The memoir of a high-functioning, law-abiding (well, mostly) sociopath and a roadmap—right from the source—for dealing with the sociopath in your life. “[A] gripping and important book . . . revelatory . . . quite the memorable roller coaster ride.”—The New York Times Book Review As M.E. Thomas says of her fellow sociopaths, “We are your neighbors, your coworkers, and quite possibly the people closest to you: lovers, family, friends. Our risk-seeking behavior and general fearlessness are thrilling, our glibness and charm alluring. Our often quick wit and outside-the-box thinking make us appear intelligent—even brilliant. We climb the corporate ladder faster than the rest, and appear to have limitless self-confidence. Who are we? We are highly successful, noncriminal sociopaths and we comprise 4 percent of the American population.” Confessions of a Sociopath—part confessional memoir, part primer for the curious—takes readers on a journey into the mind of a sociopath, revealing what makes them tick while debunking myths about sociopathy and offering a road map for dealing with the sociopaths in your life. M. E. Thomas draws from her own experiences as a diagnosed sociopath; her popular blog, Sociopathworld; and scientific literature to unveil for the very first time these men and women who are “hiding in plain sight.”

"From Dr. Martha Stout's influential work The Sociopath Next Door, we learned how to identify a sociopath. Now she tells us what to actually do about it. Using the many chilling and often heartbreaking emails and letters she has received over the years, Dr. Stout uncovers the psychology behind the sociopath's methods and provides concrete guidelines to help navigate these dangerous interactions"--

I’m scum. Yes, I always have been. . . . I know what I did, and what I should have done. A spellbinding and provocative psychological thriller that shows just how far a man will go to win the most enduring and ruthless of games: the game of power. Raised in the upper echelons of elite New York society, Thomas Spencer has never wanted for much. But much is hardly enough for a man whose greatest satisfaction lies in shattering the happiness of others. Thomas, the black sheep of his family, harbors only resentment toward those closest to him for what they have more of: good looks, good cheer, good social graces. But what Thomas may lack in charm, he makes up for in cunning. And it is this that will serve him best when he trades in his glittering world of privilege for a chance to claw his way to the top—on his own terms, and at any cost. As Thomas achieves fame and success as an ad man, he becomes ever more deeply entrenched in an insidious underworld of media, politics, and women, and an astonishing picture emerges of a complex, destructive personality who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Shameless and electrifying, Story of a Sociopath illuminates the true nature of power through the mind of a master psychological manipulator.

In his "remarkable" (Men's Journal) and "controversial" (Fortune) book -- written in a "wry, amusing style" (The Guardian) -- Bruce Cannon Gibney shows how America was hijacked by the Boomers, a generation whose reckless self-indulgence degraded the foundations of American prosperity. In A Generation of Sociopaths, Gibney examines the disastrous policies of the most powerful generation in modern history, showing how the Boomers ruthlessly enriched themselves at the expense of future generations. Acting without empathy, prudence, or respect for facts--acting, in other words, as sociopaths--the Boomers turned American dynamism into stagnation, inequality, and bipartisan fiasco. The Boomers have set a time bomb for the 2030s, when damage to Social Security, public finances, and the environment will become catastrophic and possibly irreversible--and when, not coincidentally, Boomers will be dying off. Gibney argues that younger generations have a fleeting window to hold the Boomers accountable and begin restoring America.

Who is the devil you know? Is it your lying, cheating ex-husband? Your sadistic high school gym teacher? Your boss who loves to humiliate people in meetings? The colleague who stole your idea and passed it off as her own? In the pages of The Sociopath Next Door, you will realize that your ex was not just misunderstood. He’s a sociopath. And your boss, teacher, and colleague? They may be sociopaths too. We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt. How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They’re more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others’ suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win. The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game. It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.

What if society wasn't fundamentally rational, but was motivated by insanity? This thought sets Jon Ronson on an utterly compelling adventure into the world of madness. Along the way, Jon meets psychopaths, those whose lives have been touched by madness and those whose job it is to diagnose it, including the influential psychologist who developed the Psychopath Test, from whom Jon learns the art of psychopath-spotting. A skill which seemingly reveals that madness could indeed be at the heart of everything . . . Combining Jon Ronson's trademark humour, charm and investigative incision, The Psychopath Test is both entertaining and honest, unearthing dangerous truths and asking serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges. 'The belly laughs come thick and fast – my God, he is funny . . . provocative and interesting' – Observer

Sociopaths-who are they? What do they want? How long have we known about them? How many are out there? And what can you do when around them? Welcome to The Sociopath's Playbook. Delve deep into the mind–sets of abusive individuals and immerse in strategies to counter them. Designed around the latest diagnostic manuals from the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association, The Sociopath's Playbook weaves together the most up–to–date clinical analyses available to provide a detailed look into the mind of a sociopath. Feeling lied to, cheated, or stolen from? Look no further. The Sociopath's Playbook provides fifty action plans for a variety of real–life situations to address abusers in their tracks. Conlon tackles the bullying, intimidation, callousness, and manipulation, offering genuinely inspirational and uplifting messages-all while refusing to blame others for how they might have been born. "Part of antisocial personality disorder deals with an individual's potential incapacity. In other words, when others have made you to feel as if you have no value, now you know, others simply lacked the ability to value you and your abilities. Let your self–esteem soak that in. Hang in there-life can get better." All this and more-fresh perspectives on pressing questions like do people choose what they feel? What does the word antisocial really mean? Do experts agree that sociopaths and psychopaths are the same? Does every human being experience empathy similarly? Can sociopaths change? At what age should they be diagnosed? Is sociopathy a learned or inherited condition? Are women or men more likely to be sociopaths? Are sociopaths truly smarter than others? Are they truly fearless? What strategies help potential victims in identifying them? And what courses of action can victims take to empower themselves?

The Sociopaths Guide to Scamming the System Finally the why and how a sociopath spousal abusers game works. There are two versions of this amazingly daring book. The shorter all-color page picture book version, which is the FIRST DRAFT COLLECTORS EDITION, and the black and white interior design, that is a longer slightly more information comprehensive version of the same material. Victims are encouraged to purchase the longer less costly black and white interior edition. What is The Sociopaths Guide to Scamming the System all about? It is about how they do it, why they do it and how they manage to actually get away with it. This book describes how these predators get away with all of it including manipulating the police, medical professionals, psychiatric professionals and other s. In such maneuvers the in-home or spousal sociopath predator can extend his/her reach of abusive power and control. This at times snarky or sarcastically presented book is written as a warning guideline for victims of what are oftentimes the worst types of sociopath/sociopath-type con artists. The primary focus of The Sociopaths Guide to Scamming the System is the methods and agendas of the in-home or alleged family person type of sociopath predator. This book is not actually meant to be utilized as a How-To-Do guide for abusive individuals or con men. The methods described in this book may or may not always work without a hitch. Variables exist, including but not limited to the following: Variables in the adult victim of the abuse, age and sophistication level of any child or children involved (i.e. children used by the abuser as pawns), intelligence or lack thereof of any police, social workers, welfare department workers and others involved in any particular case. In creating this book this writer interviewed numerous other victims in careful analysis of their stories. When others were interviewed a certain level of proof of their reasonable innocence was required as well as consistency in their behaviors as well as clarity in their stories through a time period deemed sufficient to weed out overt liars. It is sincerely hoped that the existence of this book will in the end reduce the success rate of the methods of dishonorable conduct described herein. It is further hoped that in reading this book support persons for victims and victims themselves will receive a desperately needed heads-up warning otherwise not clearly available. Readers as you proceed through these pages please use your imaginations to consider other similar directions, variations, methods and/or allegations a sociopath/sociopath type person can use to gain the same result(s). Names of individuals in all of this authors books are fictitious names. Real names are not revealed. By Danee Shade

Can you be manipulative or irresponsible? Do you occasionally experience a lack of guilt or empathy? Can you be impulsive and feel a need for excitement? Well, these traits are the hallmarks of the sociopath inside you, and it’s time to embrace it! The time to unleash your inner sociopath has never been more right—just look at today’s world leaders and most popular personalities. And it’s time to get yours. Shoot up the promotional ladder and become the predator at the top of the corporate food chain with The Sociopath’s Guide to Getting Ahead. Find the perfect job for the sociopath in you, fabricate your resume to perfection, and manufacture the perfect first impression to ace those interviews. Prey on the biases and manipulate the psychology of your coworkers to break them down. Engineer conflict, manipulate the flow of attention, and seize power for yourself. Play the office party to perfection. Learn how to fake naturalness, make the right allies, and take down your enemies. And take it all the way to the bank. A scathing, tongue-in-cheek take on Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, the self-help industry, and our world today, featuring cameos by Dostoyevsky, Plato, Robert Greene, Malcolm Gladwell and many others, The Sociopath’s Guide to Getting Ahead is the practical satire we need.

The inspiration for the film starring Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly, this resonant story of a mother’s unsettling quest to understand her teenage son’s deadly violence, her own ambivalence toward motherhood, and the explosive link between them remains terrifyingly prescient. Eva never really wanted to be a mother. And certainly not the mother of a boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much–adored teacher in a school shooting two days before his sixteenth birthday. Neither nature nor nurture exclusively shapes a child's character. But Eva was always uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood. Did her internalized dislike for her own son shape him into the killer he’s become? How much is her fault? Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with Kevin’s horrific rampage, all in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. A piercing, unforgettable, and penetrating exploration of violence and responsibility, a book that the Boston Globe describes as “impossible to put down,” is a stunning examination of how tragedy affects a town, a marriage, and a family.