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- Summary: The Wisdom of Psychopaths
Summary: The Wisdom of Psychopaths
[ NOTE: These book summaries are designed as captures for what I’ve read, and aren’t necessarily great standalone resources for those who have not read the book. Their purpose is to ensure that I capture what I learn from any given text, so as to avoid realizing years later that I have no idea what it was about or how I benefited from it. ]
The purpose of this book is to figure out what regular people can learn from psychopaths, and how we can incorporate some of their characteristics in our personalities, with good effect
Psychopaths are quite misunderstood by most, especially the media and regular folks
Psychopathy is not a binary thing; you’re not one or not one. There is a scale. People who score at a certain level on the scale are generally considered to “be psychopaths”, or “have psychopathic characteristics”, but REAL psychopaths are far more extreme than them
There are really good tests for determining how much of a psychopath you are (or aren’t). For the PPI, if you score around a 28 you’re considered psychopathic, but the hardcore types score FAR higher than that
Psychopathy is associated with a few key traits:
Fearlessness
Reduced empathy
Antisocial behavior
Impulsiveness
Superficial charm
Grandiose self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative
Lack of remorse
Behavior problems in early life
Sexual promiscuity
Many short marriages
Some of these apply much more than others
Being massively psychopathic has been characterized as having too much of a good thing, i.e. being too fearless, not caring enough about danger, not caring enough what people think, etc. But having more of those traits than most people is considered to be an almost universally good thing
The main concept of the book is that we all fear the future too much, and we all spend too much time regretting the past. And we care too much about what others think. Moving towards psychopaths for these things would make us much happier, and far more successful, according to the book
The other point raised by the book is that monks (and Jedi I notice) are also masters of not having fear. Not being attached. Not caring with others think. Not being attached to the past or worried about the future. This gives them massive power in dealing with the present.
I’m struck by one particular example of this being true: public speaking. People worry about it SO much. But it’s SO beneficial to them. Would a psychopath have trouble doing it? Not a chance. Once again, we should move towards them
I’m struck by a post I wrote a long time ago (1996) about moving between extremes. This seems to be the best possible option: being able to become passive and quiet in one situation, while being able to fillet an enemy in a moment’s notice if it’s required, and without freaking out too much. Not in an ISIS way, but in a hero way.
The relation between hero and psychopath is fascinating. Both have less fear. Both care less about their own safety. But hero’s don’t tend to be antisocial, and there are other differences. But the key is that once again we have a type of person who is exhausted based on behaving similar to a psychopath (heroes, monks, surgeons, soldiers, etc.)
Lessons
I’m struck by a post I wrote a long time ago (1996) about moving between extremes. This seems to be the best possible option. Not being meek and mild. Not being a raging psychopath. But being able to 1) be anything on the scale (or almost anyway), and then 2) knowing when to be what
One key lesson here is that psychopathy is a continuum, not a marker
The other key one is that many traits they have help them succeed because they are things we should have more of. We’re too frightened, too timid, too weak.
The other lesson is that many of the hardcore ones are in prison. So don’t take it TOO far. It’s all about balance, which requires a good eye for what’s needed
[ Find my other book summaries here. ]