The Psychopath Test

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Where is madness to be found? Nearer than you might think, you come to realise while reading Jon Ronson’s ‘The Psychopath Test’. The book, which has been around since 2011 could be quite an interesting read for you potential psychopaths who haven’t discovered it yet.

To start is a core question: ‘Who defines madness’?’. Ronson targets the contradiction of whether madness is potentially defined by ‘the mad ones’ and if perhaps too many sorts of behaviors are labeled as mental illnesses and where and who draws the boundary. Ronsons’s journey logically starts with a man who claims he ‘faked’ a mental illness to stay out of jail, and what criteria is used to make certain behaviour a tangible mental disorder?

Although perhaps a more frighting question, Ronson asks if the insane have a controlling role over our lives. Ronson visits Al Dunlap, a man who was hired as CEO by a large corporation to fire people, because ‘he enjoyed doing so’, using phrases such as“you have a nice car, but you don’t have a job” to dispatch his unknowing victims. He also reveals how in the entertainment industry there is a special formula to filter out the right amount of insane to allow reality shows to remain entertaining.

A hilarious and fascinating read, from which you may even start questioning your own madness, as well as that of those around you. A good one for the commute.