Twisted

Journalist Jon Ronson specializes in weirdness. In "Them: Adventures with Extremists," he explored the political fringe, populated largely by conspiracy theorists. "The Men Who Stare at Goats" examined the U.S. military's venture into the world of psychological warfare and weaponry. And now, in "The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry," he takes on modern psychiatry.

Ronson is a marvelous storyteller, with a comedian's gift of timing. Given his chosen topics, the results are often hilarious.


He begins "The Psychopath Test" with the "DSM-IV-TR" — the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" — published by the American Psychiatry Association. This massive tome, found in doctor's offices and libraries worldwide, lists 374 mental disorders. Ronson believes that he himself is suffering from 12 disorders, but he does not find a definition for psychopath, which is what led him to the "DSM" in the first place.

Undeterred, Ronson soldiers on and discovers that the gold standard for diagnosing psychopaths is the PCL-R or The Hare Checklist. Developed by Canadian psychologist Robert Hare, the checklist provides a scoring system for assessing 20 personality traits, traits like glibness and superficial charm, proneness to boredom and grandiose sense of self-worth. The highest possible score is 40. Anything over 30 earns one the label psychopath.

It's not quite as simple as it sounds. One must learn to read body language and the nuances of sentence construction. It can get quite complex, so Hare teaches three-day workshops to help people use his checklist effectively. Ronson signs up and takes us along.

This is a fun part of the book. Ronson becomes a complete Hare Checklist devotee; as his psychopath-spotting skill grows, so does ours. It soon becomes obvious that psychopaths are everywhere. Bosses, co-workers, family, people in line at the grocery store: You'll never fall for glibness and superficial charm again.

Ronson takes his newfound skill on the road and interviews Al Dunlap, the former CEO of Sunbeam. A legendary hatchet man, Dunlap made millions for himself and for the shareholders of Sunbeam. Later, SEC allegations of fraud cost Dunlap a few million, but nothing more.

Together, Ronson and Dunlap work through the Hare Checklist. Dunlap presents the various traits as desirable leadership qualities. He is actually quite convincing. He also is a thoroughly unlikable person. But is he a psychopath?

Ronson is puzzled, but Robert Hare is not. Yes, Dunlap is a psychopath. Ronson, though, is becoming more interested in applying the checklist to Hare himself.

At this point, Ronson turns his attention back to the DSM. DSM-I was a 65-page booklet, DSM-II was 134 pages. DSM-III, put together over six years by Robert Spitzer, had an astonishing 494 pages. It became a best-seller, with sales to civilians far outweighing sales to mental health professionals.

It turned out more than 50 percent of the American population was suffering from a mental disorder. "It was truly a revolution in psychiatry and a gold rush for drug companies, who suddenly had hundreds of new disorders they could invent medications for, millions of new patients they could treat."

Was this a great leap forward for psychiatry or another form of insanity?

DSM-IV-TR was published in 2000 with 974 pages.

Ronson is a journalist, not a comedian. His books address serious topics. In "Them," we are forced to confront both the hatred that fuels many irrational beliefs and the rational underpinnings that drive many conspiracy theorists. In "The Psychopath Test," he leaves us wondering. If over half of us are mentally ill, what does it mean to be mentally healthy? Perhaps not only psychopaths engage in manipulative behavior.

Photo by Gmeaders_ch (Creative Commons)