#268 - 08/04/04 09:29 PM
Book ~ Without Conscience by Dr. Robert D. Hare
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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.
Edited by Dianne E. (02/19/07 01:19 PM)
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#269 - 08/04/02 01:15 PM
Re: Books
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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.
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Edited by Dianne E. (02/19/07 01:23 PM)
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#270 - 08/04/02 01:21 PM
Re: Books
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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".
Book review continues
Edited by Dianne E. (02/19/07 01:38 PM)
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#271 - 06/06/05 10:41 AM
Book ~ Without Conscience by Dr. Robert D. Hare
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Dianne E.
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Registered: 11/15/02
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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...
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#272 - 06/06/05 12:32 PM
Re: Book ~ Without Conscience by Dr. Robert D. Hare
[Re: Dianne E.]
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Dianne E.
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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.
Review continues....
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