Review: His Book Fell FAR SHORT of His Claims
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 7, 2014
This book is the perfect example of what happens when a non-professional writes a book on subjects he is interested in, but has no actual training other than other books he has read on his subject of interest.Plainly he has read a lot of books about the subjects of sociopathy, psychopathy, narcissism, and various mental illnesses. But, he has really taken the information from a conglomeration of sources, and thrown them all together. And, I do believe, from what I have read in other books, and what I read in his book, either he totally got mixed up on the information he read in the other books quoted, or he simply made up information.He started his book by stating "for once and for all, he was going to clear up the information about sociopaths/psychopaths". That comment struck me as quite narcissistic, as though HE was going to give better, more clear, and more thorough information than Clecky and Hare, the two top persons in the field of sociopathy research!Then, in the book he contradicts `information' he himself has put in his book. At the start he says "that sociopathy can be treated", and later he insists "there is no treatment for sociopathy, and in fact treatment can make them worse". So, which is it? Did he put in the first information when he was reading from one book, and then the later information when he was reading from another book?Also, early on in his book, he states that narcissism is created from too much attention from parents. Then later he states it can be from too much attention or too little attention (the sentences were much more detailed, but that is the basics of what he stated - complete opposites of what he said in the early part of his book than the latter part of his book). So, again, which is it? Which books was he reading when he wrote the first statements, vs. the latter statements?Also, he states that schizophrenia is multiple personality, which it isn't. Schizophrenia isn't multiple personality (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder, or D.I.D.), and D.I.D. is not Schizophrenia.Don't get me wrong; he does have a lot of excellent information in this book, but being it also contains erroneous information, or contradictory information, you simply cannot trust any of the information he gives. If you have to go to more professionally written books to garner which information that this author writes is correct, than simply go to more professionally written books in the first place for the information. Cause if you have not first read some of those professionally written books first, than you won't know when this author is leading you wrong.Another thing, though this book does give a lot of information, there is something really FLAT about it, like you would expect from someone without much for feelings; totally unlike books likeWithout Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us by Robert D. HareOrThe Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout Ph.D.If you can pick up his book for little or nothing, it can be worth it to give you some information. But, at the $4.99 he is asking, I would definitely say to spend a little more, and have a lot more information, and have it be really quality, accurate information.Even though the information in this book would normally warrant more stars, due to the issues quoted above, I am giving it only 2 stars. You would be much better served getting a book where you could trust the information you were reading.By the way, he did not "for once and for all, clear up the issues about sociopathy and psychopathy". In my opinion, he fell FAR SHORT OF THAT.Due to what I have described above, I even considered returning the book for a refund, but have decided to keep it for now, and will decide later whether to just delete it.