The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints Spies and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success

About this book

In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a scale of "madness" along which we all sit. Incorporating the latest advances in brain scanning and neuroscience Dutton demonstrates that the brilliant neurosurgeon who lacks empathy has more in common with a Ted Bundy who kills for pleasure than we may wish to admit and that a mugger in a dimly lit parking lot may well in fact have the same nerveless poise as a titan of industry. Dutton argues that there are indeed "functional psychopaths" among usdifferent from their murderous counterpartswho use their detached unflinching and charismatic personalities to succeed in mainstream society and that shockingly in some fields the more "psychopathic" people are the more likely they are to succeed. Dutton deconstructs this often misunderstood diagnosis through bold on-the-ground reporting and original scientific research as he mingles with the criminally insane in a high-security ward shares a drink with one of the worlds most successful con artists and undergoes transcranial magnetic stimulation to discover firsthand exactly how it feels to see through the eyes of a psychopath. As Dutton develops his theory that we all possess psychopathic tendencies he puts forward the argument that society as a whole is more psychopathic than ever: after all psychopaths tend to be fearless confident charming ruthless and focusedqualities that are tailor-made for success in the twenty-first century. Provocative at every turn The Wisdom of Psychopaths is a riveting adventure that reveals that its our much-maligned dark side that often conceals the trump cards of success.