The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (35 page)
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Authors: Jon Ronson
Tags: #Social Scientists & Psychologists, #Psychopathology, #Sociology, #Psychology, #Popular Culture.; Bisacsh, #Social Science, #Popular Culture, #Psychopaths, #General, #Mental Illness, #Biography & Autobiography, #Social Psychology, #History.; Bisacsh, #History
BOOK: The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
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Now you are the chosen one, not me! You are a good person and I am sure that you will do the right thing whatever that is.
Without stopping to think, I wrote him a mea culpa e-mail, telling him that when I first met him, when I’d doorstepped him back in Gothenburg, I had dismissed him as just eccentric and obsessive. I had reduced him in that manner. But now I could see that it was his eccentricities and his obsessions that had led him to produce and distribute
Being or Nothingness
in the most intriguing ways. There is no evidence that we’ve been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things.
Being or Nothingness
in the most intriguing ways. There is no evidence that we’ve been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things.
He e-mailed me back: “I can get a little obsessive—that I must admit. . . .”
And then, as he’d promised he would, he shut off all e-mail contact.
Now I turned the book over in my hands, and something fell out. It was an envelope, with my name written on it, and a tiny sticker of a dolphin.
Feeling unexpectedly excited, I ripped it open.
It was a card: a painting of a butterfly and a blue iris. I opened the card. And handwritten inside was the message, which comprised just two words:
NOTES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY/
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Being my first readers can, I think, be quite a stressful experience, as I have a tendency to hand over the manuscript and then just stand there exuding a silent mix of defiance and despair. My wife, Elaine; William Fiennes; Emma Kennedy; and Derek Johns and Christine Glover at AP Watt therefore deserve my biggest thanks.
There were four or five pages in the chapter “Night of the Living Dead” that were boring and I needed someone to tell me. Ben Goldacre was happy, maybe a little excessively happy, to do so. Adam Curtis and Rebecca Watson were brilliantly clever sounding boards, as were my editors Geoff Kloske at Riverhead and Paul Baggaley at Picador, and Camilla Elworthy and Kris Doyle.
I’m very grateful to Lucy Greenwell for helping to research and set up my Gothenburg trip.
I recorded an early version of “The Man Who Faked Madness” for the Chicago Public Radio show
This American Life
. Thanks as always to Sarah Koenig, Ira Glass, and Julie Snyder.
This American Life
. Thanks as always to Sarah Koenig, Ira Glass, and Julie Snyder.
My research into Harry Bailey and Deep Sleep Treatment came from
Medical Murder: Disturbing Cases of Doctors Who Kill,
by Robert M. Kaplan (Allen and Unwin, 2009).
Medical Murder: Disturbing Cases of Doctors Who Kill,
by Robert M. Kaplan (Allen and Unwin, 2009).
Information about L. Ron Hubbard’s life and death came from Scientology videos and from the 1997 Channel 4 documentary
Secret Lives: L. Ron Hubbard
, produced and directed by Jill Robinson and 3BM films.
Secret Lives: L. Ron Hubbard
, produced and directed by Jill Robinson and 3BM films.
I enjoyed piecing together the Elliott Barker/Oak Ridge story. Research into Dr. Barker’s odyssey took me to
R. D. Laing: A Life
, by Adrian Laing (Sutton, 1994–2006); “Baring the Soul: Paul Bindrim, Abraham Maslow and ‘Nude Psychotherapy,’ ” by Ian Nicholson (
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences,
vol. 43, no. 4, 2007); and
Please Touch
, by Jane Howard (McGraw-Hill, 1970).
R. D. Laing: A Life
, by Adrian Laing (Sutton, 1994–2006); “Baring the Soul: Paul Bindrim, Abraham Maslow and ‘Nude Psychotherapy,’ ” by Ian Nicholson (
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences,
vol. 43, no. 4, 2007); and
Please Touch
, by Jane Howard (McGraw-Hill, 1970).
I learned about the Oak Ridge experiment from reading “An Evaluation of a Maximum Security Therapeutic Community for Psychopaths and Other Mentally Disordered Offenders,” by Marnie E. Rice, Grant T. Harris, and Catherine A. Cormier (
Law and Human Behavior
, vol. 16, no. 4, 1992); “Reflections on the Oak Ridge Experiment with Mentally Disordered Offenders, 1965–1968,” by Richard Weisman (
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
, vol. 18, 1995); “The Total Encounter Capsule,” by Elliott T. Barker, M.D., and Alan J. McLaughlin (
Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal
, vol. 22, no. 7, 1977); and
Total Encounters: The Life and Times of the Mental Health Centre at Penetanguishene
, by Robert F. Nielsen (McMaster University Press, 2000). Thanks to Catherine Cormier and Pat Reid from Oak Ridge, and to Joel Rochon.
Law and Human Behavior
, vol. 16, no. 4, 1992); “Reflections on the Oak Ridge Experiment with Mentally Disordered Offenders, 1965–1968,” by Richard Weisman (
International Journal of Law and Psychiatry
, vol. 18, 1995); “The Total Encounter Capsule,” by Elliott T. Barker, M.D., and Alan J. McLaughlin (
Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal
, vol. 22, no. 7, 1977); and
Total Encounters: The Life and Times of the Mental Health Centre at Penetanguishene
, by Robert F. Nielsen (McMaster University Press, 2000). Thanks to Catherine Cormier and Pat Reid from Oak Ridge, and to Joel Rochon.
I pieced together the Bob Hare chapter in part through my interviews with him, but also from reading his books
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
(Guilford Press, 1999) and
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work
(HarperBusiness, 2007), which he coauthored with Paul Babiak.
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
(Guilford Press, 1999) and
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work
(HarperBusiness, 2007), which he coauthored with Paul Babiak.
The Nicole Kidman story Bob Hare tells comes from the article “Psychopaths Among Us,” by Robert Hercz, 2001. My information on the Jack Abbott/Norman Mailer story came from “The Strange Case of the Writer and the Criminal,” by Michiko Kakutani (
The New York Times Book Review
, September 20, 1981) and
In the Belly of the Beast
, by Jack Henry Abbott with an Introduction by Norman Mailer (Vintage, 1991).
The New York Times Book Review
, September 20, 1981) and
In the Belly of the Beast
, by Jack Henry Abbott with an Introduction by Norman Mailer (Vintage, 1991).
Background into the crimes of Emmanuel “Toto” Constant came from “Giving ‘The Devil’ His Due,” by David Grann (
The Atlantic
, June 2001).
The Atlantic
, June 2001).
Thanks to Ben Blair and Alan Hayling for their help with the chapter “Night of the Living Dead,” and to John Byrne for his book
Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-at-Any-Price
(HarperBusiness, 1999) along with his research into Al Dunlap in the magazines
BusinessWeek
and
Fast Company
.
Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-at-Any-Price
(HarperBusiness, 1999) along with his research into Al Dunlap in the magazines
BusinessWeek
and
Fast Company
.
My quest to understand the relationship between Al Dunlap’s restructuring ruthlessness and Sunbeam’s massive share price hike took me to Michael Shermer, Joel Dimmock, Paul Zak, and Ali Arik.
Thanks to Laura Parfitt and Simon Jacobs, producers on my BBC Radio 4 series
Jon Ronson On . . .
for help with the David Shayler story, and Merope Mills and Liese Spencer at
Guardian Weekend
for help with Paul Britton. The Colin Stagg/Paul Britton fiasco has been written about most interestingly in the books
The Rachel Files
, by Keith Pedder (John Blake, 2002);
The Jigsaw Man
, by Paul Britton (Corgi Books, 1998); and
Who Really Killed Rachel?
by Colin Stagg and David Kessler (Greenzone, 1999).
Jon Ronson On . . .
for help with the David Shayler story, and Merope Mills and Liese Spencer at
Guardian Weekend
for help with Paul Britton. The Colin Stagg/Paul Britton fiasco has been written about most interestingly in the books
The Rachel Files
, by Keith Pedder (John Blake, 2002);
The Jigsaw Man
, by Paul Britton (Corgi Books, 1998); and
Who Really Killed Rachel?
by Colin Stagg and David Kessler (Greenzone, 1999).
Research into
DSM-IV
and the chapter “The Avoidable Death of Rebecca Riley” took me to four brilliant sources: “The Dictionary of Disorder: How One Man Revolutionized Psychiatry,” by Alix Spiegel (
The New Yorker
, January 3, 2005);
The Trap
, by Adam Curtis (BBC Television); “The Encyclopedia of Insanity: A Psychiatric Handbook Lists a Madness for Everyone,” by L. J. Davis (
Harper’s
, February 1997); and “Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: An Object of Study in the Creation of an Illness,” by David Healy and Joanna Le Noury (
The International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine
, vol. 19, 2007).
DSM-IV
and the chapter “The Avoidable Death of Rebecca Riley” took me to four brilliant sources: “The Dictionary of Disorder: How One Man Revolutionized Psychiatry,” by Alix Spiegel (
The New Yorker
, January 3, 2005);
The Trap
, by Adam Curtis (BBC Television); “The Encyclopedia of Insanity: A Psychiatric Handbook Lists a Madness for Everyone,” by L. J. Davis (
Harper’s
, February 1997); and “Pediatric Bipolar Disorder: An Object of Study in the Creation of an Illness,” by David Healy and Joanna Le Noury (
The International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine
, vol. 19, 2007).
Thanks to Alistair Stevenson for giving me a beautiful line that summed up my feelings about those ideologues whose love of polemics and distrust of psychiatry blind them to the very real suffering of people with unusual mental health symptoms.
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