Friday, March 11, 2011

The Psychopath Test

Representing every stereotype about Brits, this is Jon Ronson promoting his upcoming book "The Psychopath Test," which actually doesn't seem to be that much about psychopaths so much as the "madness industry," or at least that is what I gather from Amazon promotional quotes like this: "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."

Jon, if you're reading this, what hoax are you talking about? I'm getting a weird Charlie Sheen-esque vibe from your video, i.e. not quite sharing the same reality as the rest of us. Is the book any more believable?

(Or maybe I'm just trying to undermine your message because you've come too close to the real truth about "our" perverse manipulation of the madness industry!)

56 comments:

  1. Hey! Atleast Charlie sheen is a likeable WINNER.

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  2. HAHA he is the spit of Gary ridgeway.

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  3. I personally don't mind Charlie Sheen nor his comments, but I will say that his over use of made-up metaphors is self inflicted.

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  4. He reminds me of Louis Theroux, with less superficial charm, and more flat effect: just another quirky, polite, disingenuous 'geek' theatrically re-evaluating his own prejudices by staring 'weirdness' in the face so he can arrive at glib conclusions for the voyeuristic masses.

    Many books have already explored how "we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges" (AKA: the vast deceit of modern psychiatry and psychology) while touching on the drug industry, the globalisation of the white middle-class psyche, the manufacturing and marketing of madness, the drugging of diseases in children that do not exist, the 'treatment' of emotional trauma as a biochemical disease, and so on.

    I cringe at the sensationalism and triteness that characterise his promotional video, especially in the face of such desperation as must exist at Broadmoor, so I probably won't borrow it from the library to see how he tackles the concepts of normality and madness although I will browse it if I see it there on a shelf.

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  5. SouldfulPath,

    this pertains to a post you wrote yesterday:

    "Thus to redefine the word "shaman" opens the discussion for a broader topic. "Shaman" is synomious with shapeshifting, trickster and cast out. The archetype of this persona carries the jugular and clear view which cuts through the veils of hypocrisy. And manipulation and power are drives which unharnessed become destructive vs. life affirming."

    Would you tell me where you read this? I'd like to know more about the author and his work.

    Thank you in advance!...

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  6. Zhawq, it's hard to define this in one book for this view wells up from undergraduate and graduate school studies with either an anthropological or Jungian bent. And also mentoring under Plato/shaman like individuals.

    I would recommend the author, Lewis Hyde. His first book "The Gift" is about the power behind exchange, reciprocity and using one's gifts in the world.

    More to your liking is his newest book "How Trickster Rules the World." I've included a NY Times review. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hyde-trickster.html

    I feel history and literature teache more about the psyche than current our psychological research lens. The mind is more akin to the flights in the humanities than the certainty of questions played out the the lab.

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  7. That made me giggle. I've never claimed mental illness tog et out of things, but mental distress several times.

    "The madness that makes the world go 'round."

    Pretty much.

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  8. He reminds me of Louis Theroux, with less superficial charm, and more flat effect: just another quirky, polite, disingenuous 'geek' theatrically re-evaluating his own prejudices by staring 'weirdness' in the face so he can arrive at glib conclusions for the voyeuristic masses.

    Not everyone is a psychopathic, dumb ass.

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  9. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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  10. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

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  11. Dental professionalMarch 11, 2011 at 8:49 AM

    HOT Dam ..another brit with bad teeth.

    Pay Day

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  12. at: "made-up metaphors is self inflicted"


    Heeee haw heehaw.

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  13. My teeth a pearly white. I bet notmes are too. So shut the fuck up about our teeth.

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  14. lol, so true Misanthrope. My teeth are very nice.

    But this guys teeth are bad.

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  15. Louis Theroux makes me laugh. I suppose he is kind of charming in a quirky sort of way. The best episode of his "weird weekends" show that I ever saw is when he goes to the swingers party. Everybody's fucking, flirting and kissing all around him but he's just standing there in the middle of it all, completely non reactive. Something about that made me laugh.

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  16. Yeah Louis Theroux is very funny. He's got this constant professional thing going on in the middle of something ridiculous. I like the one when he went to some american prison. its on youtube.

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  17. Fucking limeys and their bad teeth.

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  18. So because some amateur, melodramatic, uneducated psycho sniffer found himself unable to differentiate between normal traits and psychiatric illness, those who went to years of school to learn all the subtleties are inept and insane? Thanks for the laugh, M.E.

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  19. Some quotes sound good but make no sense.

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  20. notme said...
    lol, so true Misanthrope. My teeth are very nice.

    But this guys teeth are bad.

    March 11, 2011 9:18 AM

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  21. Funny bit, you must a terrible sense of humour, you haven't quoted me once here.

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  22. I love when women cry, i get off on it.

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  23. someone one day said none of what I post is funny.

    What I post is reemphasize the stuff that makes me stop and laugh as I read the comments here. Nothing is funnier than the truth.

    Notme bless your heart, I love how you stick to the truth, even at a point of making yourself vulnerable here on occasion.

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  24. Adam. didn't I include several of your stuff on Dexter victim? But, some of that was out of courtesy. You need to nail the truth in short form more often.

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  25. why do you think this guy does not get his teeth fixed? scared of the dentist? I'm sure he has money. Maybe he does not see how ugly and disgusting it is to have bad teeth. Crikey crikey.

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  26. No, i have never watched Dexter nor do i want to watch it, the show makes people like me likeable which is unacceptable.

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  27. How would you know if you haven't watched it?

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  28. The list did not really require watching the show to get the idea and contribute. My bad, got you confused with someone. Here I apologize to this person hugely. You still need to seek the truth in short form for me to quote you Adam.

    Actually, thank you darling, just complaining that you were not quoted and insulting me for that is a compliment coming form a bad ass (hopefully tight) like you. Kisses (with good teeth, too).

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  29. How would you know if you haven't watched it?

    I was told by a person with similar interests.


    Funny bit, what do you mean by seek the truth in short form?

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  30. Adam said...

    Funny bit, what do you mean by seek the truth in short form?

    March 11, 2011 1:41 PM

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  31. Well, it's certainly easy to see why there is no quality in today's discussion.

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  32. 'I love when women cry i get off on it' anon-2:24pm

    I love to cry when you are entertaining me with you bad ass antics.

    But if you have bad teeth, we would not even get that far.

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  33. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCbOQcsGwRE&NR=1

    Louis Theroux - America's Medicated Kids.

    Theroux: "Do you mind have all these labels, bio-polar etc?"

    Kid: "Yeah I don't mind it. . . without all this I probably would be as smart as I am . . . I feel really special."

    VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING

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  34. Adam said...

    Funny bit, you must a terrible sense of humour, you haven't quoted me once here.

    March 11, 2011 1:22 PM

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  35. Anonymous @ 4:26 PM: I'm not sure what your point is? Our toddler is on anti-psychotic medication for oppositional defiant disorder because he was having emotional outbursts at day-care every day. Not only that, I'd pick him up at 6pm and he'd stubbornly refuse to go to bed at 7:30pm, crying and screaming before defiantly trying to crawl into our bed, disrupting our family schedule as well as my husband’s and my 'romance time.' I tried to be supportive but there was just no reasoning with him and I couldn't keep leaving work, putting my career as well as my marriage at risk, due to his selfish acting out. He resisted medication at first but has fewer tantrums now and is much more easily controlled - I must say it came as a relief to know that he's a very sick little boy and I'm not some sort of bad parent. He even seems to enjoy the extra attention he gets each day when it's time to take his medication! But that's not to say that we don't realise that oppositional defiant disorder can be a precursor to developing adult antisocial personality disorder, which is why my husband and I have agreed that our son will be medicated for many years to come, and why I so enjoy reading M.E.

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  36. I just hope this mummy is a made up story, but not far from the truth.

    the kids are acting out because their parents are living a lie every which way you look. America is a nation in dire need of truth. A congressman was just saying that on PBS this afternoon. God knows how far from truth himself is. Kids can't feel love around parents who are behind masks in their lives. You cannot discuss anything here, there is a huge price to pay when God forbid you are politically incorrect. Numb and dumb all around.

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  37. Ollie's mom, shouldn't you be with your son at that age? Maybe that's partly why he acts out.

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  38. Anonymous @ 7:24 PM: It wasn't easy to medicate our sick little boy, but like I said, there was just no reasoning with him and I was at my wit's end. I found looking after him as a baby, before he was diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder in his twos, lonely and isolating. I'm always hearing that a happy mother means a happy child, so my husband and I agreed that I would go back to work full-time. But he's still my first and most important priority - I work hard so that I can buy him the best of everything (he loves his first iPad) and I always spend at least an hour of quality time with him when neither of us is too tired. Meanwhile he gets to learn important social skills in day-care so that he can grow up to be successful. The first doctor we saw said that he was suffering from separation anxiety and needed more positive attention from me, which made me feel terrible because I've always done my best to be a good mother, so I was immensely relieved when I got a second opinion and learned that it wasn't my fault at all because there's a biological basis for our son's challenging behaviour. Yes, it's hard knowing that he's so ill, but we're so relieved that we caught it early and can now start teaching him to be more empathetic to other's needs because he's that much more compliant.

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  39. oh please, olli's mum.

    it's much easier, and faster, to drug your children into submission and conformity than to actively parent them as individuals when you cannot think for yourself and are addicted to chasing the chimerical fantasy of *shudder* the American dream.

    the media, the pharmaceutical industry, and the medical establishment all pat you on the back for it - alleviating your guilt by allowing you to abdicate your parenting responsibilities to a quack diagnosis and praising you for spending a low amount of 'quality' time with children who need the same high amount of 'quantity' time they always have.

    it's heartbreaking and so very sick.

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  40. yawn @ 9:16 PM: You've clearly never had to deal with a defiant BRITISH toddler, and are just another grandiose sociopath who denigrates our wonderful modern society because you cannot fit into it let alone make a success of yourself in it. Well, I don't want my son to turn out like you – there, I've said it - which is why I'm doing everything I possibly can as a mother and as a citizen to ensure that he doesn't. Are you a mother or a father? I sincerely hope not because you have some very strange ideas that would warp any poor child's mind who was unfortunate enough to be born to you.

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  41. Mr. Carlin pulls the words straight from my brain.

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  42. to Ollie's mummy.

    I noticed that Ollie's dog was also medicated. Just pathetic. You are a drug company pawn.

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  43. An ipad equals love. I'm so happy to know this--- someone finally defined it for me. Throw in some psychotropics, and everything is complete. Yay!

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  44. That child was remarkably well spoken for a ten year old. Must be his Aspie benefits :P

    Damn, I remember being that age... except instead of threatening to kill myself, I was trying to kill others. Trivial difference, I suppose.

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  45. Notice the guns in his room. How do you know he wasn't having the same intentions?

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  46. You know... Comme ci, comme ca.

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  47. I see dead people too.

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  48. My attention was only on the speaker and the kid mostly. I'm not good with details unless I'm looking for them =/

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  49. You are very good with details. But you are a self-critical perfectionist. Blind sides do not always equate with 'not good' They are just over sights. Not every mystery is meant to solved in every glance.

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  50. You misunderstood me, Soulfulpath. I said that I'm not good with details unless I'm looking for them.

    Not strictly with my eyes mind you.

    I was interested in the interview, how Louis and the Kid were interacting. I couldn't even tell you anything about the room, other than it was a room. Though I think the walls may have been white, that's about it.

    If I had walked in the room and was interested in the room, I probably would have noticed that stuff just fine.

    I have a very linear focus, sort of like a tunnel vision.

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  51. Do you find your linear tunnel sightedness a blessing or a curse? Perhaps both.

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  52. I see the usual self-diagnosed sociopaths are here.

    Have you realized yet that you cannot diagnose yourself?

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  53. I believe with enough self patience and self awareness, and input from strangers and loved ones may be enuf. I don't need no docs to tell me what I am. I need them to tell me how to cope with my nature. Fuck that, I pay them to do it.

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  54. I sincerely hope that "Ollie's mummy" is a troll.

    Surely nobody could be so hopelessly stupid and gullible. If her story is true, nobody so deeply ignorant of children's behavior and so clearly incapable of looking after a child should become a parent in the first place. Her actions are utterly selfish, immoral, cruel and irresponsible, and she is doing incalculable damage to a helpless human being. That child should be taken away from her immediately.

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