The Wisdom of Psychopaths

This book will not be published until October, 2012. I just read about it in Scientific American.  The author, a psychologist named Kevin Dutton, suggests "there is a fine line between a brilliant surgeon who lacks empathy and a Hannibal Lecter who kills for pleasure."

Dutton says, "our society as a whole is more psychopathic than ever: Psychopaths tend to be fearless, confident, charismatic, ruthless, and focused—qualities tailor-made for success in the twenty-first century."

I would extend those characteristics to sociopaths as well.  We're talking about self-absorbed indivduals, who are indifferent to the consequences of their actions as they relate to others. The difference between a psychopath and a sociopath is measured in substile shades of gray. There are a whole lot of sociopaths in public life these days, starting with politicians, who treat 'of, by, and for the people', as a concept that applies only to those people who can buy the public policy they want.

There are a lot of famous faces that  fit Dutton's unsavory profile. Take Mitt Romney for instance, the 2012 Republican candidate for President of the United States. He may not be charismatic and he may not be fearless, but you certainly would have to call him ruthless and focused. He made hundreds of millions of dollars as a corporate raider, buying American businesses, stripping them of assets, then dumping their American workers in favor of the sweatshop wage, off-shore alternative.  Romney turned his corporate buy outs from profitable businesses into hollowed-out shells,  then walked away with tens of millions of dollars in plunder. As a Presidential candidate, Romney has proven, time and again, to be willing to say or do anything to advantage his position.  His presidential candidacy is more about unbridled ambition than anything else.

So many people in public life exhibit the characteristics of the psychopath. The 'wolf in sheep's clothing' is a metaphor for this kind of person.   We would all be well served by elevating our awareness so we recognize and are wary of people like this when they appear as public figures.  Perhaps Kevin Dutton's upcoming book,  The Wisdom of Psychopaths, will help in that regard. If so, it should be a welcome addition on our bookshelves.