Kindle Price:	$8.99
Sold by:	Penguin Group (USA) LLC Price set by seller.

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

James H. Fallon

Follow

The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain Kindle Edition

by James H. Fallon (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 1,219 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$8.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$38.00

$33.90

$2.69

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$14.39

$11.68

$6.35

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$15.99

$15.80

—

Kindle
$8.99 Read with our free app
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
$38.00

27 Used from $2.69 6 New from $33.90
Paperback
$14.39

29 Used from $6.35 24 New from $11.68
Audio CD
$15.99

3 New from $15.80

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

“Compelling, essential reading for understanding the underpinnings of psychopathy.” — M. E. Thomas, author of Confessions of a Sociopath

For his first fifty-eight years, James Fallon was by all appearances a normal guy. A successful neuroscientist and professor, he’d been raised in a loving family, married his high school sweetheart, and had three kids and lots of friends. Then he learned a shocking truth that would not only disrupt his personal and professional life, but would lead him to question the very nature of his own identity.

While researching serial killers, he uncovered a pattern in their brain scans that helped explain their cold and violent behavior. Astonishingly, his own scan matched that pattern. And a few months later he learned that he was descended from a long line of murderers. Fallon set out to reconcile the truth about his own brain with everything he knew as a scientist about the mind, behavior, and personality.

Print length

258 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Portfolio
Publication date

October 31, 2013
File size

6450 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Robert D. Hare
2,792
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Adrian Raine
75
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.99
Stanton E. Samenow
1,407
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $8.99
Dr. Hervey Cleckley
280
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.99
Adelyn Birch
857
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.99
Uri Maoz
11
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $17.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The Psychopath Inside is a deeply compelling personal story of an eminent scientist’s discovery of his own psychopathy. Jim Fallon confesses the sins of his biology and in doing so receives the absolution of being human. I couldn’t put it down.”
—PAUL J. ZAK, PhD, author of The Moral Molecule: The Source of Love and Prosperity

“As comprehensive as it is compelling, essential reading for understanding the genetic and neuroscience underpinnings of psychopathy.”
—M. E. THOMAS, author of Confessions of a Sociopath

“Just the word ‘psychopath’ is enough to grab anyone’s attention and it has inspired numerous TV shows and films for many decades. In truth, I believe the word itself does little to wrap its arms around the infinite behavioral traits psychopaths possess, for good and bad. Fallon lets us inside his mind as he takes us on a deftly woven journey, breaking down every convention of psychopathic behavior.”
—SIMON MIRREN, former executive producer of Criminal Minds

“In a thought-provoking account of self-exploration, Fallon puts himself ‘under the microscope’ in an attempt to make sense of how his own biological and developmental history has shaped his life. His perspective on psychopathy pushes us to consider the important roles of nature and nurture, and the fine line between adaptive and maladaptive personality traits.”
—JOHN F. EDENS, PhD, professor of psychology, director of clinical training, and Cornerstone Faculty Fellow, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University

"An intriguing look into the dark side of the brain. A must-read for anyone curious about why our brains think our darkest thoughts and how many of us go into states of psychosis without even realizing it. Dr. Fallon's study of my own brain helped me come to terms with my strangest ideas and why I function the way I do. Few people understand the brain as well as Dr. Fallon, and can write about it in such a fun and engaging way. A fascinating read."
—ELI ROTH, writer, director, and producer

“Absorbing, insightful and quirky”
–Kirkus

“His surprising final diagnosis could broaden the way we see normality.”
–Nature journal --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Is author Fallon a law-abiding research scientist and family man or a dangerous psychopath? In this memoir-meets-pop-sci examination of psychopathy, Fallon discovers, to his initial surprise, that he has brain functions similar to a cohort of hardened criminals. The book takes chapter-length looks at the neurological features, possible genetic and epigenetic causes, and developmental triggers of psychopathy, with detours through Fallon's personal and familial history. Unfortunately, Fallon's memoir of realizations is emotionally flat (which is perhaps unfair criteria to judge a psychopath by), lazily assembled, and amounts to little more than a confessional booth's enumeration of sins. He cheats with his kids at Scrabble, parties too hard, alienates his co-workers, and takes his brother to an Ebola-infested cave and considers using him as lion bait. These vices, Fallon is happy to tell you, provide him a great deal of malevolent glee, though there is little pleasure for readers to bask in—Fallon's narration is too sterile and, ironically, too self-serving to ever entice the reader. For a quick overview of current theories of brain science and mental illness, Fallon's book is useful; for insight into foreign mental and emotional territories, look elsewhere. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Nov.) --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00C5R729S
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Portfolio (October 31, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 31, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6450 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 258 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #185,374 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #52 in Personality Disorders (Kindle Store)
- #107 in Psychology of Personalities
- #223 in Personality Disorders (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 1,219 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

James H. Fallon

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Jim is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at UC Irvine where he has served as Chairman of the University faculty and Chair and President of the School of Medicine faculty. He is an internationally renowned neurobiologist who has made major scientific breakthroughs in the basic and clinical brain sciences. He was the first to describe a growth factor in the central nervous system, and the first to show how to stimulate the mass production and mobilization of adult stem cells in the injured brain. Dr Fallon was the neuroanatomist on the team that the New York Times called the most startling discovery during the decade of the brain and his stem cell research was the first presented by NIH to the US Congress showing the promise of adult stem cell therapy. He is a Sloan Scholar, Senior Fulbright Fellow, National Institutes of Health Career Awardee, and recipient of a range of honorary degrees, awards, and sits on several corporate boards and national think tanks for science, biotechnology, the arts, and the US military. His firm, NeuroRepair, was named as top new biotech form of the year by Future in Review, and in November 2011 his adult stem cell technology was announced as one of the top 26 medical breakthroughs in medicine for the recent years by Newsmax. He is a Subject Matter Expert in the field of "cognition and war" to the Joint Command and has contributed to the development of a tissue electrode array designed for potential use in theater of war amputees. His recent imaging genetics research has discovered new genes for Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. Most recently Fallon has lectured worldwide on neurolaw and the brains of psychopathic killers and dictators. In the past two years, he has been featured on four Discovery Channel science specials, as well as stories on his personal and professional life on NPR, CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, and major radio networks throughout the world. His recent talks on the brains on dictators and other psychopaths have been highly regarded internationally. He has recently acted as himself on Criminal Minds, the new Russian film DAU to premiere at Cannes, and his character portrays the lead in a new TV Crime Series (pilot to debut May 2012).

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

1,219 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Leslie Lothstein

Too Much Information

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2014

Verified Purchase

James Fallon, a noted neuroscientist, discovers he has the brain of a psychopath (a group he has been studying and when he and his family become control subjects for the psychopathic experimental group lo and behold he becomes an unusual control as he learns he has the brain of a psychopath). Specifically, he learns his family (on one side) is filled with killers, impulsively dangerous people and murderers. He has a genetically wild side and we learn about it, women, gambling, over eating staying up all night partying). He announces he is a lapsed catholic and a libertarian but his day job is as a serious neuroscientist. He also has a compassionate and wonderful wife (I hope she still is after reading the book). The book is a reality show with James Fallon the man upstaging James Fallon the respected neuroscientist. The meat on the bones of this book is that Fallon's discoveries of his psychopathic brain reminds us that the social neurosciences and the developing field of Neurolaw have to move forward carefully in the murky waters of translational brain imaging research and not simplistically show up in court saying "My Amygdala made me do it" (the new Twinkie defense) when that might be more than a stretch. Fallon wonders why he is not a killer like so many of his relatives and what he discovers is the gist of the book. It is a hard book to put down as Fallon takes on a personal tour, almost a manic journey into his personal life; with many questions unanswered (I hope the killer never emerges in him as a self fulfilling wish). When he turns to science (almost a disconnect from the purpose of the book) he demonstrates himself as a serious neuroscientist. The book is a tell all biography into Fallon's mischievous life outside the lab but it is also a journey into the problems in translational research. Just because something looks like a duck and sounds like a duck doesn't mean it is a duck. And this is where Fallon's book serves as a warning to those who would have taken Fallon's brain images to court and argued that he should be civilly committed as a potential psychopath. Researches in the field might take heed of his warning that translating fMRI images into the courtroom should be done with caution. It is a fast read and an expose (not entirely scientific). I recommend it as a reminder that what goes as good science by some psychopathy researchers needs to be reconsidered as possibilities, not truths. In the future we need to have real clinicians working with psychopaths working alongside the neuroscience researchers in order to keep both sides honest. His book will actually be a setback for some lawyer's using fMRI images to support a lack of free will defense but also expand the possibilities of how to understand how our complex brains cannot be reduced to a series of fMRI images

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

Anna

The Perfect Book for an Aspiring Neuroscientist!

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

For decades now, neuroscientists have been seeking the answer the question, “What makes a psychopath, a psychopath?” In James Fallon’s, The Psychopath Inside, he wanted to uncover the answer to that question by studying the brains and genes of psychopaths. Unknown to him at the time, this research would lead him to make a detour towards having to re-evaluate his own personal life. Fallon is an accredited science writer who discusses his various projects that he has been working on in psychopathology, one of them being himself. With a background in neurobiology, he is a renowned professor in the department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine.

Fallon is not shy about his work or family history and has been published in various articles such as The Wall Street Journal, been asked to speak at a national conference (TED), and was even contacted by the producer of the Criminal Minds television show due to his psychopathological findings. However, his most successful work is his book, The Psychopath Inside, acting not only as a factual and knowledge-based book, but an autobiography as well.

The lurking question, “What is a psychopath?” lingers in conversation between researchers because it has yet to have an agreed upon definition. Fallon begins by acknowledging common facts agreed on by the majority of researchers: psychopaths lack empathy and disregard morals, right? Correct. Using these facts and his countless amount of research, Fallon discovers that there are not only areas in the brain that are similar between psychopaths, but also genetic sequences.

James Fallon did a blind review of over a hundred PET scans which came from both average people and from those who were diagnosed as psychopaths. Looking closely at the various scans, he recognized a pattern in the scans of those deemed as psychopaths: a major loss of activity in the limbic (emotional) cortex of the brain. However, this pattern didn’t interest Fallon enough to pursue it further and he decided to continue with his other Alzheimer’s trial. During the Alzheimer’s trial, Fallon established a control group of brain scans who did not has Alzheimer’s, and these scans happened to be those of his family. Looking closely at his family scans, he noticed a similarity in a PET scan that looked familiar to him; it looked like a psychopath scan which he had studied previously. Turns out, the scan which he had been looking at was a scan of his own brain.

After that finding, Fallon’s interest in psychopathology peaked. Looking at someone’s genetic pattern is like looking at a blue-print of a house someone is building. Genetics is the foundation of life, through which DNA plays a leading role. Basing his research under that model, Fallon began to look at psychopaths’ genetic patterns and compared and contrasted them.

Fallon began to look closely at his origin: his family life, the environment he grew up in, and activities that he pursued throughout his lifetime. He asked a number of questions to his family and friends, through which Fallon concluded that he was a happy, spirited, and confident child throughout his youth. As many other neuroscientists have agreed upon, bed-wetting, playing with fire, and animal abuse are main causes of concern when a child is developing because this suggests they are likely to be psychopathic. Fallon disregards that statement because he believes that “boys will be boys” and they just happen to do these sorts of things or it could just be peer pressure. So with this being said, the problem still remained, why did his brain scan resemble one of a psychopath?

Fallon develops a three-legged stool theory as a way to account for how a person becomes a psychopath. He establishes this theory based off of three parts: genes, a specific brain pattern, and childhood abuse. However, this theory does not fit all because Fallon’s PET scans resemble those of a psychopath yet he didn’t have any childhood abuse while growing up. Therefore, Fallon calls himself a “lucky psychopath”, because he was brought up in a loving family and was not raised to have these tendencies many psychopaths do.

This is where my favorite part of the book comes into play because Fallon discusses how having psychopaths in society isn’t so bad. Who would have thought, right? For example, psychopaths are defined to have less stress because they aren’t empathetic to others and don’t care how others go about their lives. With this lack of stress, they have healthier immune systems are and less susceptible to diseases and can live longer and healthier lives for the most part. Also, with this lack of emotion, people with psychopathic tendencies can better lie and be able to get away with it, saving themselves potential trouble.

Fallon’s book is unlike any other scientific novel because he not only incorporates facts and real-life PET scans, but also discusses his private life and family history. One should not be nervous to try to read this book because of its organization and ability to be followed easily. Fallon proves to do an excellent job describing his work and its significance and ties it back to how it relates to psychopathology. This leaves little to no room for a reader to get lost among his words. Through his writing, he provides many analogies for complex topics such as serotonin processes and activating systems which make it easy to understand, so lack of a neuroscience degree won't leave you lost and confused.

After reading this book and even re-reading certain passages, I, without hesitation, would give it a 5/5 rating. I was drawn to the book immediately by the way in which James Fallon began introducing himself and establishing his authority on the topic of psychopathology. His unique style of writing, one that is easy to comprehend, attracted me to his book because I could follow along with the various new details he was using to support his findings. This book proved to be an insightful look into Fallon’s personal life and demonstrated to the reader how fascinating our brain truly is. It was eye-opening to learn how observations, thoughts, and emotions that plagued people throughout their childhood could make them more or less susceptible to psychopathy. Fallon pushed past the various controversies which the field of psychopathology held and stood his ground and continued his research, and he will soon hopefully unlock the mystery behind "psychopaths".

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Eduardo Alvim

simply great

Reviewed in France on March 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

Thanks a lot for this vivid and , to some extent, torturing report things work in the realm of psychopathy. I could relate to most, if not all, “symptoms” or traits. It helps to explain a lot. And it’s reliving.
What i do have has a name and I don’t need to be ashamed of it. It’s not bad, nor good. It is what it is.
Thanks for bringing light to this topic.

Maddy

Amazing Book!

Reviewed in Canada on June 1, 2023

Verified Purchase

I started reading it and great book so far! I recommend it!

Trying to be helpful

Scientist worries he might be psychopath ... decides he does not care.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a book written by somebody who claims to be 'borderline psychopath' / 'pro-social psychopath'. He also admits to being a liar and a bulls*** artist. That creates some problems for credibility but I will present this review as though the book were broadly honest although I cannot verify this.

The author observed that his own brain scans resembled in tell-tale areas those of psychopaths he had reviewed, a judgement he was equipped to make as a neuroscientist. This led him to investigate whether he was in fact a psychopath. Genetic testing revealed the versions of the MAOA gene that he carries are associated with violence. He found that a number of murders had been committed by members on one side of his family going back a few generations. He asked those who knew him well - some of whom were experts in fields beginning with psycho- and neuro- - what they they thought of him. The evidence pointed to the conclusion that he was a borderline psychopath/ psychopath-lite/ pro-social psychopath.

This book is in large part a memoir: he gives us an outline of his life, details the emergence of the above pieces of evidence and offers lots of ruminations on what it is like to be him in relation to the possibility that he is a psychopath. According to his account, he is generally a good guy who occasionally behaves badly but never too badly. There is a lot of elaboration on the 'good guy' stuff, the bad stuff is vague and generally minimised. How much elaboration of the good stuff is required to credibly present yourself as a narcissist ... less than happens in this book. How vague is he about the bad stuff ... well it turns out that he occasionally lies, plays pranks, fails to deliver on promises, is a bit of a party-animal, flirts with women who are not his wife, sometimes misses occasions because there is something else he would rather do ... and oh there is some stuff he cannot tell us about. That is how vague he is. In fairness he does tell us in some detail about the time he exposed his brother to some risk by visiting a place where somebody had once got Marburg virus without telling him about it. Under the hood, Fallon suggests he doesn't really care about these transgressions and in particular doesn't really, particularly strongly empathise with his victims. Guess what? I don't care about these transgressions and don't really, particularly strongly empathise with his victims. His transgressions are simply too run of the mill and too vague. We are never close enough to the action to know whether his emotional responses are abnormal/ different from our own. It often reads like somebody who has seen a diagnosis in a medical text and begun to worry they have the symptoms. Worrying about whether one might be a psychopath strikes me as something a psychopath is unlikely to do. On the other hand, maybe appearing to worry is the kind of thing that gets people onside and he does keep saying he does not care ... in between where he apparently worries about it. Who knows. And since we get neither emotional insight nor any voyeuristic pleasure from a psychopath in action seen up close ... who cares.

Other than the memoir stuff there is some discussion of psychopathy more generally. One might have expected this to be well-done since the author claims to be a star scientist. Most of this is a discussion of neuroscience ... I was not actually interested in this so I only skimmed and won't comment on it. Absent was an adequate discussion of psychopathy from a psychological/ psychiatric point of view. Psychopathy is after all a psychiatric syndrome or rather, somewhat unhelpfully, the name given to several different psychiatric syndromes which clearly refer to different populations which authors have a tendency to conflate. Ok, so we don't actually know what the author intends by the word 'psychopath' and there is not much context to get the book going. On the other hand, the author is prepared to advance some speculations of his own on what it takes for a somebody to become a bad psychopath as opposed to the kind of good psychopath the author is. These seem to be based on the study of a sample of one. It would appear that in the competition between his star scientist and narcissist personas the narcissist won.

Not worth reading.

37 people found this helpful

Adrian

Interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

A little patchy but very interesting and indeed, surprising

Kathleen Barthelemy

How Nurture Prevents Murder

Reviewed in Germany on May 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

A fascinating, scientific look at the brain using his own family history and genome to reveal the sources of criminal behavior. I had to read parts of it several times to really understand it. I’m still not sure about certain parts of the science, but it sent me off to investigate certain aspects beyond the book. I’ve watched several TED videos of the author and that helped my understanding. I especially liked his discussions of the „nature vs. nurture“ inquiries. Not only is „nurture“ fundamental to shaping the personality, and to developing empathy, it can prevent mass murderers who are born with a genetic predisposition having inherited the „warrior gene“, as he did. I was surprised to learn that empathy is not possible for some people, not simply that some individuals fail to develop it.

I was an educator for 40 years. He affirmed many of the „best practices“ I learned in studying emotional and behavioral disturbance at the University of Minnesota. He makes a case for early childhood education to prevent criminal behavior, in the extreme range, but also demonstrates how vital the mother‘s mental health is during pregnancy, and how nurturing in the first three years of life sets human development for life. The exponential effects of loving and nurturing young children are awesome and terrifying in their potential to shape personality for the immediate person as well as to shape the next and future generations.

I plan to read the entire book again.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Image Unavailable

Follow the author

The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought