WITHOUT CONSCIENCE

Dr. Robert D. Hare

Based on twenty-five years of groundbreaking research, WITHOUT CONSCIENCE is a fascinating journey into the minds of these dangerous individuals. Are they born unable to feel empathy, or are they created by circumstance? How and why do they get away with cheating, conning, and murdering? Are they mad or simply bad? In what Dr. Hare calls our "camouflage society," how can we recognize and steer clear of these predatory people? WITHOUT CONSCIENCE explores their shocking patterns- and exposes one of the most frightening, often-hidden social problems affecting our lives today.

Dr. Robert D. Hare, considered one of the world's foremost experts in the area of psychopathy, is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. There he developed the Psychopathy Checklist, which is rapidly being adopted worldwide as the standard instrument for researchers and clinicians. Dr. Hare has written two previous books, and numerous articles, on psychopathy.

Without Conscience: the Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

Dr. Robert D. Hare

Book review by: Muriel Fraser

"As soon as you begin to read Hare's book, you'll think you know at least one psychopath, and you'll probably be right."[1] Let us hope, however, that you do not know him intimately - otherwise you are already in trouble - and are headed for a lot more.

Dr. Hare, a recognized authority on the subject, stresses that only a tiny fraction of psychopaths are the violent ones who end up behind bars. The rest of them escape punishment because they use trickery and threats in order to get what they want; Dr. Hare calls them "subcriminal psychopaths". But every psychopath, whether he comes into conflict with the law or not, leaves behind him a trail of broken lives: victims who have been deceived, abused, impoverished and abandoned.

What is a psychopath? He is rarely the drooling serial killer of the movies. In fact, he can be utterly charming - when he happens to feel like it. Only gradually does the victim begin to realize that he is not the nice, normal person what he seems to be - and some victims never catch on. A psychopath is very hard for the rest of us to understand, even after years of abuse. We find it difficult to grasp that there really are people who have no conscience - people who are incapable of feeling any sympathy for others.

Psychopaths differ from normal criminals in two important respects. Normal criminals may not happen to abide by the rules that you or I might wish, but they still have their own standards, and when they violate these, they feel badly. In other words, normal criminals have a conscience; psychopaths have none. Another difference is that normal criminals tend to have been propelled into crime by some outside factor, such as drugs or bad company. Psychopaths, on the other hand, turn up out of the blue, and this suggests a genetic basis for their curious lack of caring.

End....site link no longer functioning.

Book review: Without Conscience

By Ed Frey

Robert D. Hare is respected by his colleagues worldwide as an expert on psychopathy. He gained much of his insights as a Psychologist employed with CSC (Correctional Service of Canada) starting in the early 60’s. At the present time he is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He and his students have interviewed hundreds of psychopathic offenders. This book is rich with transcripts of those interviews, giving gripping insights into what makes them “tick”.

This IS NOT a shallow pop psychology, “self-help” book. It’s now gory thriller with lurid prose either. It’s a GENUINE self help book. It will verify suspicions you may have acquired from life experiences, that some few people who cross your path truly “have no real feelings or conscience” and are “relentless users”, employing endless ways to manipulate others. They are driven to be always “in control".

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Book Review.....

Without Conscience......The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us

Robert D Hare, PhD.


I have attempted to summarise the content of a 220 page book in under 500 words. I hope the following gives you an idea of what we are up against. This is an awesome book, solidly researched, by a Canadian professor of psychology with a background in experimental psychology and cognitive psychophysiology, yet it's a damn good read, not excessively technical, abstract or difficult to follow.

Based on 25 years of scientific research, this book clearly describes in layman's terms the problem of psychopaths- people who are not mad, at least not by current legal and psychiatric standards. Instead, they have a cold, calculating rationality, combined with an inability to treat anyone else as a thinking feeling human being. They are self-centred, callous and remorseless, profoundly lacking in empathy and who function without the restraints of conscience.

Review continues...

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

Canadian Psychology
Reviewed by STEPHEN WORMITH

Too often we hear about adults, and now more than ever, adolescents, who perpetrate violence so horrific and seemingly meaningless that their actions defy the understanding of professionals, let alone of the perpetrators' families. The republication of Robert Hare's popular work on the psychopathic personality (originally published in 1995 by Pocket Books, New York) is a testament to the success and importance of this book. Hare paints an intriguing yet scary portrait of this, the most dangerous type of personality disorder. His colourful, but accurate portrayal of the psychopath makes this book equally important alike for parents and clinicians.

Without Conscience is based on more than 30 years of the author's research on psychopathy. The book is written in a sincere and easily readable fashion for a general audience. The research and clinical literature is described in nontechnical terms with a minimum of jargon, making the work accessible to a wide audience. To his credit, Hare does not succumb to the temptation of overstating the findings, as is commonly the case when scientific knowledge is translated for a popular audience. References, which are fewer than one would expect in an academic text but more than in most popular works, are relegated, appropriately, to chapter notes. The empirical literature is interwoven with many personal anecdotes, as well as descriptions of psychopaths and their behaviour from film, literature, and the popular press. With celebrated cases including Clifford Olson, Jack Abbott, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmar, and the fictional Hannibal Lecter, references range from Ann Landers and Oprah Winfrey to Truman Capote, Joseph Wambaugh, and Norman Mailer. This is a refreshing change from most psychological works and makes compelling reading for the lay person. Yet Without Conscience will also be of interest to any student, clinician, or researcher in the field of forensic or correctional psychology.

By describing the behaviour of dozens of individuals, all of whom "scored high on the PCL" and presented behaviour that shared a number of common themes, Hare, indirectly, provides insight into the personality, if not the mind (he rejects psychodynamic approaches), of the psychopath. It is a personality that is characterized by egocentricity, grandiosity, impulsivity, recklessness, contentment with self, and, most disturbing, a total lack of conscience.

Much of Hare's research has been devoted to the reliable identification of psychopaths. His development of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) may represent the single, most important advancement to date toward what hopefully will become our ultimate understanding of psychopathy. Most of Hare's more recent research has used the PCL to study the construct of psychopathy and, in so doing, has contributed to the ongoing validation of the instrument. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that much of the book hinges on his definition, assessment, and diagnostic approach to psychopathy, nor is it a surprise that he is critical of those who would equate psychopathy with "antisocial personality disorder" (APD ) and its diagnostic criteria as set out by the American Psychiatric Association (1994). Hare notes that many APD clients are not psychopaths and therefore should not necessarily share the same pessimistic prognosis. In this vein, he blames professionals, as well as the media, for confusing the issue and he chastises clinicians who conduct mediabased diagnoses for the popular press.

There are a number of important messages conveyed in this book and all of them are based on the author's fundamental perspective about psychopaths. Although not explicitly stated, Hare portrays the psychopath as one who seems to be born, not made. He does this by presenting numerous stories of individuals, who, without explanation, since their home environments appear to be quite normal, begin to behave in a disturbingly egocentric and aggressive manner. Yet Hare is quite candid about the fact that we do not know how or why these children are impervious to the most skilled efforts to foster appropriate socialization. He does, however, cite neurological, biochemical and genetic studies to suggest possible mechanisms and he invokes the heredity-environment interaction to explain how psychopathy may become manifest in very different ways, from con man to killer.

This stance leads to three particular messages of Hare's book. First, the parents and spouses of psychopaths should not feel responsible or guilty about the psychopath's behaviour. Rather, they should consult clinicians with special diagnostic expertise, and if it is determined that one is dealing with a psychopath, specific strategies should be established, basically involving a structured environment with well-defined contingencies and other behavioural management techniques. Second, the personality and behaviour of a psychopath are unlikely to change in any substantial manner, except for some possible diminution with age. Moreover, treatment efforts, especially conventional psychological therapies, are unlikely to be effective, largely because psychopaths are quite content with themselves and believe that their approach to dealing with other people is fully justified and profitable. Therefore, Hare is very critical of insight-based approaches, particularly such as the therapeutic community, which might teach the psychopath to be even a better manipulator. Instead, he insists that any effort to work with psychopaths should incorporate their pervasive self interest, pointing out how, time after time, their antisocial behaviour has not, ultimately, been in their own best interest.

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Snakes in Suits : Psychopaths in the Workplace

by Robert D. Hare & Paul Babiak

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Psychopaths are described as incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves; still, spotting a psychopath isn't easy. Babiak, an industrial and organizational psychologist, and Hare (Without Conscience), creator of the standard tool for diagnosing psychopathology, present a study of the psychopath in the corporate landscape. A common description of psychopathology states that subjects "know the words but not the music;" Babiak and Hare state that "a clever psychopath can present such a well-rounded picture of a perfect job candidate that even seasoned interviewers" can be fooled. In between a disposable series of narrative acts that follow a psychopath's progress ("Act I, Scene I - Grand Entrance;" "Act III, Scene II - An Honest Mistake?" "Act V, Scene I - Circle the wagons"), thorough research and anecdotes from a number of sources-current literature, news media, and showbiz among them-to illuminate the power of the psychopath to manipulate those around him, as well as what strategies can be used to identify and disarm him. Clear and complete, this is a handy overview for managers and HR, with enough "self-defense" techniques to help coworkers from getting bit.

Book Description

Let's say you're about to hire somebody for a position in your company. Your corporation wants someone who's fearless, charismatic, and full of new ideas. Candidate X is charming, smart, and has all the right answers to your questions. Problem solved, right? Maybe not.

We'd like to think that if we met someone who was completely without conscience -- someone who was capable of doing anything at all if it served his or her purposes -- we would recognize it. In popular culture, the image of the psychopath is of someone like Hannibal Lecter or the BTK Killer. But in reality, many psychopaths just want money, or power, or fame, or simply a nice car. Where do these psychopaths go? Often, it's to the corporate world.

Researchers Paul Babiak and Robert Hare have long studied psychopaths. Hare, the author of Without Conscience, is a world-renowned expert on psychopathy, and Babiak is an industrial-organizational psychologist. Recently the two came together to study how psychopaths operate in corporations, and the results were surprising. They found that it's exactly the modern, open, more flexible corporate world, in which high risks can equal high profits, that attracts psychopaths. They may enter as rising stars and corporate saviors, but all too soon they're abusing the trust of colleagues, manipulating supervisors, and leaving the workplace in shambles.

Snakes in Suits is a compelling, frightening, and scientifically sound look at exactly how psychopaths work in the corporate environment: what kind of companies attract them, how they negotiate the hiring process, and how they function day by day. You'll learn how they apply their "instinctive" manipulation techniques -- assessing potential targets, controlling influential victims, and abandoning those no longer useful -- to business processes such as hiring, political command and control, and executive succession, all while hiding within the corporate culture. It's a must read for anyone in the business world, because whatever level you're at, you'll learn the subtle warning signs of psychopathic behavior and be able to protect yourself and your company -- before it's too late.

Article About Dr. Hare

The psychopathic offender

How identifying the traits can solve cases

Dr. Robert Hare, an authority in the study of psychopaths, characterizes these people as “intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs.” Although only one per cent of the general population is psychopathic, that percentage is much higher among convicted offenders. This article by Sgt Matt Logan of the RCMP’s Behavioral Science Unit and his colleagues, looks at the nature of this mental disorder and why it is imperative that police officers focus on this small but dangerous group.
(sorry no link for the rest)

Execs should be screened to weed out psychopaths: researcher

Aug. 29, 2002

Provided by: Canadian Press

Written by: MICHAEL MACDONALD

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - At the conclusion of a sobering presentation littered with photos of Mafia hit men and sex offenders, Canadian researcher Robert Hare turns his attention to a little-known subset of psychopaths: the corporate kind.

Hare, a world-renowned expert on psychopaths, then makes the provocative suggestion that some of the recent, blue-chip accounting scandals could have been prevented if all chief executives were screened for psychopathic behaviours.

Please see below for some traits shared by psychopaths

"Why wouldn't we want to screen for them?" he said Wednesday after a speech to 150 members of the Canadian Police Association. "We screen . . . police, teachers. Why not people who are going to handle hundreds of billions of dollars?"

The problem is that corporate head hunters rely on resumes and standard face-to-face interviews, which reveal little about a candidate's psychological profile.

"The average psychopath has no trouble moving through that process," said Hare, who teaches at the University of British Columbia. "That's not even a hurdle."

Hare estimates that about one per cent of the population - that's about 300,000 people in Canada - are clinical psychopaths.

That's why he's working on something called the B-Scan, a rough checklist to help recruiters quickly spot psychopathic character traits among potential employees.

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This Charming Psychopath
How to spot social predators before they attack.

By: Robert Hare

cached copy from Psychology Today:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:1YY...cd=16&gl=us