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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
Book

The Wisdom of Psychopaths

What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success

FSG, 2012 plus...


Editorial Rating

7

Recommendation

“Functional psychopaths” surround you. They’re steely, cool under pressure and devoid of empathy, but these “saints, spies and serial killers” excite the imagination. Sadly, though, it’s the semi-psychotic politicians, lawyers or law enforcement agents who disproportionately hold positions of power and who prove to be masters at taking advantage of others’ weaknesses. University of Oxford research psychologist Kevin Dutton backs up his provocative theories with hair-raising research references. You’ll learn why psychopaths in suits can control their tendencies, why those wielding chain saws cannot and why that renders the former more dangerous than the latter. Dutton could have made his prose a bit tighter, and you have to be a big fan of metaphors to appreciate his style, but if you’re on the rise in your career and want to understand your extra edge – or if you would like to avoid being on the receiving end of someone else’s edge – getAbstract recommends Dutton’s innovative, entertaining, well-documented treatise.

Take-Aways

  • Not all psychopaths are criminals, rapists or serial killers.
  • Many functioning psychopaths do well in the workplace.
  • You are probably neither psychotic nor normal, but somewhere in between.

About the Author

Social influence expert Kevin Dutton, PhD, is a research psychologist with the Center for Evolution and Human Sciences at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. He also wrote Split-Second Persuasion.


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    J. M. 1 decade ago
    great read. Very thought provoking. This made me think about where I fit in on the psychopath scale!

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