Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Review: The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness IndustryThe Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The premise of this book was right up my alley but I found the author's execution to be less than great. It felt like a very uneven book to me. There were times that I found the content fascinating ... and didn't want to put it down yet there were just as many times where I became bored, wanting to move on and into the next section. The flow seemed jagged to me at times. The path of the book was very haphazard to me which was frustrating to me as a reader.

Although this is a fine book, it just didn't meet my expectations and it didn't take me to the places that I expected to go. This book was about more than just psychopathy - it was just as much a commentary on the entire psychological industry as a study of psychopathy. Interesting but not exactly what I was expecting. Jon Ronson is definitely a good writer ... I just feel like he did the topic of psychopathy a disservice by not keeping the more content focused. Again, not a bad book, just not a book that really centers around the topic that it leads you to believe that it is about.

I recommend this if you are interested in learning about more than psychopathy - the entire realm of psychiatry is really more the focus in this one. For a study of psychopathy, you might want to look elsewhere!

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