Ronson Chapter Four

In Ronson's book, The Psychopath Test, chapter four is titled "The Psychopath Test," and explains exactly what the psychopath test is and how it was developed.  Bob Hare is the man who developed this test which is really more or less a checklist of how to read between the lines of what people say and do.  Ronson attended a teaching session held by Bob Hare to show developing psychologists how to use the psychopath test.  As Bob showed clips of psychopaths and examples of the things they would say that indicate that they are psychopaths, he explained that the cause of their psychopathy was the lack of amygdala activity.  To show them exactly what he meant, Bob showed several relaxing pictures, then suddenly flashed a picture of a man with his face blown apart.  Ronson talks about the strange feeling he experienced when looking at this picture.  Bob explains that this feeling was the amygdala sending signals of distress to the rest of the body, and this sensation does not happen in psychopaths because their amygdala are not very active.

It is very interesting how the checklist for psychopath test works, since I would guess that everyone would have some sort of a score on the test although this does not indicate they are a psychopath.  Maybe everyone of us is a "psychopath" in our own way, that may be extreme and may not be extreme. There are people all over that have a sense of self-grandiose, but this only goes so far, so they are not considered to be a psychopath.  I think it is funny when Ronson talks about his anxiety in chapter four especially after watching the clip of him in lecture.  The way he writes even comes across anxious sometimes.