• The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (Free Excerpt)

  • By: Jon Ronson
  • Narrated by: Jon Ronson
  • Length: 21 mins
  • 3.3 out of 5 stars (74 ratings)
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (Free Excerpt)  By  cover art

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (Free Excerpt)

By: Jon Ronson
Narrated by: Jon Ronson

Publisher's summary

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.

©2011 Jon Ronson (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Engrossing.... This book brings droll wit to buoy this fascinating journey through 'the madness business.'" (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (Free Excerpt)

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Hard to follow

Would you try another book from Jon Ronson and/or Jon Ronson?

No

What was most disappointing about Jon Ronson’s story?

Hard to follow

How could the performance have been better?

Better delivery with clearer transitions would have improved intelligibility.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Good idea but required better development.

Any additional comments?

If you like to read about heartless types this book will give you a lot to think about.

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