Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (Hardcover)

~ Hare (Author) "Over the years I've become accustomed to the following experience..." (more)
Key Phrases: adult psychopaths, psychopathic subjects, Psychopathy Checklist, The Profile, White-Collar Psychopaths (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please..." In Without Conscience Robert Hare argues convincingly that "psychopath" and "antisocial personality disorder" (a psychiatric term defined by a cluster of criminal behaviors) are not the same thing. Not all psychopaths are criminals, he says, and not all criminals are psychopaths. He proposes a psychopathy checklist that includes emotional/interpersonal traits such as glibness, grandiosity, lack of guilt, and shallow emotions, as well as social deviance traits such as impulsiveness, lack of responsibility, and antisocial behavior. His writing is lucid and illustrated with numerous anecdotes. The final chapter, "A Survival Guide," is especially recommended: as Hare writes, "Psychopaths are found in every segment of society, and there is a good chance that eventually you will have a painful or humiliating encounter with one." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This work of pop psychology merits attention because Hare has pioneered in the field of psychopathy, which is still in a formative state. Psychopaths, he asserts, are neither sociopaths nor psychotics but rather are people who are well aware of the difference between right and wrong and ignore the distinction. Additionally, they are egocentric and have no feelings of empathy, guilt or remorse. They view others as potential victims, and they leave a trail of unhappiness behind them in those who have succumbed to their deceitful manipulations. Whether nature or nurture underlies their aberration is still uncertain; they are almost impossible to treat, according to Hare, because they are convinced that they have no psychological or emotional problems. Although, as he notes, much of the literature on psychopathy is scientific, Hare here presents material in a form accessible to lay readers.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Atria (November 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671732617
• ISBN-13: 978-0671732615
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (129 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #221,736 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't be devastated by one of these people - READ, June 3, 2006

By	M. Clifton - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Without Conscience: Without Conscience (Mass Market Paperback)

Without Conscience has a lot of information that will help someone distinguish an everyday Psychopath from the rest of the population. Yes it speaks of famous cases, it speaks of prison inmates, but it also covers the ground that most of us walk on every single day. Grocery stores, work, church, school, etc.

Not all Psychopaths are criminals, nor do all of them turn physically violent. In truth most of them are our neighbors, friends, family members, spouses, and even our own children. Most Psychopaths stay so low key that it's hard (next to impossible) to pick up on what is happening until it's too late. By then you are in over your head, financially and emotionally devastated. I know, because I was a target of one of these people.

If I had known what a Psychopath was, and had already read this book, I would have known to avoid the individual at all cost. This book covers every thing to help us make an intelligent decision about the type of person we may be dealing with. If you have doubt of any person in your life, read this book. Better safe than sorry. Believe me, the Psychopath won't care about what he or she does to you. You have to protect yourself from them.

This book will put you on the right path. Always remember 1 out of every 25 people have this mental disorder, so your chances of meeting or already knowing one are very high. Take precautions now before it's too late.

62 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The creepy folk, February 10, 2005

By	Fox in a Box (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (Paperback)

Robert Hare's book is a landmark publication and very frequently referenced by other professionals, which speaks to the respect in which his colleagues hold his research and writings. This is an excellent book. It is well-written, lucid, and aimed at the lay person. His clarification of the terms "psychopath," "sociopath" and "anti-social personality disorder" are quite useful.

My only problem with the book is that Hare's examples come largely from the criminal world, where many psychopaths end up, and in which he worked for many years. Because of this, we may lose sight of the fact that many "psychopaths" are NOT criminals, but produce enormous chaos and emotional mayhem in the lives of others -- others who do not understand this disorder and cannot make sense of what has happened to them.

Psychopaths by their very nature are con artists, but not all are thieves and murderers. Some are just emotionally abusive, cruel, manipulative, controlling and bring families, employees, employers and acquaintances to ruin in a hundred other ways.

Empty, pathetic and destructive, they run the gamut from the emotionally frozen, disengaged, cruel parent to the serial killer -- all marked by one thing, their inability to relate empathetically to others.

120 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No, YOU'RE not crazy! Great for figuring out what hit you!, May 25, 2005

By	Sinead NiC "American & Irish expat" (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (Paperback)

I had the misfortune of having a psychopath wreak havoc in my life and the lives of my friends and family a few years ago. This followed an incident in the 1990s, where a group of us at an Ivy League university were scammed by a beautiful con artist.

I asked a friend who works for the FBI how this could happen twice in a relatively short time period to a group of pretty darn smart people. His response: 1 out of every hundred people is a psychopath. They are not all murderers and they are not all in prison - they live among the rest of us and are often charming and interesting, at least on superficial acquaintance.

We had the misfortune of running into two of them in a decade because we were living in places that psychopaths often target: where people with money and power are. These people THRIVE in transient communities, especially in RICH, transient communities. The university town and the ski resort where we met these folks both have wealthy, transient populations. Apparently, we lived in a dream destination for con artists. (Later, when speaking to long-time residents of the ski resort about what I learned from my FBI pal, I was amazed to hear that they also had learned - with hard experience - that this gorgeous little town had attracted far more than its fair share of really awful people who stole and lied and cheated their way into big money, and then disappeared, with hearts broken, bank accounts empty, and other people holding useless contracts and big debts.)

Normal people give most people they are getting to know the benefit of the doubt, so when things said by these two people didn't add up, we all kind of blew off that troublesome "hey, wait a minute!" feeling. THAT was our mistake, both times. If we'd paid attention to that niggling "something doesn't add up" feeling, we wouldn't have had money and credit cards and jewelry - and a Mercedes! - stolen, reputations and credit ratings (thankfully only temporarily) smudged, and - for a few of the people - there wouldn't have been broken hearts and sad days and weeks of wondering, "how could s/he have deceived me so when I was so good to her/him??"

Strangely enough, after their stories were blown, family members of both of these folks admitted that the behavior of their psychopaths had driven them to depression and other problems; in both cases, therapists had told the family members that these con artists were most likely psychopaths!

If you've had a psychopath in your life, this book will really help you. Somehow, once you know that what you've lived through is part of a larger pattern that also happens to other decent, intelligent, hard-working, and honest people everywhere, then it's easier to gain some distance -- and more importantly, to actually listen to your instincts the next time you have a "hey, wait a minute" moment, when you think, "something doesn't add up here!"

Listen to your instincts. They're right more often than you'd think.