Although the title of this book is the science of evil, I believe it speaks more to the science of empathy. Empathy is conveyed as a bell shaped phenomena that we experience everyone around us, and he goes into details on those in the lowest levels of empathy. Some critical thoughts I had where that I have found in clinical experience people with Borderline Personality Disorder do not have zero empathy as he states, but perhaps a misguided empathy. I have found that many people with BPD do go on to become therapists or psychiatrist by the very nature that they are capable of feeling what others experience more vividly then normal people. However this is perhaps something that only occurs through good therapy or religious experience as those with BPD heal. I do however believe that those with BPD who are in an episode, often do to perceived abandonment, of stripping of the social veneer that holds them together, do in fact have zero empathy for a short time. The other thing I would have appreciated more was how the author thinks such evil as defined by lack of empathy can be overcome. Overall I found the book very helpful in a way of understanding empathy and it has sparked my interest in reading more on the topic. I do highly recommend this listening to this book!

No, I wouldn't listen to this book again. The material was dry and felt like sitting through a personality disorders seminar. It seemed there was little inflection to give the book life.

Being a psychology major, the material was easy to follow. If I did not have my background, the book would not have been too technical. The concepts are pretty clearly explained with plenty of examples to further elaborate.

It felt like there was no pacing to the story, and the narration was lackluster. I would say that the narration did match the pace of the story.

Journey through the minds of disordered personalities. The darkness awaits.

Simon Baron Cohen is a specialist in Autism, and he referred to Autism a bit in the book and I'd be really interested to read more of his work in this field. His book was quite thought provoking. In my personal interpretation of the book, it seems Mr. Cohen believes evil is not a spiritual matter at all, but rather a chemical/medical one. "Evil" doesn't really exist, it's just that some people have lower levels of empathy.
He also seems to advocate for criminals who commit crimes due to their mental illnesses to have less severe punishments, since they can't help being sociopaths/psychopaths, or as Mr. Cohen would say, low on empathy.

if you are interested in the why people do what they do aspect of life, this is an interesting take on the definition of evil and what may make them fall into this category. i don't agree that evil is equated with a lake of empathy, but Baron-Cohen has a compelling argument and research to back it up. He has done a good job of guiding you through what makes people lack empathy and what the impacts of it are in their lives/actions.

I was hoping this book to be about spotting sociopaths, or at least showing how they think, not quite.

The author is certainly a specialist on the subject, but his objective with this book is to make the general public aware of the need of a better way to classify sociopaths on the DSM, with empathy as reference. And that's about it.

I understand that some people might find this kind of subject interesting but I think that if I can't use what I read in a practical way it's not.