Reddit mentions of The Sociopath Next Door

Two books I've read this month that I can't recommend highly enough:

First, The Sociopath Next Door by Dr. Martha Stout. Really illuminating and, to coin a phrase, might just save your life. The book is a great read and gets into a lot more detail and examples from the author's practice, but here's a quick summary:

• 4% of people are sociopaths. That means you probably know a sociopath and don't know it.
  
• Sociopathy is a fairly well studied clinical phenomenon. They are people who simply lack the capacity for higher human emotions like love and empathy, and therefore conscience.
  
• Conscience is the cornerstone of all moral behavior among the 96% of us who aren't sociopaths, not abstract codes or religion or laws or rational self-interest, but rather that it is emotionally impossible for us to seriously harm another human being (absent a very specific regimin of military or other training and even that has severe limits).
  
• Because they are not caught up in their own emotions (they don't have any), sociopaths are very effective liars and manipulators, and have no compunction whatsoever about harming you (emotionally, financially, or even physically) to get what they want. This makes them extremely dangerous.
  
• The best giveaway of a sociopath is the "pity play". Being pitied is very advantageous: it can cause people to forgive almost any transgression and feel compelled to help the pitied to an unreasonable extent. However, almost all non-sociopaths hate to actively request pity; even if they secretly want or expect it, they almost never explicitly say "you should feel sorry for me" or the like. Fortunately sociopaths seem not to understand this second part, this is the one common way their mask of being human slips.
  
• There is no winning with a sociopath: they will always be better than you at the game they play. Your only good option is to protect yourself and cut them out of your life.
  
  Second, World War Z by Max Brooks (well, re-read actually; I guess I have a morbid sense of humor). Intelligent multidisciplinary writing is my favorite approach to speculative fiction and this is a master class in it. The choice to approach it as a post-war oral history à la the late Studs Terkel was truly inspired.
  
  But what I was absolutely blown away by is, after a month of reporting on the real-world Ebola epidemic, how astonishingly spot-on Brooks' writing is in regards to the tone and terminology of media reports in the early days of the outbreak. He predicted, almost verbatim, phrases that I'm hearing on the radio on a daily basis today. The verisimilitude is just jaw-dropping, that's real talent.
  
  EDIT: For those who didn't care for the WWZ movie, you might like the audiobook. Obviously it's non-visual but they have an incredible voice cast. A few examples: Mark Hamill, Alan Alda, Simon Pegg, Carl Reiner, Jeri Ryan, Parminder Nagra, F. Murray Abraham, John Turturro ... and that's just the start.

It is

It is also where she gets the 1 in 25 statement. Dsm puts prevalence of ASPD at 02% to 3.3.%. With not even half would be consinder socipaths (ignore the problem arising from jail studies)

Check out that amazing cover too "I in 25 Americans secretly have no conscience and can do anything at all without feeling guilty. Who is the devil you know?"

Yeah, no. There are multiple studies supporting what I said. I also don't want to be CEO of anything. I didn't mean to come off as bitter, like I thought, 'That's why I'm stuck where I am!' actually when I first read that, it was more like, 'huh, interesting.'

I didn't get this from' too much tv' but honest to God research. Here's just one article on the subject.. That's not where I first learned this fact, though. It was this book. Interesting read.

Nah, you lost all credibility when you didn't even do a quick Google search to check if there was anything to what I was saying before crying Bullshit.

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. I actually don't like the term "sociopath" because it implies that society is the cause, which I don't think it is. It might make a psychopath violent as opposed to just someone who wrecks the lives of anyone they come in contact with.

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https://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next-Martha-Stout-Ph-D-ebook/dp/B000FCJXTC

On a more serious note, there are a lot of sociopath in the U.S (5% by some estimates, that's 1 in 20 people) and they can be very deceiving and dangerous people, they are usually charming but have no ability to feel empathy and will do anything to get what they want. Here is a really good book and an amazing read about the topic as told by a psychiatrists that has treated several sociopath and she tells their story, as well as warn people about it. Link to book: http://www.amazon.com/Sociopath-Next-Martha-Stout-Ph-D-ebook/dp/B000FCJXTC/ref=sr_1_1_ha?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410832019&sr=1-1&keywords=sociopath+next+door

TLDR: It is estimated 1 in 20 Americans are sociopaths and they can be EXTREMELY dangerous, please inform yourself and loved ones.

Dr. Martha Stout claims that 4% or 1 in 25 of Americans are born sociopaths. I am sure there are more studies out there, but she has some decent credentials to her name.

Not if they are a "true" sociopath. I'm reading this book right now on sociopaths. It's really intersting. I think people with other personality disorders may want to change, but sociopaths literally can't care because they don't have a conscience.

The Dogecoiners should read this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FCJXTC?btkr=1

Only a couple of days ago these people were trying to comfort the guy by saying things like "don't worry, running a company is hard", "moolah has done so much for the dogecoin community" and "we hope to see you around." Maybe they'll realise how foolish they were in supporting this scammer and wife beater till the very end.

I love reading! I'm really anxious to read this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCJXTC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=21FUGCYZJZK7N&coliid=I2CEF2KK29DCQO

Thanks for the awesome contest! :)

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. That’s my instinct as well. Guy sounds not safe to stay with. See the red flags OP.

There’s a great book called “The Sociopath Next Door” by Martha Stout which talks about how sociopaths act to “pass” for normal. Highly recommend.

I can't personally recommend this but, It sounds great imo --

Shaynoodle is damn sexy.

I have The Rape of Europa in my wishlist because I have a degree in art history and it still interests me.

The Sociopath Next Door is also on there because I recently read The Psychopath test and felt that while it was a decent intro to the topic, it didn't go as in depth as I wanted.

The last one is Sex and Punishment, because I thought it looked interesting.

What is your opinion on the accuracy of the book The Sociopath Next Door? From what I've seen in this AMA, it seems to be pretty much spot on.