The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

By Jon Ronson

In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them.

The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists he's sane and certainly not a psychopath.

Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: May 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781101515167

Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is an award-winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of many bestselling books, including So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, The Psychopath Test, Lost at Sea, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Them: Adventures with Extremists. His acclaimed podcasts include Things Fell Apart and The Butterfly Effect, and he co-wrote the screenplays for the movies Okja and Frank. He lives in New York.

Reviews for The Psychopath Test

[mhanover10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting and unsettling.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What is a psychopath? How can we tell who is a psychopath, and who isn't - and if we apply the label to an individual, is it possible for us to reassess the diagnosis? In Jon Ronson's fascinating book, these questions are asked, along with many others. The first few chapters were good, but then when Ronson began to ask deeper questions - like, what does it mean to take the check-list approach to diagnosing so-called mental disorders - his book really began to come to life. Definitely worth reading!

[howifeelaboutbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I love Jon Ronson because he’s witty and somewhat snarky but writes very well, and his nonfiction really pulls you in. This book was incredibly interesting, and referenced a fair amount of Them, which is the next book I will read by him (about conspiracy theories - yay!). His subject matter is always incredibly interesting.

[patl_53 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A solid 4.5 star book, rounding up to entertainment factor.

A bit rambling in the last third, but still quite entertaining. This is one I'm very happy to have heard in audio form, read by the author. A fun companion on my commute. Also, it's more about "the madness industry" than it is about psychopathy or psychopaths.

WAY better than "The Sociopath Next Door".

[mhanlon_19 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This explains so much.

[thursbest · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellently written, and the dedication to really get to the bottom of the term of psychopath really kept me in awe. Really well researched, incredibly documented conversations, and more really kept me reading on. This was a very unbiased book, in my opinion, on both sides of the spectrum on who or what determines what a psychopath really is. You end up questioning yourself, but fear not, the answer whether you are or not is in the book.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The author is a reporter and, once he got his hands on a test to determine whether or not someone is a psychopath, he tried to figure it out by asking people questions from the test. He looked a little more into psychiatry beyond psychopaths, as well. Ok, not the greatest summary, but I guess this wasn’t what I thought it would be (should have read summaries closer!). He’s not a psychiatrist, or even a psychologist, so if you want real information on psychopaths/sociopaths, I would recommend “The Sociopath Next Door” as being much better. Some of the history Ronson provided was interesting, though, and particularly a look at current diagnoses of kids today. I listened to the audio, read by the author, and my concentration varied. Overall, I’m rating it ok.

[dldbizacct · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quirky, funny, alarming, and the book was good, too. Ha! Well, actually, this does pretty accurately describe the author and the book, at least what I could gather about the author from the book. Ronson takes the ordinary view of things and shifts it just a tad to get a completely fresh, but now absurd, view. I love that. An entertaining, albeit disturbing, read.

[mjspear_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quirky look at a man "pretending" to be a psychopath and confined to a mental hospital. Plenty of "who's zoomin' who" but intriguing look at the mental health field.

[bravenewbks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was interesting and a quick read. If you're curious about how we identify psychopaths clinically -- or if you're just curious about what psychopathic tendencies your significant other displays -- this should fill you in, and give you a couple of interesting case studies along the way. There's also some musing about the role of psychopaths in the upper echelons of corporate culture that provides some food for thought. But for me, the most entertaining portion by far was the description of an experimental treatment for psychopaths in the 70s that involved naked group therapy while everyone tripped on prison-supplied LSD. Can you even imagine?

[csdaley-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. Had some interesting things to say about mental health. I am not going to lie though. The chapter about the over prescribing of drugs to children was my favorite. I have long believed this to be true in my part of the world.

[poppycock77 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I flew through this book. I love the way Ronson makes you feel like you're going down the rabbit hole with him, and no one, not even the author himself, knows where you'll end up. It's brief look into what's at stake in the mental health industry and its evolution.

[carmacreator · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun read about Jon's experiences while learning about psychopaths. I certainly learned a new thing or two, but I wouldn't say it's like a textbook. It's enjoyable and interesting; but, maybe not the right book if you want an academic view of psychopaths. I'd certainly recommend it to someone interested in psychopaths, but who just wants something lighter than a textbook.

[acgallegos91 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A "meh" piece of armchair psychology by a writer who owns a copy of the DSM-IV and took a weekend class with a psychologist who believes you can spot a psychopath by going down a simple checklist. Author Jon Ronson goes around "diagnosing" a man in a psychiatric hospital, an ex-CEO and cadre of out-of-the-way personalities despite Ronson's tenuous grasp on clinical psychology. There's no real depth to this book and Ronson gives too much credence to Scientology's argument that psychology is a pseudoscience. The book skips over any actual science for a curious cast of characters, and Ronson has this annoying habit of referring to journalism as a means of exploiting crazy people for a story. Is the book entertaining? Kind of. Is it useful? Not really.

[lord_boris-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The book is subtitled 'A Journey Through the Madness Industry' which is a more accurate title for the book, although psychopathy and the Hare checklist do take centre stage. Topics covered include psychopaths in big business, psychopaths in prisons, Scientologists, selection of 'mad enough' people for TV, criminal profiling, and the things that can go wrong for all of them. A fascinating topic coupled with Ronson's engaging style meant an entertaining and quick read.

[smiler69 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Equipped with a 40 point questionnaire provided by its creator, Ronson sets out to identify psychopaths (once and for all, I now know that 'psychopath' and 'sociopath' are one and the same thing). He makes the very valid and probably all too true point that psychopaths are often to be found at the top of the echelon, as politicians and especially CEOs, since their lack of empathy and competitive urge and predatory instincts are useful traits to have in a cut-throat financial market. In the later part of the book, Ronson makes the case that psychiatry has overreached its purpose by giving diagnoses where none are necessarily needed, and he mentions both autism and bipolar disorder as two of the most commonly inappropriately and overused mental conditions ascribed to children. One specialist argues that there is no real evidence that bipolar disorder actually exists in children, as apparently the illness usually develops in late teens or young adulthood and not before. I contest this finding as I'm absolutely certain I've been 'bipolar' (or whatever new term they find for my specific condition in future) since early childhood. One theory he proposes is that society, and specifically, all the EVILS in society, are caused by psychopaths shaping the world to suit their needs for exploitation and victimization. I believe this book has been hugely influential since it came out in 2011 and may directly or indirectly have influenced journalists and the public at large to claim that the current POTUS is unhinged and probably a psychopath... though since this term isn't used in DSM-4 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; DSM-5 was released in 2013, after the publication of this book), the closest diagnosis they can give is 'narcissistic personality disorder', which essentially amounts to the same thing. Statistics show that 1% of the population are psychopaths and that they are much more present in our daily lives than we might realize. Most people reading on psychology and psychiatry has a natural tendency to worry that they may have whatever illness is described, so the question 'am I a psychopath?' is bound to occur to most readers, but the author claims that just the fact of worrying if you are one indicates you definitely aren't, since psychopaths aren't capable of introspection to begin with. Also, anyone with a surfeit of empathy, as Joh Ronson is (he suffers from pronounced anxiety problems) is more likely to be a victim of a predatory sociopath than to become one. The current theory is that people are born this way and are impossible to 'cure' and that trying to rehabilitate them only teaches them how to more convincingly mimic how most sane people express emotions, in effect providing a kind of 'finishing school' for psychopaths. I found those segments describing how the illness (or characters trait) is manifested and how researchers used extremely unusual methods (including LSD trials) to find a 'cure' really fascinating. Definitely recommended.

[seschend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very quick and interesting read that may make you reevaluate your thinking on psychology or at least diagnoses and what it takes to label people something based strictly on checklists and a PHD next to someone's name...

[stephenscience · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book in less than 24 hours. It is light but engrossing. I guess I've been reading a lot of dense material lately so this was a bit like drinking water.It starts off with a mysterious book that has been sent to top scientists and meanders around the world looking for psychopaths.

[nrobocop-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A thoughtful journalistic exploration of psychopathy and madness, how they are quantified, and what that means for everyone.

[amilynnhoward · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I could not stop listening to this book, not to mention how much I brought it up in random conversations and thought about the implications! There are claims such as 1% of people are psychopaths and 5x's as many can be found leading corporations and countries as politicians. Ronson concludes the book with intriguing ideas such as how we should label semi-psychopaths and when we should or should not label children with disorders such as Bi-polar disorder.

[jmkemp-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I picked this one up, in paperback, some time ago because I had enjoyed The Men Who Stare at Goats. It sat on the shelf for ages, a victim of the ease of the kindle. I started reading it as my at home book in late 2014 but only finished it earlier today.

I'm not sure what to make of Jon Ronson. He's a sort of gonzo journalist, although perhaps a less extremist version. He seems to have a knack of making people tell him stuff that is ridiculous and that anyone sensible wouldn't say in front of another person, let alone a journalist who was going to publish it. Perhaps it's just my prejudice against journalists and media handling training coming out.

It's car crash stuff. You can predict where it's going and how. But yet it still makes you want to read it. It's in the same vein as PJ O'Rourke and Louis Theroux but less obviously deliberately weird or funny. You know Ronson is showing you interesting characters and introducing the absurdities to you.

The Psychopath Test is really about the absurdity of psychiatry and how normal behaviour can get you classified as mentally ill. We don't really know, or at least can't reliably tell the really bad people from the unusual ones. It's really sad.

[meandmybooks-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the sort of book that I tend to enjoy – a journalist tells amusing stories about his investigations into a particular topic – but which readers with a more focused interest in the purported subject may find frustrating. Ronson portrays himself as a cheerfully unmethodical explorer of the world of craziness, meeting with experts, prisoners, and potentially psychotic retired executives and presenting their stories and his responses in a lively, vivid style. Some of the stories involved, almost necessarily, are rather horrible, but he keeps the gruesome stuff to a minimum and finds the absurd humor in situations where you might not expect to find it. As engaging and entertaining a book on psychopaths as you are likely to find, and I particularly enjoyed the way he concluded his story. Four and a half stars.

[rosetyper9 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I read this book and I have to admit my reasons for not liking it involve my personal preferences not the subject or the writer. I just got to the point with the naked psycotherapy (sorry if thats the incorrect word) and I was done.

Subject started interesting but then began to creep my out. I did not finish it.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It amuses me the author thinks of himself as a sensitive liberal. Imagine a man stomping on your face (or rather paying someone else to stomp on your face) and crying about how inhumane it is. This is pretty much how the author operates. Very smooth.

[ken5me5old5mate · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson I mentioned this guy before.

This time it is about what it means to be or not to be a psychopath and what happens when you are one. Some of it staggers belief but it is factual nonetheless. He is genuine and I believe sympathetic to those he studies. It was as disturbing as it was funny and the whole time you get the feeling that he is a lost in all this as you. Recommended.

[kr_patterson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was very disturbing to read at times. Maybe this book should just be subtitled "A Journey Through Madness". I actually really liked the author, he was pretty funny. I liked listening to him--he read his own book. My main problem, I think, can be summarized by something mentioned within the pages of this book: People can't be reduced to a psychiatric label. There is absolutely no test made by humankind that will really give a true, accurate full picture of a single human being. It can see patterns, yes, and patterns are valuable, but I just feel that too much emphasis is placed on them.
I feel like I need to take a break from researching psychopathy for a while. I wondered how the author of this book did it for so many years!!!

[jimocracy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one had its highs and its lows but on average, I enjoyed reading it. One thing's for sure; I don't think I much care for Jon Ronson as a person. He came across as someone who would not jibe well with me. That being said, I still want to read his other book: Men Who Stare at Goats.

[tegarsault · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun, funny and informative. I like Ronson's honesty and his down to earth approach, but the consequence is that I do not have a clear idea of the author's view, and even the information provided feels mostly anecdotal.

[tayitude-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Two and a half stars, really. It was a quick, engaging read and amusing for the most part, so I think it at least deserves an "ok" rating. I usually go for nonfiction that has more substance to it and comes from someone with a bit of actual authority on the subject, rather than, well, a journalist. Since I had already read the wikipedia article about psychopaths, I didn't actually learn much of anything from Ronson's book (the most informative bit was his explanation of the PCL-R psychopath checklist). I doubt the author really needed to fly all over the Western world to come up with his conclusions: psychiatry isn't exactly a hard science and the categories it creates aren't foolproof by any means; the industry is full of ethical dilemmas regarding various diagnoses (ADD, childhood bipolar disorder, autism and of course psychopathy); and the public eats up stories about crazy people, because deep down we all suspect we might be a little bit crazy ourselves.

[gecizzle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's comforting to know that I am not, in fact, a psychopath. I wasn't quite sure, until I read this book. It gives you a definitive answer.

Part of me was hoping that I was a psychopath, because it would sure explain why I'm so fucked in the head. Apparently, just being a crazy person that thinks about killing people all the time, does not make me a psychopath. In fact, I learned from this book that there is a really short answer to the question: Am I a psychopath? If you think you might be a psychopath, you are not one. It's that simple. So, you don't even have to read this book now. I saved you some time.

But, if you think: Fuck that noise! I'm not a goddamn psychopath. I'm just smarter and better than all you fuckers. Then, you might want to read this book. Because you're probably a goddamn psychopath.

So, fuck psychopaths in their dirty assholes. Or don't. Because, if you're close enough to fuck their dirty asshole, they're probably going to kill you. Then fuck your dirty asshole. Because they're sick like that.