ipl-logo

Strange Answers To The Psychopath Test, By Jon Ronson

1068 Words5 Pages

Strange Answers to the Psychopath Test “He’s a gray area in a world that doesn’t like gray areas. But gray areas are where you find the complexity. It’s where you find the humanity, and it’s where you find the truth” (Ronson). Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopath Test, displays the gray areas between the sane and the deranged in his speech given at a 2012 TED conference. His listeners consisted of the audience members who were at the official conference as well as the individuals viewing the presentation online. Moreover, Ronson is an author and documentary filmmaker who became so submerged in his work that his work started to become him. Jon Ronson uses his knowledge and personal experiences to exhibit an alternate to the stereotype of the term psychopath. Ronson applies his knowledge of journalism and psychopaths in attempts to convey to his audience a new definition of the term “Psychopath”. With a solid background in writing, journalism, as well as filmmaking Ronson interviews two formerly …show more content…

In his interviews, he uses the psychopath test and compares the traits found on that checklist to the identifiable traits found in the psychopaths. “Mr. Ronson wonders whether he will have psychopaths for readers. According to the second characteristic on the 20-item Hare Psychopathy Checklist (from which this book takes its title), some of them will. “Grandiose sense of self-worth” is one of their notable traits” (Maslin). The various facts and statistics that are strewn throughout this speech further supports Ronson’s overall presentation. By using statistics to reinforce his opinions, it persuades the audience to agree with Ronson’s perspective on psychopathy. The perspective that mental disorders such as psychopathy, are not always black and white. Often times, there are gray areas that cannot always be thoroughly defined and put into a neat little

Show More
Related
537 Words | 3 Pages

The film “Murder by Number” also includes medical issues, including brain damage, as contributing to the violence of many serial killers. Some criminologists and psychiatrists believe that serial killers kill because of issues with their families. These issues include failure to properly bond with

Read More
963 Words | 4 Pages

The Insane Psycho Ed Gein The American psycho Ed Gein, once said, “When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things. One part wants to be real nice and sweet, and the other part wonders what her head would look like on a stick.” People who are insane are mentally ill and have no control of what they are doing or saying. Pleading insane during a trial is called the insanity plea.

Read More
456 Words | 2 Pages

Facts and Summary On January 24, 2014, in Oxted, Surrey, police found the body of 17 year old Elizabeth Rose Thomas. She had been stabbed in the neck and back by her 16 year old boyfriend (who is now 17), Steven Miles. He also dismembered her legs and one of her arms with “saws and tools from his father’s tree surgeon business ”(Duell, 2014). He wrapped the body parts in cling film, placed them in bin bags and covered the rest of “her body in a green plastic garden sheet” (Duell, 2014).

Read More
800 Words | 4 Pages

When most people hear the word psychopath they think of a big red eyed, crazy, lunatic who belongs in a straight jacket in a mental facility. This exaggerated concept of psychopaths is greatly influenced by the media's representation of the psychological disorder through movies and TV. The average psychopath is much harder to spot than most people think. In “Ready Player One,” by Ernest Cline, Nolan Sorrento is displayed as a power hungry tyrant, who will do anything to win the Oasis game, but is he a psychopath?

Read More
1455 Words | 6 Pages

Psychoanalysis is a psychological lens in which the mental processes that influence one’s behavior are studied as a result of not having a full awareness of the processes. In On Being Zac Morris, Chuck Klosterman writes about what the popular TV show, Saved by the Bell, means to him, by revisiting past memories and events in his life and how they affect the way he behaves. In Selections from Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer writes about the story of Chris McCandless, as he retraces the steps of McCandless’ journey with his friends, demonstrating the effects, not only on McCandless’ behavior, but their behavior as well.

Read More
1197 Words | 5 Pages

Scope of Practice: Jeffrey Dahmer Almost everyone has heard of Jeffrey Dahmer and the horrific acts that he committed, and those same people probably ask how could those acts go on with no one noticing the “warning signs.” In the article, the author noted many “signs” that point to potential deviant criminals, but these are not necessarily actual factors that are used to gauge someone’s risk or mental state. In this paper, the real factors that contribute to risk will be distinguished and how those can be tested, factors in favor of helping Dahmer live a more “normal” life, his level of risk, his assessment, and the predictability of Dahmer. Numerous people have questioned why Dahmer was never caught.

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

To be valued as the “Greatest Canadian” is an honor when someone has made their way throughout high school with only average grades. The “Greatest Canadian” should pertain qualities such as being intelligent, hard working, motivated, involved and experienced. The honor should be given to someone with exceptionally reputable morals and qualities, not someone with just average grades throughout high school. Even with his average grades, Robert Hare finds himself with a PHD from the University of Western Ontario in experimental psychology and is also a researcher of criminal psychology. More importantly, he has developed the “Hare Psychopathy Checklist”, which is a standard instrument used to measure the psychopathic traits of an individual.

Read More
461 Words | 2 Pages

The Brain of a Serial Killer, was a study performed by experts in the field, Dr. Helen Morrison and Neuroscientist, Dr. James Fallon. Dr. Helen Morrison studied 135 serial killers and their patterns. Dr. Helen Morrison has studied serial killers majority of her life and has interviewed 135 in total. She found that regardless of how different each serial killer’s life was, the reasons for killing were similar. Her research suggests that a chromosome abnormality is the most likely trigger, and begins to introduce itself during puberty stages.

Read More
356 Words | 2 Pages

We call them insane because we do not want to admit that we are them. Even when their ambition gets the best of them, they are still human, and they serve as reminders of the potential for evil that each man possesses. Yet, with both, we must question who the real villain and victims are. Both are representative of different times, yet both hold true to the ideas that power corrupts, the lust for blood, and the fall from grace and realization that is inherent to depravity. Evil is born of power; the lack of it, the desire of it, and the achievement of it.

Read More
2322 Words | 10 Pages

Throughout the history of America, despite the vast leaps we have made that ultimately built up our society to what is it today, several things remain a constant, one of which being violence. Individuals who plague our society by preying on and seizing the lives of others have been around for such a long period of time. Going even father than that are those that suffer from such afflictions that cause them to have a predisposition to such violence, despite the steps they may take in an attempt to prevent it. Psychopaths are individuals that fall under this umbrella category. The research of psychopathy and its effects on the human brain have been the focus of many researchers in hopes of discovering the main cause of it, but even though psychopaths

Read More
775 Words | 4 Pages

Psychopaths are merely morally depraved individuals who represent the "monsters" in our society. They are relentless and untreatable people whose violence is premeditated, purposeful and emotionless (Hare). Due

Read More
733 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction As time progresses, the topic of a psychopath has become increasingly evident in society. A psychopath is a non-empathetic individual, who is incapable of feeling guilt or remorse. When an individual thinks of a psychopath, they naturally envision fictional portrayals of such person such as in the films “Silence of the Lambs” and “American Psycho”. However, many few individuals grasp the concept that an individual who has psychopathy suffers from a rare chronic neurological disorder with very abnormal social behavior, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. Countless psychologist in collaboration with neurologist have conducted contemporary research focusing on the emotional, cognitive, and neural bases of a psychopathic

Read More
1504 Words | 7 Pages

“The Maniac” by Mary Robinson “The Maniac” is a poem about a speaker utterly transfixed by the figure of the maniac. The speaker sits at her window and watches the maniac go about his life – she cannot fully comprehend why the maniac acts the way he does but she desires to help him through his condition. Although the speaker requests multiple times for the maniac to share his woes, she tends to portray the maniac as if he were something less than human. The fact that the speaker never gives the maniac a proper name can emit verification toward the idea that Robinson portrays the maniac like a creature, multiple times. The title hints to these conceptions as well – it serves as a framing device, setting the audience up to view the maniac as

Read More
645 Words | 3 Pages

“It’s easy to slip into a parallel universe” stated Susanna Kaysen in her memoir Girl, Interrupted when describing the nature in which one falls into the alternative world of mental illness. Unlike a physical illnesses which generally are more recognizable, mental illnesses must be diagnosed based on abstract assessment measures which are inevitably subjective to the discretion of the mental health professional. After being forcefully detained for almost two years, Kayson compiled a memoir based on her experience in a psychiatric facility upon being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Although Kaysen never fully accepted her diagnosis, multiple actions and behaviors she exhibited throughout her memoir were indicative of the presence of borderline personality disorder.

Read More
520 Words | 3 Pages

Determining what defines an abnormal behavior is not simply black and white. To evaluate and diagnose someone it takes clinical assessment and observation of their character and behavior. This paper will review the character of Randle McMurphy from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. By utilizing the DSM-5 criteria for Personality Disorders Randle could be diagnosed as Antisocial Personality Disorder because of the behaviors he exhibited throughout the movie.

Read More

More about Strange Answers To The Psychopath Test, By Jon Ronson

Related Topics

Open Document