The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry Jon Ronson Riverhead Books, 2011 This book deals with the contentious topic of mental illness, with an emphasis in psychopathy. The book is light on hard science, but journalist Jon Ronson writes an illuminating and highly readable book, covering controversies surrounding the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. The interviews in the book are very animated; interviewees include incarcerated violent psychopaths who do not believe that they are psychopaths, and Scientologists who eschew psychiatry and side with the psychopaths. One is never certain where Ronson's journey through the madness industry will next lead. A general theme permeating the book is that appearances are deceptive. Ronson opens with a story about a thin but apparently expensively produced book with elliptically written text, copies of which were mailed to a selected number of academics of diverse disciplines. Most of the recipients took it upon themselves to unlock the mysterious text, find out who its author was and the purpose of the book. However, following an investigation that stretched from Sweden to the U.S., Ronson concluded that perhaps the book had been created and distributed for no reason other that for vanity's sake, with the crackpot author merely wanting to observe the ensuing ripple-effect on economic activity, intellectual examination and fanciful speculation, as a stone is cast into still water. Such is the social impact of madness; its effects extend well beyond the patient. An additional, unintended message from this episode has to do with academics being duped into investing a lot of time and effort in something that has neither intrinsic value nor meaning. This is an all-toocommon motivation of much academic research - an overfascination with minutia while disregarding the practical. While psychologists have claimed advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, Ronson points out clear failures in both. Noting that Scientologists widely claim that modern psychology has failed in its attempt to treat mental illness, Ronson points to a few victories by Scientologists in outing quacks disguised as psychologists. But then he tells how Scientologists sided with an incarcerated psychopath who claimed that he had feigned mental illness in order to avoid a prison sentence for serious assault, and now claimed that he was being held in an asylum against his will. As one reads further Ronson discusses the conflict between Scientology and established medicine, and uncomfortable facts concerning Scientologists The book takes a similar approach with psychiatric treatment. Ronson describes the experimental treatment program developed by Elliott Barker during the late 1960s and early 1970s at the Oak Ridge Division of the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre in Ontario, Canada, a maximum security psychiatric facility. The program was a blend of prevailing touchy-feely, self-expression, group therapy run by the inmates themselves, abundant usage of hallucinogenic drugs and coercive rehabilitation techniques used by the Chinese Communist regime (Weisman, 1995). When violent, mentally ill inmates were apparently cured and released, the Oak Ridge program was hailed by the members of the medical community concerned with criminality as impressive and most fruitful. The reality was, however, that the rate of recidivism of those released from the program was 80 percent; well above the average rate of recidivism of 60 percent amongst released patients. The Oak Ridge patients were made worse! Indeed, one psychopathic patient from the program confessed to being better able to manipulate others and better conceal his more outrageous feelings. The thinking at the time was that such NewAge, nonevidence based treatments could be applied to all types of mental illness, including psychopathy. …

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