Customer Reviews

The Emptied Soul: The Psychopath in Everyone's Life

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is astonishing! It is a simple masterpiece. The author has given an amazing account of different types of psychopaths in the short, but oh so sweet, book.
Guggenbuhl-Craig should write more books. His style is amazing- it is easy to comprehend and extremely intelligent.
I applaud this book and its author. This is one of the best books on the subject I have ever read. Should get 10 Stars!!!

THis book was one of the best written on the subject I have read. I was interesting and easy to read. It is a great book to help you understand the nature that has for the most part only received an evil stamp. Worth having in your collection.

Provides a clear view into the world of the sociopath/psychopath... a great read for anyone interested in human behavior.

the emptied soul is about the nature of psychopath and here we find some connection with psychopathy the eros and morality.Wonderful working from a very good pychologist.

I was more than a bit surprised at the glowing reviews for this book. The awkward writing will tip you off that this is a translated book. And the absence of references or a bibliography reveals a lack of scholarly rigor. I was first struck by a statement on page 68, made with a degree of certainty that is neither warranted nor substantiated by research. Citing the work of Manfred Bleuler, he writes "They do not become psychopaths because their mothers reject them but the other way around." This `they were born defective' theory appears to be derived from his ex post facto observations done at the Burghölzli asylum in Zurich. It is significant to note that his theory dovetails nicely with the work of his father, Eugen Bleuler, a proponent of eugenics in Nazi Germany. (see International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, 4 (1993) 133-148)

Contrast this with the results of several psychological studies ("Becoming Attached", Robert Karen, pg 60)

[...] Levy writing about adopted children who were deceitful and eerily detached; Bender reporting on psychopathic-like children who had been in a series of foster care and adoptive homes; Bakwin, Goldfarb, and Spitz warning about the psychiatric damage done to institutionalized babies [...] they unanimously found the same symptoms in children deprived of their mothers

I did find some value in the later chapters, where Guggenbuhl-Craig details the symptoms and includes references to the "compensated psychopath." It was in the final chapters, though, where he discusses the Jungian concept of the "shadow" and how there is a bit of psychopath in all of us, that I found most compelling.

Finally, I would caution that certainty in the field of psychological research will only come about when we can know the *complete* experience of a human being. Right now, most research (necessarily) relies heavily on the hearsay of caretakers. To claim objectivity from this group ignores the vested interest that they have in portraying themselves as loving and blameless.

This book presents a distinctly different look at the questions posed about the nature of psychopathy, and society's response to it. One achieves both greater understanding, and insight into the importance of individual responsibility and free will, even in the alternate universe of the sociopath.

Any belief system seems opaque to outsiders. Psychoanalysis was a very important step towards understanding and treating psychological problems but we have mostly left it behind, like Aristotelian physics. Without a basic sympathy for psychoanalysis this book becomes a series of unrelated assertions with the odd piercing insight; (the skewering of health bores is very amusing). Relatively low in ideas per page I'd say it is of mainly historical interest now. The awkward expression mentioned in an earlier review is certainly a problem. This shouldn't be in the first five books you read about this subject.

This is a good start! I hope they get together for part two! Mr. Hillman I enjoyed this tape verymuch! But It stoped in the middle of a thought. One tape is not enough!

Five tapes would just scratch the surfice.