The Psychopath Test

In “The Psychopath Test”, Ronson meets with Bob Hare, a therapist in Wales who did research comparing psychopaths and non-psychopaths. He found that psychopaths have a dysfunctional amygdala, the part of the brain that anticipates unpleasantness. After discovering this, he came up with the “checklist” to determine if one is a psychopath or not. It was named the Hare PCL-R Checklist, and it contains 20 characteristics, that if responded to in a particular way, indicate psychopathy. Near the end of the chapter, Ronson thinks back to Tony in Broadmoor, and wonders if he underwent the PCL-R checklist, maybe he could be released.

I found this chapter really interesting. At first, I didn’t think everything on the PCL-R could realistically apply to every psychopath, but it did. All the different scenarios they described, related back to the checklist. Even in “Toto” Ronson was able to use some elements of the checklist on Toto. However, I would still like to know more about psychopaths in high society positions. Ronson mentioned it several times in the chapter, but never really expanded on the idea of CEO’s and politicians that are psychopaths.