Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us |  | Author: Robert D. Hare PhD
Publisher: The Guilford Press
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Rating:  135 reviews
Sales Rank: 2798
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 236
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 1572304510
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.8582
EAN: 9781572304512
ASIN: 1572304510
Publication Date: January 8, 1999
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Amazon.com Review
"Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please..." In Without Conscience Robert Hare argues convincingly that "psychopath" and "antisocial personality disorder" (a psychiatric term defined by a cluster of criminal behaviors) are not the same thing. Not all psychopaths are criminals, he says, and not all criminals are psychopaths. He proposes a psychopathy checklist that includes emotional/interpersonal traits such as glibness, grandiosity, lack of guilt, and shallow emotions, as well as social deviance traits such as impulsiveness, lack of responsibility, and antisocial behavior. His writing is lucid and illustrated with numerous anecdotes. The final chapter, "A Survival Guide," is especially recommended: as Hare writes, "Psychopaths are found in every segment of society, and there is a good chance that eventually you will have a painful or humiliating encounter with one."
Product Description
Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. With their flagrant criminal violation of society's rules, serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are among the most dramatic examples of the psychopath. Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. Perhaps most frightening, they often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets--and they do not always ply their trade by killing. Presenting a compelling portrait of these dangerous men and women based on 25 years of distinguished scientific research, Dr. Robert D. Hare vividly describes a world of con artists, hustlers, rapists, and other predators who charm, lie, and manipulate their way through life. Are psychopaths mad, or simply bad? How can they be recognized? And how can we protect ourselves? This book provides solid information and surprising insights for anyone seeking to understand this devastating condition.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 135
 Don't be devastated by one of these people - READ June 3, 2006
M. Clifton
110 out of 113 found this review helpful
Without Conscience has a lot of information that will help someone distinguish an everyday Psychopath from the rest of the population. Yes it speaks of famous cases, it speaks of prison inmates, but it also covers the ground that most of us walk on every single day. Grocery stores, work, church, school, etc.
Not all Psychopaths are criminals, nor do all of them turn physically violent. In truth most of them are our neighbors, friends, family members, spouses, and even our own children. Most Psychopaths stay so low key that it's hard (next to impossible) to pick up on what is happening until it's too late. By then you are in over your head, financially and emotionally devastated. I know, because I was a target of one of these people.
If I had known what a Psychopath was, and had already read this book, I would have known to avoid the individual at all cost. This book covers every thing to help us make an intelligent decision about the type of person we may be dealing with. If you have doubt of any person in your life, read this book. Better safe than sorry. Believe me, the Psychopath won't care about what he or she does to you. You have to protect yourself from them.
This book will put you on the right path. Always remember 1 out of every 25 people have this mental disorder, so your chances of meeting or already knowing one are very high. Take precautions now before it's too late.
The creepy folk February 10, 2005
Fox in a Box (Buffalo, NY USA)
88 out of 92 found this review helpful
Robert Hare's book is a landmark publication and very frequently referenced by other professionals, which speaks to the respect in which his colleagues hold his research and writings. This is an excellent book. It is well-written, lucid, and aimed at the lay person. His clarification of the terms "psychopath," "sociopath" and "anti-social personality disorder" are quite useful.
My only problem with the book is that Hare's examples come largely from the criminal world, where many psychopaths end up, and in which he worked for many years. Because of this, we may lose sight of the fact that many "psychopaths" are NOT criminals, but produce enormous chaos and emotional mayhem in the lives of others -- others who do not understand this disorder and cannot make sense of what has happened to them.
Psychopaths by their very nature are con artists, but not all are thieves and murderers. Some are just emotionally abusive, cruel, manipulative, controlling and bring families, employees, employers and acquaintances to ruin in a hundred other ways.
Empty, pathetic and destructive, they run the gamut from the emotionally frozen, disengaged, cruel parent to the serial killer -- all marked by one thing, their inability to relate empathetically to others.
Psychopaths at the back door - the facts revealed December 22, 2005
C. Middleton (Australia)
54 out of 56 found this review helpful
After reading this extremely sobering text, and it is strongly suggested you do, you will recognize someone in your past, present or future to be a psychopath. As Hare suggests, it is dangerous to label individuals without proper clinical research including intense interviews and applying the "Psychopathic Checklist" before a likely diagnosis can be made. However recent research has shown that there are literally millions of psychopaths in jail, mental institutions or simply walking the streets. They can be in your work places, a problem child or sharing your bed. It's a frightening thought, and this book has been written to outline the essential characteristics of the psychopath and a general "survival guide" to help us recognize and prevent the majority of harm to oneself and our loved ones.
Hare provides many case histories from thousands of interviews with psychopaths and their victims. The renowned psychopathic checklist that he and his team developed over many years has proved to be a worthwhile tool in diagnosis. Most of these case histories are terrifying and ultimately sad as the psychopath invariably leaves a wake of destruction wherever they are and with whom they come in contact. These predators are the grand seducers because they have developed a strategy to detect one's weaknesses, doors of opportunity, to attain their every desire, whether money, sex or power. These characteristics seem obvious on first reading, but are a little more difficult to spot in actual physical contact.
The psychopath is usually glib and superficial, egocentric and grandiose and most importantly feels no guilt or remorse after committing an illegal or terrible act. Most often they are impulsive, deceitful and highly manipulative. Lack of responsibility for their actions and consistent antisocial adult behaviour are tell tale signs. Interestingly, most can be charming, good talkers and mesmerizing - a lot share the attribute of the intense, cold stare, an excessive eye contact used to intimidate. As the title suggests, all are without conscience and move through life in the pursuit of self-gratification, no matter what the cost.
What is sobering about this study is that our understanding of the condition is poor compared with other mental illnesses. Psychopaths do not respond to treatment and if incarcerated and set free, are more than likely to re-offend. As treatment is not an option at this time, the best we can do is have the knowledge to identify the psychopath and apply survival strategies to ensure the least amount of damage to others and ourselves. Hare gives us a "survival manual" at the back of the text, including an extensive bibliography to continue our personal research into the condition.
This book is a must read for anyone working in welfare, legal, rehabilitation and education, including law enforcement. All too often we are appalled and confused by certain behaviours, and this information clears this confusion and provides tools to deal with it. Excellent resource.
No, YOU'RE not crazy! Great for figuring out what hit you! May 25, 2005
Sinead NiC (Germany)
127 out of 144 found this review helpful
I had the misfortune of having a psychopath wreak havoc in my life and the lives of my friends and family a few years ago. This followed an incident in the 1990s, where a group of us at an Ivy League university were scammed by a beautiful con artist.
I asked a friend who works for the FBI how this could happen twice in a relatively short time period to a group of pretty darn smart people. His response: 1 out of every hundred people is a psychopath. They are not all murderers and they are not all in prison - they live among the rest of us and are often charming and interesting, at least on superficial acquaintance.
We had the misfortune of running into two of them in a decade because we were living in places that psychopaths often target: where people with money and power are. These people THRIVE in transient communities, especially in RICH, transient communities. The university town and the ski resort where we met these folks both have wealthy, transient populations. Apparently, we lived in a dream destination for con artists. (Later, when speaking to long-time residents of the ski resort about what I learned from my FBI pal, I was amazed to hear that they also had learned - with hard experience - that this gorgeous little town had attracted far more than its fair share of really awful people who stole and lied and cheated their way into big money, and then disappeared, with hearts broken, bank accounts empty, and other people holding useless contracts and big debts.)
Normal people give most people they are getting to know the benefit of the doubt, so when things said by these two people didn't add up, we all kind of blew off that troublesome "hey, wait a minute!" feeling. THAT was our mistake, both times. If we'd paid attention to that niggling "something doesn't add up" feeling, we wouldn't have had money and credit cards and jewelry - and a Mercedes! - stolen, reputations and credit ratings (thankfully only temporarily) smudged, and - for a few of the people - there wouldn't have been broken hearts and sad days and weeks of wondering, "how could s/he have deceived me so when I was so good to her/him??"
Strangely enough, after their stories were blown, family members of both of these folks admitted that the behavior of their psychopaths had driven them to depression and other problems; in both cases, therapists had told the family members that these con artists were most likely psychopaths!
If you've had a psychopath in your life, this book will really help you. Somehow, once you know that what you've lived through is part of a larger pattern that also happens to other decent, intelligent, hard-working, and honest people everywhere, then it's easier to gain some distance -- and more importantly, to actually listen to your instincts the next time you have a "hey, wait a minute" moment, when you think, "something doesn't add up here!"
Listen to your instincts. They're right more often than you'd think.
Now I understand..... March 18, 2005
Jane Austen "Barb" (Montreal, Quebec, CANADA)
33 out of 34 found this review helpful
I read this book a few years ago and was fascinated by it - as someone who reads true crime books, such as those written by Ann Rule, I wondered about the mental make-up of psychopaths and how they came to be they way they are. Professor Hare's book is not an academic text but instead, is geared towards the layperson. I feel he does an excellent job of explaining what psychopaths are, how they came to be that way (unlike other writers, he does not blame childhood abuse entirely but notes that there seems to be a genetic component involved, as well) and how to recognize them.
I turned to this book again after following the Scott Peterson trial and hearing experts describe him as a "classic psychopath". Dr. Hare's description of the psychopath's inability to feel emotion would seem to explain Scott Peterson's behaviour: his total lack of remorse, his callous and cavalier actions during the time his wife was "missing" and finally, his complete lack of any reaction at all to the verdict and sentencing.
A very good book, highly recommended.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 135
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