Without Conscience, The Disturbing World of The Psychopaths Among Us.

Robert D. Hare, PhD The Guilford Press, (Amazon)

Excerpt from Preface and Acknowledgments
Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow
their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered
expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings
for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating
social norms and expectations without the
slightest sense of guilt or regret. Their
bewildered victims desperately ask, Who
are these people? What makes them the
way they are? How can we protect
ourselves? Although these and related
questions have been the focus of clinical
speculation and empirical research for
over one hundred yearsand of my own
work for a quarter-centuryit is primarily
within the last few decades that the deadly
mystery of the psychopath has begun to
reveal itself.
When I agreed to write this book I knew
it would be difficult to present hard
scientific data and circumspection in a
way that the public could unde3restand. I
would have been quite comfortable
remaining in my academic ivory tower, having esoteric discussions with other
researchers and writing technical books and articles. However, in recent years
there has been a dramatic upsurge in the publics exposure to the machinations
and depredations of psychopaths. The news media are frilled with dramatic
accounts of violent crime, financial scandals, and violations of the public trust.
Review by Linne
Great mysteries were solved for me when I discovered this 220 page book. I had
unexplainable behavior in myself in my early years that I could not justify. It
turned out that I was not a psycho, but had learned such behavior, or at least some
of the traits of a psycho from my father. The script had been implanted in my
subconscious so that my reaction to events took form before I had a chance to
think it over. Upon this realization, my personality suddenly took a turn for the
better. It has steadily improved every day. But, sometimes I snap off a smart-ass
answer that is uncalled for that I immediately regret, with my long time wife
cheering me on with constructive anger. We have a whole lot more fun together
in our late seventies now.
The other great value to studying Professor Hares Canadian prison psychologist
discoveries was my breakthrough in decoding the observations of the great
scholar, Raphael Patai. A Hungarian Jew, he taught in America and Israel, wrote
600 books and articles. One of which was The Arab Mind that he wrote while in
residence in Jerusalem. The great mystery of the 1400 years long inability of a
1

Muslim to get along with is own family, and all his neighbors, especially all nonbelievers in Islam was suddenly made transparent.
Any person who wants to better deal with whomever he meets in any context,
especially in protecting himself from predation by a psycho, should buy this book.
Amazon has copies available at bargain prices. It will certainly enable you to
make better sense out of the current political scene in America and Europe. I
especially recommend this book to all young women who are in pursuit of a mate.
Most psychos are male. This is required reading for anyone in an abusive
marriage. Burton Linne.