The Sociopath at the Breakfast Table: Recognizing and Dealing With Antisocial and Manipulative People

By Jane McGregor and Tim McGregor

Sociopaths can be found in every facet of life: personal relationships, work, school, and family. Most people have been in a relationship or interacted with more than one sociopath in their lifetime, often not recognizing their danger until it was too late. The Sociopath At the Breakfast Table breaks new ground in the field of abusive relationships. It presents an emerging theory about sociopathic interaction: SEAT, or the "Sociopath-Empath-Apath Triad." With this new found understanding of how sociopaths worm their way into people's lives, readers can use the tips and techniques found in this book to protect themselves from potential harm. More importantly, the authors show how empathy can be used as an antidote to sociopathic abuse - thus, victims are able to seize back power and ultimately regain control over their lives. This book presents readers information and tips on every aspect of interactions with a sociopath, from avoiding meeting one, to getting rid of them, dealing with the aftermath, and regaining control of their life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: Feb 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9780897936972

Jane McGregor

Aggression is a complex issue, not least because what one person sees as an acceptable form of expressing anger or frustration may be seen by others as an aggressive act. This practical book explores the difference between positive and pathological expressions of anger, and explains how to transform your approach to dealing with aggression, both yours and other people’s. Packed full of strategies for handling relations with others, it will help transform your dealings with aggressors as you go about everyday life. Topics discussed include: - the nature of anger - passive aggression and how to recognise it - covert aggression - open aggression and outright hostility - cyber and online bullying - useful conversational gambits - empathy and why our culture needs it

Reviews for The Sociopath at the Breakfast Table

[lahochstetler · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a book about how to deal with sociopaths. The book does a pretty good job of explaining how you can tell if you have a sociopath of your very own. As the authors argue, recognizing this is indeed an important part of the battle. Sociopaths work to break down their victims, making the victims insecure, and making the victims believe that they are at fault for their troubled situation. Recognizing that these people are in your life and who they are is necessary to taking the next step: dealing with the sociopath. Unfortunately, this is one of the places where I felt like the book fell flat. There actually aren't all that many practical suggestions for dealing with a real, live sociopath in cases where the sociopath has some degree of power. I was especially interested in how one should deal with a sociopath in a position of power in the workplace, and, sadly, there doesn't seem to be much practical help there. This may be because there actually aren't any solutions. I was especially interested in the discussions of the sociopath-apath relationship. Basically, the apath is not the instigator, but they're the sidekick to the sociopath, and they back up and validate the sociopath's activities. People may recognize that the sociopath is a bit off, but the apath seems like a regular person, who gives validity to the situation. In other words, the apath is the sociopath's "yes-man." Interesting stuff. I feel like I learned some valuable things about sociopathy from this book, I just didn't find the practical solutions that would have been helpful to me.