The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout

Very interesting. Stout defines “conscience” convincingly as attachment to other people, or, basically, the ability to love and be loved. She then offers evidence that 4 per cent of the population are born without the ability to love or be attached, and they are our sociopaths, carrying out agendas that range from the relatively harmless to the unspeakably criminal, all under the impression that everyone is like them. If she is correct, there is no point feeling sorry for serial killers, rapists, child abusers, etc., or trying to rehabilitate or psychoanalyze them -- it’s not that they come from unhappy backgrounds that they are the way they are: they simply think that people with consciences are chumps.

Strangely, from my point of view, Stout spends a lot of time comforting us “normal” people with the assurance that it is better to have a conscience and know love than to be a scheming materialist who will never know it. I don’t see why she hastens to console -- why would anyone want to be more ruthless and cold-hearted than they already are, or envy those who are? We all think we’d like to thrash our way to the top and be rulers with absolute power, but would we really give up love to have that?

-- Alex Colville, Pacific