The Psychopathic Enigma

The Psychopathic Enigma - Insightful Self-Reports

BOOK PREVIEW

I have noticed that the long search for the true nature of the psychopathic mind is still stuck on the outside, not getting to the core of the problem. Psychopaths are distrustful of treatment providers, especially when they are dependent on them, for example during involuntary admissions and treatments. They are usually reluctant to provide information about their actual condition. They provide information that they know will have a positive effect on their assessment and treatment plan. Moreover, they often hate those good, well-adjusted therapists and researchers who could never understand them anyway. They like to make fun of them.

That is why the research does not go beyond superficial facts gained in quantitative and far too little reliable qualitative research. For example, on internet forums such as Sociopath World, fellow sufferers speak very freely and openly about their condition, problems, and desires to change. But these signals never penetrate the established stronghold of forensic psychiatry, which continues to build on decades-old theories and assumptions that are endlessly recycled. Almost no one had the opportunity or the need to ask the psychopaths how exactly it all worked and whether those diagnostic criteria reflected reality.

That is why I wrote a book, The Psychopathic Enigma - Insightful Self-Reports, completely from the psychopath's perspective. It turns out that the stereotypical image of the psychopath is completely wrong. As a result, treatment programs do not sufficiently match the conditions and constitution of these people.

The special thing about this book is that the described observations (struggle with the outside world and themselves) are completely described from the experiences, views, and perspective of the psychopath. This is the big difference with the existing professional literature. It turns out that the facts that psychopaths themselves tell differ from the facts presented in the results of almost all scientific studies of the target group. All tests and research therefore appear to ignore an important hidden core of psychopathy. It also appears that the prevailing diagnostic systems deviate from the complex reality that psychopaths themselves portray. By this, I do not mean that those involved justify or trivialize the facts, on the contrary. This is discussed in this book and, in my opinion, offers a new, fresh picture of the phenomenon.

You might also be interested in: "The Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath" by Willem H. J. Martens, MD, PhD.

Dr Martens is a composer, chair of W. Kahn Institute of Theoretical Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK.