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    Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
    Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
    Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
    Audiobook8 hours

    Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

    Written by Robert D. Hare, PhD

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. With their flagrant criminal violation of society's rules, serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are among the most dramatic examples of the psychopath. Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. Perhaps most frightening, they often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets.

    Presenting a compelling portrait of these dangerous men and women based on 25 years of distinguished scientific research, Dr. Robert D. Hare vividly describes a world of con artists, hustlers, rapists, and other predators who charm, lie, and manipulate their way through life. Are psychopaths mad, or simply bad? How can they be recognized? And how can we protect ourselves? This book provides solid information and surprising insights for anyone seeking to understand this devastating condition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 22, 2011
    ISBN9781452674094
    Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

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    Reviews for Without Conscience

    4/5

    239 ratings10 reviews

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    • 3/5
      First part was interesting and an easy read but it did make me feel a little weird that fictional characters were used alongside actual people as examples of psychopaths. Around the halfway point, I started to feel like it was an infomercial for the author's checklist and my attention wandered. The last chapter - how to avoid them - was more like "they have dead eyes" and "here's what you should do when you are inevitably taken in by one". The first half would easily get another star. But the book lost momentum and fizzled for me.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Writing: 4.0; Theme: 4.5; Content: 4.5; Language: 3.0; Overall: 4.5; This was an interesting book written by one who specializes in psychopathy. He shares with his readers the many aspects of this troubling condition. Those who have this condition show forth certain characteristics that are noticeable to the trained mind. Interesting study. Unfortunately there was a high usage of vulgarity (at least 20+ uses: all were used in quotes by the "psychopaths" mentioned herein). Highly recommend with the caution above. ***October 30, 2018***

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This book was written for laymen, to help us identify people in our lives who maybe dangerous. It's particularly valuable in an age where we often focus on compassion for the perpetrator and paint them as the victim. I'm sure that's true in many cases, but this book provides a solid reminder that there are genuine psychopaths out there. A good lesson that we need to continue to think critically about the behavior of others.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Interesting and enlightening. Second time listening to the audiobook. I love how relatable it is

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I should be upfront and advise that I was required to read this book for a college course entitled "Psychopaths, Sociopaths, and Serial Killers". Keeping that in mind, I have to say that this was a very interesting and informative book. This book offered information on being able to identify psychopaths, how to handle them in your work environment, and how best to keep yourself safe from them. The one lesson that this book enforced was that not all psychopaths are out to hurt you. There are well-established careers that employ psychopaths on a regular basis such as attorneys and surgeons.

      There are examples given of psychopaths in prison who achieve high levels on the Psychopath Test which is one given so as to classify true and dangerous paths from those who may be less dangerous. All in all, this was an eye-opening read that made me better understand the world around me.
    • 4/5
      Without conscience is an interesting and important book about psychopathy. It does a good job elucidating some real life examples, takes us down the road of depravity of Antisocial people. It is non gender specific and it takes its toll in many ways in the victims and perpetrators. I see this book adding value to knowing more about individual like these. We continue to require more research on this and how to effectively treat it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Excellent detailed overview to year 1993 (copyright date). Much progress has been made on the neurophysiology of the psychopathic brain over the past two decades, but Dr. Hare was instinctively accurate with all his descriptions and analysis. (What a horrible way to spend one's medical career -- dealing with these incorrigible people). If I had any power on a school board, I would make this book mandatory reading for all high school kids. WE MUST ALL BE AWARE OF THE DETAILS COMPRISING THE PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY. OUR LIVES MAY DEPEND ON IT.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Forget Lord Voldemort. On the evidence, Robert Hare, the author of Without Conscience, was the first Death Eater.I say that because, although Hare writes this book to warn about psychopaths, you can't help but feel that, deep down, he likes these people. He's always talking them up, as if they have a magical ability to make you believe anything they say. And then they'll take you for a ride, and you'll be left sadder, poorer, and possibly pregnant-er. Assuming you aren't dead-er.All of which presents a very frightening picture, and some of it seems to be true. There are people who have little or no desire to help others, and who have little or no executive function to inhibit them from socially destructive behavior. There is evidence that these people have abnormal brains.But are they really a distinct subgroup, incurable (says Hare), marked by brain abnormalities and a common set of traits? And has Robert Hare really created a magical Psychopathy Checklist to find them so that we can lock them up and throw away they key -- or, as Hare has done in his Frankenstein-esque experiments, torture them until he determines if they are really incapable of learning?It should be noted that the American Psychiatric Association does not think so. Psychopathy is not a diagnosis they admit to their manuals. What they have is Antisocial Personality Disorder -- a description of a group of very unpleasant people, who fit some of the traits described above (lack of respect for others and lack of impulse control). But most of them aren't as bad as Hare's group; they may be larcenous, self-serving, power-seeking, destructive corporate cheaters, but most of them don't commit murder or rape or fraud otherwise engage in major criminal behavior. It has been claimed that all psychopaths have Antisocial Personality Disorder, but not all people with ASD are psychopaths. Perhaps so. But if Hare wants to go beyond what the diagnostic manuals say, he needs more than a checklist and a history of talking to dreadful people. And, on the evidence, he doesn't have that data. Think about this: If he has so much data on psychopathy, why does he keep citing fictional examples such as Hannibal Lecter? And keep citing the same high-profile murderers such as Ted Bundy?The worst of it is, he has convinced many prison systems to take him seriously, and his checklist is sometimes used to determine whether prisoners get privileges or even parole.Please don't misunderstand me. There are certainly many terrible people out there. And psychopathy may be a real psychological condition. But this book isn't the proof of it. It's a collection of horror stories. And if you want to know what's most horrible, consider this: Would you want to be locked up in prison for the rest of your life just because you scored high on the Psychopathy Checklist? With no one accepting that you are repentant or can learn? What if the person who administers the test has it in for you? Too scary a thought for me!Hare's research -- despite his occasional sadism, both toward his experimental subjects and toward his readers -- has an important place. We need to find out about these people. But he has, I think, rushed to judgment. We as readers should not get caught in the same race.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. Every once-in-a-while I like to break up my endless Sci-fi/Fantasy reading with some non-fiction. I try to pick interesting subjects, and this was one of them. I like the look at what makes a psychopath and how they definition gets muddled in film and tv.

      I'd recommend this to anyone who likes psychology or just reading about the topic.
    • 2/5
      Very interesting subject matter, but told in a trashy and sensationalist manner, which is a bit hard going.