• Psychopathy

  • A Very Short Introduction
  • By: Essi Viding
  • Narrated by: Esther Wane
  • Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (15 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
Psychopathy  By  cover art

Psychopathy

By: Essi Viding
Narrated by: Esther Wane
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.75

Buy for $13.75

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has long captured the public imagination. Newspaper column inches have been devoted to murderers with psychopathic features, and we also encounter psychopaths in films and books. Individuals with psychopathy are characterized in particular by lack of empathy and guilt, manipulation of other people and, in the case of criminal psychopathy, premeditated violent behavior. They are dangerous and can incur immeasurable emotional, psychological, physical, and financial costs to their victims and their families.

Despite the public fascination with psychopathy, there is often a very limited understanding of the condition, and several myths about psychopathy abound. For example, people commonly assume that all psychopaths are sadistic serial killers or that all violent and antisocial individuals are psychopaths. Yet, research shows that most psychopaths are not serial killers, and, equally, there are plenty of antisocial and violent offenders who are not psychopaths.

Viding explores the latest genetic, neuroscience, and psychology evidence in order to illuminate why psychopaths behave and develop the way they do, and considers whether it is possible to prevent or even treat psychopathy.

©2019 Essi Viding (P)2020 Tantor

What listeners say about Psychopathy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Helpful

Very good information, provided relevant distinctions not typically present in pop culture. And, data galore!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful

Insightful & brilliant.... I have listened to this book multiple times, absorbing this window into psychopathy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • D
  • 06-15-22

Best introduction on the topic possible.

Viding is a clear writer. Which is all the more needed on this potentially cloudy issue.

She outlines some problems with current research, while not being overly dramatic about what has been discovered.

She also credits her PHD students which is always admirable.

Impossibility difficult issue, encourages that someone like Viding is also a great writer as well as a valued scientist.

If anyone is starting in this field you can’t do any better right now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Very informative but extremely redundant

Wish the author could have come up with an abbreviation for the phrase "children at risk for psychopathy," also uses the word empathy a ton in the first couple chapters. Basically says for most of the book that empathy and concern for others and cooperation are the default mode for most humams.... I must have heard the word empathy about 1000 times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Author writes, "No one is born a psychopath."

Know before you buy that the author, despite a background in neuroscience, opens with the offhanded statement that nobody "is born a psychopath." For those up to speed on the role of fMRI in studying psychopathy, that is just a bizarre claim for a treatment published in 2020.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!