The Psychopath Test

I’m continuing to enjoy my delve into audiobooks with The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson. This was my first book by him. It was great, if a bit triggering for me. When I was a teenager I dated a man who told me, laughing, that he was a diagnosed sociopath. (Psychiatrists use the terms psychopath and sociopath interchangeably.) I was sixteen and didn’t know what that meant, but Ronson did a deep dive into what a psychopath is and how to spot them, and it gave me unpleasant flashbacks. That said, it was a very good book: nuanced, even-handed, and showing both the good and bad sides of psychiatry. Ronson has a marvelous sense of humor, though much of what he covers is quite serious, and the book is from his perspective. I’m eager to read more by him. I’m planning to read The Men Who Stare at Goats soon. I heard that’s a good one. But I chose The Psychopath Test first, because I’m a huge psychology nerd.