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Strange Answers To A Psychopath Test By Jon Ronson

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Heneghan 1 Colleen Heneghan Dr. Strebeck September 15, 2017 "Strange Answers to a Psychopathic Test" – Jon Ronson (18:01) What qualifies someone as sane or insane? Jon Ronson tries to illuminate this "gray area" in his March 2012 TED Talk "Strange Answers to a Psychopathic Test." Ronson is a self-proclaimed "psychopath spotter" and author of The Psychopath Test: a Journey through the Madness Industry (Blincoe). Many professors, including Robert D. Hare, creator of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, rejected the book, claiming it was unprofessional and unsettling (Hare, 2). Despite this, Ronson's presentation left his audience astounded and intrigued. Ronson claims that his interest in psychopathy began when he read the DSM, an encyclopedia …show more content…

He claims that no one truly knows why we procrastinate. We let the "monkey" in our heads distract us until the "panic monster" wakes up and scares us into working (Urban). Urban then describes the two different types of procrastination, tasks with a due date, and tasks without. When we have a task without a due date, the "panic monster" never wakes up, so nothing happens and we end up missing life. We are all procrastinating on something without a due date and we need to just get up and do it. Urban finishes by revealing a picture of boxes that represent every week of a ninety-year life. We need to stop wasting these boxes and make them count. Urban's presentation was wild but enjoyable. His voice was loud as jumped all over the stage. His use of pausing for comedic effect and his hilarious slides had the audience, and myself, burst out laughing. Being a procrastinator myself, I appreciated his examples. However, he looked down at the ground instead of the audience at various points. I am glad my classmates recommended this TED Talk and I will never forget the "monkey" and "panic monster" when I am procrastinating on another …show more content…

"The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson: Review." The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 13 June 2011, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8565585/The-Psychopath-Test-A-Journey-through-the-Madness-Industry-by-Jon-Ronson-review.html. Carney, Dana R., et al. "Power Posing." Psychological Science, Sage Journals, 20 Sept. 2010, journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797610383437. Hare, Robert D. "A Commentary on Ronson's The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry." Psychopathy Society, Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy, 17 April 2012, www.psychopathysociety.org/images/hare%20commentary%20on%20ronson%20april%2017%202012.pdf. "Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator." Performance by Tim Urban, Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator, TED, Mar. 2016, https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator/details Raz, Guy. "Kevin Breel: What Can Depression Teach Us About Comedy?" NPR, NPR, 24 Mar. 2017, www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=520944579. "Strange Answers to the Psychopath Test." Performance by Jon Ronson, Strange Answers to the Psychopath Test, TED, Mar. 2012,

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