Dangerous Personalities

An FBI Profiler Shows You How to Identify and Protect Yourself from Harmful People

De: Joe Navarro, Toni Sciarra Poynter

Narrado por: Stephen Hoye

We seem to wake up to a new tragedy in the news every day - Newtown, Boston, Aurora, Columbine. So often the reporters say that "there were some signs, but nobody acted". The scary part about these tragedies is that less than one percent of criminals are incarcerated for their crimes, meaning that for every headline, there are millions of dangerous situations in which average people find themselves. On top of that, how can ordinary people identify threats from those who may not hurt them physically, but can devastate their lives on a daily basis - the crazy coworkers, out-of control family members, or relentless neighbors? In Dangerous Personalities, former FBI profiler Joe Navarro shows listeners how to identify the four most common "dangerous personalities", and analyze how much of a threat each one can be: the Narcissist, the Predator, the Paranoid, and the Unstable Personality. Along the way, listeners learn how to protect themselves both immediately and long-term - as well as how to recover from the trauma of being close to such a destructive force.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2014 Joe Navarro (P)2014 Audible Inc.

A Bad Conscience

As far as just the facts ma'am...Navarro does a good job giving a detailed, no frills outline of psychopathy. It reminded me a little of watching one of those films in high school where everything is boiled down to rudimentary facts..."if a, b, c, d are present then you may be dealing with a psychopath. You're life is in danger. Get help immediately..." He knows his material and presents it in an easy to understand format for any level of reader, though a bit bland and blunt, very textbook.

Navarro gives a criteria checklist at the end of each chapter, containing over 100 items; when you're done tallying your own score, or your neighbor's and friends, you are convinced you are all psychopaths -- a problem inherent in these armchair psychology books. But before you schedule analysis, or turn your neighbors into the FBI, consider what Professor Robert D. Hare has to say. Hare is the criminal psychologist responsible for the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised which has been adopted worldwide. Hare's assessment tool, in contrast, uses a list of 20 criteria:
"On average, someone with no criminal convictions scores 5. It’s dimensional" says Hare. “There are people who are part-way up the scale, high enough to warrant an assessment for psychopathy, but not high enough up to cause problems...“psycho-pathy”, the diagnosis, bleeds into normalcy."
If you are seriously interested in this subject, I highly recommend Hare's book Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths. I sat in on several of his presentations while I was working in the field, and he was always fascinating. Navarro refers to Hare and the PCL-R often in this book.

Navarro is precise and accurate, narrates the book clearly, and his professional record clearly gives him authority in this field. He also responsibly advises readers with concerns to get professional advice. While he drops a few names that we all relate to heinous crimes, (Ted Bundy, Henry Lee Lucas, Jerry Sandusky, John Wayne Gacy) I felt he missed the chance to tie in the predators with their profiles which would have more narrowly defined the many traits on his lists. His professional/cautionary approach make this book read more like an informative report than the really chilling and interesting read it could have been.

Solid content, melodic narrator.

Content is great for the most part. I've done other of Navarro's books that are a bit more applicable to daily life. The checklists at the end of each chapter are extensive and thorough.

Narrator has a melodic rhythm that he doesn't break for the entire narrative, regardless of what the appropriate inflection should be. Took me out of it a few times.

Just shoot me already, would ya?

Content is good. Solid details and information that doesn’t seem to be too dense. However, the narrators pace and syntax invoked suicidal ideations in this listeners case. It would go on to make the completion of the work almost unthinkable. Aside from that, the work is useful and intriguing. Giving this reader some thought provoking moments. Entertaining? Yes. Useful? Yes. Enjoyable? Overall, yes, but with the caveat that it is best listened to after self-distribution of several large doses of anti-anxiety medication. Thanks for reading my review- rls 02/09/19

Sensing Danger became much easier

this books provides the foundation of knowing 4 of the most dangerous personalities which can harm you physically, mentally or emotionally

The guy’s voice is creepy

I have been listening to this for 20 minutes and I’m not sure I can keep going because this guy’s voice is just creepy.

Extremely Repeatative

Book keep repeating the same info delivered in a different way. And new chapters would start off with punch lines that act as if you didn't read the previous chapters. Each chapter had a checklist at the end, and it was like putting nails into my ear hearing it over and over again.

The last chapter was very informative. Skip to it and save yourself a few hours of time.

Critical advice about the “Dark Triad” characters

I became aware of the “dark triad” personalities late in life; I needed to have known when I was twelve. But, better late than never, Joe Navarro gave me pithy and practical advice about these characters. I can attest from hard experience that his conclusions are correct. Mainly, these types are beyond correction by family or friends; instead, the foremost interest must be to distance ones self from these spoiled characters before they harm you or your family.

Narrator performance detracts from narrative

Great book revealing essential facts about dangerous people. Joe Navarro, thank you. I so needed this.

Great eye opening book!

I never knew this! The author opened my eyes in a way no one else has. Ive encountered (and were married for 20 years) to a dangerous personality. Only
by the grace of God I'm still here. And because i didn't know this information and what to look for i entered 2 more relationships with dangerous personalities. Once again, only God saved me. But now, because of this book, I'm armed with knowledge and this will never happen to me again. Thank you Joe Navarro!!!!!

Great Book!

I enjoyed the book coming from a different perspective of an FBI Agent who was in the trenches with these dangerous people.

The checklists were great. They confirmed my mother-in-law was emotionally disturbed; who I divorced physically from after 12 years of marriage. They also confirmed my soon to be ex-husband, has two of the dangerous characteristics.
Thank you both for writing this book!