in our midst. There seem to be a lot of them about!I'm encouraged now to read more of Jon Ronson and will report back. If you haven't yet heard his radio series give it a try - it makes for good listening.

I bought The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson during my A-levels while studying psychology, and it was a brilliant read! It offers a captivating exploration of the intersection between psychology, the legal system, and mental health institutions. Ronson’s writing is engaging, and the way he breaks down complex topics makes it accessible and enjoyable. There’s also a brilliant TED talk by Jon Ronson that perfectly complements the book. Highly recommend it for anyone interested in these subjects!

This was panning-out to be such an interesting topic - how a certain percentage of the population are 'psychopaths'. Unfortunately - whilst it is entertaining (not informative) reading - it seemingly falls short of the mark. I felt that Mr Ronson focussed too much on the pathological/criminal end of the spectrum, rather than actively investigating 'real life' or corporate-end psychopathology. In one sense, this is only half a book. I wanted him to go on and proactively investigate suspected psychopaths in the modern, western corporate landscape. I wanted him to adapt the Hare test to utilise less emotive words - perhaps re-phrase the same questions in a way that corporate psychos would actually identify with (rather than immediatly be deterred from being labelled a 'psycho'). I wanted him to go into companies to see if he could detect would level psychopaths have infiltrated the modern working world - and to what end? Could he prove psychos to be useful, or are they indeed to blame for societies problems (which, he never finds out - just 'suspects' as much, like everything else). He could've also extended this to modern politics, to see if there's a disproportionate number of 'incurable' psychopaths within the power structure etc etc. He wasn't so much being an investigative journalist here, as writing a book about the conception of an interesting idea. That's the problem, he has lots of interesting ideas, but the frustrating thing is he doesn't set out to investigate them!