The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success by Kevin Dutton
Kevin Dutton's "The Wisdom of Psychopaths" explores the complex nature of psychopathy and suggests that certain psychopathic traits can be advantageous in various professional and social settings. Dutton argues that while extreme psychopathy can lead to antisocial and destructive behavior, moderate levels of certain psychopathic traits can confer benefits in decision-making, leadership, and stress management.
Wisdom and Key Points
Below are the wisdom shared in the book:
Functional Advantages: Dutton argues that psychopathy can offer functional advantages in specific contexts. Fearlessness, focus, lack of empathy, and mental toughness can be particularly beneficial in high-stakes environments, such as surgical rooms or leadership during crises.
Emotion Management: Psychopaths have a unique way of processing emotions, which allows them to remain detached in situations that might overwhelm others emotionally. This trait can be advantageous in professions that require objective decision-making.
Stress Resistance: Unlike the general population, psychopaths often exhibit lower stress responses in situations that might elicit high anxiety in others. This can make them effective in high-pressure roles.
Utilitarian Ethics: Psychopaths may adopt a practical approach to decision-making, focusing on outcomes that provide the greatest good for the most significant number, even if the means are harsh or unethical by conventional standards.
Social and Professional Manipulation: The ability to charm and manipulate others can be a significant advantage in fields like politics, law, or high-level business negotiations, where influencing others is critical to success.
Risk Management: Due to their inherent fearlessness and high tolerance for risk, psychopaths can excel in fields that require risk-taking, potentially leading to high rewards.
Innovation and Creativity: The lack of fear of adverse outcomes can spur psychopaths to pursue innovative and creative solutions without the constraints that fear can impose on others.
Lack of Emotional Hindrance: Since psychopaths are not hindered by emotions to the extent others are, they can make more rational, albeit sometimes cold, decisions.
Survival Instincts: Psychopaths possess strong survival instincts, which can manifest as competitiveness and the ability to remain calm and strategic in crises.
Leadership in Certain Contexts: In specific organizational contexts, psychopath characteristics such as assertiveness, strategic thinking, and the ability to remain unfazed by stress can be interpreted as strong leadership qualities.
The key points from the book:
Positive Aspects of Psychopathy: Psychopathy, in moderation, can be advantageous in fields that require fearlessness, decisiveness, and resilience.
Psychopathy in Leadership: Traits commonly found in psychopaths, such as charm and strategic thinking, are also prevalent among successful leaders and business executives.
Emotional Detachment: Psychopaths' ability to detach emotionally allows them to make more rational decisions in high-pressure situations.
Adaptability: Psychopaths thrive in chaotic environments, utilizing their traits to navigate complex situations effectively.
Cognitive Differences: Psychopaths process information and emotions differently, which can lead to both superior and dysfunctional outcomes.
Social Dynamics: Psychopaths are adept at reading social cues and manipulating situations to their advantage, often without remorse.
Biological Underpinnings: The book suggests a biological basis for psychopathy, affecting how psychopaths respond to emotional and social stimuli.
Cultural Perception: Psychopathy is often misunderstood by society, and while some psychopaths are criminals, others function effectively in high-stress professions.
Ethical Implications: Using psychopathic traits raises ethical questions, particularly in how such characteristics are cultivated and valued in various sectors of society.
Psychopathy Spectrum: Psychopathy is presented as a spectrum, with individuals exhibiting a range of traits that can be both harmful and beneficial.
Counterarguments
Ethical Dilemmas and Societal Impact
The very traits that make psychopaths effective in specific roles can also lead to significant ethical breaches. Their lack of empathy can result in decisions that harm individuals or groups, undermining ethical norms and potentially leading to legal consequences.
Sustainability of Leadership
In leadership, the initial advantages of a psychopath’s charm and strategic thinking may eventually be overshadowed by their lack of genuine emotional engagement with team members. Leadership that is purely transactional and lacks emotional intelligence may yield short-term gains but fail to inspire loyalty and long-term commitment.
Community and Relationships
At a community level, the traits of psychopathy can disrupt social cohesion. Communities thrive on mutual trust and understanding, qualities that are often lacking in psychopathic individuals. Their manipulative tendencies can undermine communal trust and contribute to a more suspicious, divided social environment.
Broader Societal Reflections
The presence of psychopathic traits in society raises essential questions about the values and structures of our communities:
Value of Empathy vs. Efficiency: How do we balance psychopathic traits' cold efficiency and boldness with the warm empathy and careful consideration that bind communities together?
Systems of Accountability: What systems can be implemented to harness the beneficial aspects of psychopathy in leadership and innovation while mitigating the risks of ethical breaches?
Education and Awareness: How can society better educate individuals and organizations about the nature of psychopathy to prevent exploitation and promote mental health awareness?
Legal and Ethical Frameworks: Enhancing legal and ethical frameworks to manage and regulate the influence of high-functioning psychopaths in critical sectors like finance, healthcare, and politics can be crucial.
Key Quotes
"Not only that, but there are times when it’s actually a good thing—when, by being a psychopath, you in fact have an advantage over other people."
"Traits that are common among psychopathic serial killers are also shared by politicians and world leaders."
"Think of psychopathic traits as the dials and sliders on a studio mixing desk."
"The psychopath, he observes, is an intelligent person, characterized by a poverty of emotions."
"Psychopathy is an emotionless void."
"Not all psychopaths are behind bars. The majority, it emerges, are out there in the workplace."
"Psychopaths don’t give a damn what their fellow citizens think of them."
"Psychopathy might well be on a spectrum."
"Far from believing that psychopaths are incapable of fear—that they’re the emotionless void that the literature traditionally paints them as—he proposes instead that actually they just don’t notice it."
"The great epochs of our lives are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities." — Friedrich Nietzsche
Other quotes
“Great and Good are seldom the same man.” —Winston Churchill
“A dead brain is very different from a living one. Outwardly, one brain may look very similar to another, but function completely differently. It’s what happens when the lights are on, not off, that tips the balance.”
“There are times when it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to be a psychopath. Not only that, but there are times when it’s actually a good thing—when, by being a psychopath, you in fact have an advantage over other people.”
“How differences in upbringing, say, or other random experiences can cause subtle changes in internal wiring and chemistry which then later account for tectonic shifts in behavior.”
“In normal members of the population, theta waves are associated with drowsy, meditative, or sleeping states. Yet in psychopaths they occur during normal waking states—even sometimes during states of increased arousal.”
“Main thing about psychopaths is the fact that on the one hand they’re so normal, so much like the rest of us—but on the other, so different.”
“Traits that are common among psychopathic serial killers a grandiose sense of self-worth, persuasiveness, superficial charm, ruthlessness, lack of remorse, and the manipulation of others—are also shared by politicians and world leaders: individuals running not from the police, but for office. Such a profile allows those who present with it to do what they like when they like, completely unfazed by the social, moral, or legal consequences of their actions.”
“Think of psychopathic traits as the dials and sliders on a studio mixing desk. If you push all of them to max, you’ll have a soundtrack that’s no use to anyone. But if the soundtrack is graded and some controls are turned up higher than others—such as fearlessness, focus, lack of empathy, and mental toughness, for example—you may well have a surgeon who’s a cut above the rest.”
“In ancestral times, the most prolific and accomplished hunters were not, as one might expect, the most bloodthirsty and indefatigable. They were, in contrast, the most cool and empathetic. They were the ones who were able to assimilate their quarry’s mindset—to see through the eyes of their prey and thus reliably predict its deft, innate trajectories of evasion, its routes, and machinations of escape.”
“A vertical stance prefigured streamlined, more efficient mobility, enabling our forebears on the African savannah to forage and hunt for considerably longer periods than quadrupedal locomotion would have allowed.”
“If there’s one thing most people agree on, it’s that psychopaths exhibit a marked absence of feeling, a singular lack of understanding of others.”
“The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”
“A number of psychopathic attributes were actually more common in business leaders than in so-called disturbed criminals—attributes such as superficial charm, egocentricity, persuasiveness, lack of empathy, independence, and focus—and that the main difference between the groups was in the more “antisocial” aspects of the syndrome: the criminals’ lawbreaking, physical aggression, and impulsivity dials (to return to our analogy of earlier) were cranked up higher.”
“Intellectual ability on its own is just an elegant way of finishing second,” one successful CEO told me. “Remember, they don’t call it a greasy pole for nothing. The road to the top is hard. But it’s easier to climb if you lever yourself up on others. Easier still if they think something’s in it for them.”
“One of London’s most successful venture capitalists agrees. In a recent interview with The Financial Times, he lists determination, curiosity, and insensitivity as his three most valuable character traits.”
“The great thing about insensitivity is that it lets you sleep when others can’t.”
“Several psychopathic traits were more prevalent among business leaders than among diagnosed criminal psychopaths.”
“It is precisely this “antisocial” wing of the disorder, comprising the elements of impulsivity and irresponsibility, that either “makes or breaks” psychopaths—that codes them, depending on how high these particular personality dials are turned up, for dysfunction or success.”
“Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism—think OCEAN—comprise the genome of human personality. We are a constellation of numbers. In the infinite algorithmic firmament of personality space, each of us has our unique coordinates depending on precisely where we fall along each of these five dimensions.”
“The psychopath is an intelligent person, characterized by a poverty of emotions, the absence of a sense of shame, egocentricity, superficial charm, lack of guilt, lack of anxiety, immunity to punishment, unpredictability, irresponsibility, manipulativeness, and a transient interpersonal lifestyle.”
“[The psychopath] is unfamiliar with the primary facts or data of what might be called personal values and is altogether incapable of understanding such matters. It is impossible for him to take even a slight interest in the tragedy or joy or the striving of humanity as presented in serious literature or art. He is also indifferent to all these matters in life itself. Beauty and ugliness, except in a very superficial sense, goodness, evil, love, horror, and humor have no actual meaning, no power to move him … He is, furthermore, lacking in the ability to see that others are moved. It is as though he were colorblind, despite his sharp intelligence, to this aspect of human existence.”
“The psychopath, it’s been said, gets the words, but not the music, of emotion.”
“Not all psychopaths are behind bars. The majority, it emerges, are out there in the workplace. And some of them are doing rather well. Not everyone who engages in habitual criminal activity is a psychopath. It’s just a small minority. The combination of low-risk aversion and lack of guilt or remorse, the two central pillars of psychopathy, may lead, depending on circumstances, to a successful career in either crime or business. Sometimes both.”
“When emotions are their primary focus, we’ve seen that psychopathic individuals show a normal [emotional] response. But when focused on something else, they become insensitive to emotions entirely.”
“The fact that conformity is built into our brains is about as nailed down an evolutionary certainty as you can get. When a herd animal is threatened by a predator, what does it do? It huddles closer to the group. As individual salience decreases, chances of survival increase. This is just as true in humans as it is in other species. Streaming behind our supersonic, turbocharged brains are ancient Darwinian vapor trails stretching all the way back to the brutal, blood-soaked killing fields of prehistory.”
“Is the capacity to stand alone, to play by one’s own rules outside the normative safe haven of society, also hardwired? There’s evidence to suggest that it is—and that a fearless, untroubled minority has evolved within our midst.”
“Sometimes, when you’re in a hostile situation, your best option is to match the aggressive intentions of a potentially violent individual. And then go one step beyond them. Raise them, in other words, to use a poker analogy. Only then, once you’ve gained the psychological ascendancy, shown them … hinted … who’s boss, can you begin to talk them down.”
Frans de Waal points out, “Instead of dominants standing out because of what they take, they affirm their position by what they give. Dominant chimpanzees, stump-tailed monkeys, and gorillas all compete by intervening in disputes among subordinates. Yet, contrary to expectation, such intervention does not, by default, automatically favor family and friends. It is implemented, as de Waal observes, “on the basis of how best to restore peace. The group looks for the most effective arbitrator in its midst, then throws its weight behind this individual to give him a broad base of support for guaranteeing peace and order.”
“Life, in its infinite complexity, doesn’t go in for one-offs. If it did, and the sum total of human existence was an endless succession of ships passing in the night, then yes, the psychopaths among us would indeed be right, and would quickly inherit the earth.”
“Each strategy is vulnerable to exploitation by the other once one has gained the ascendancy: once the proponents of one strategy become enough of a mob to be parasitized by those of the competing strategy.”
“Altruism, though undoubtedly an ingredient of basic group cohesion, is perfectly capable of arising not out of some higher-order differential such as the good of the species or even the good of the tribe, but out of a survival differential existing purely between individuals.”
“Those initial flushes of friendship and enmity, of affection and dislike, of trust and betrayal, that now, millions of years on, make us who we are.”
““Survival of the fittest” now appeared not, as had been previously thought, to reward competition indiscriminately. But rather to reward it discerningly. Under certain sets of circumstances, yes, aggression might open doors (one thinks of Jim and Buzz). But under others, in contrast, it might just as easily close them—as we saw with the saints and the shysters.”
“There’s no denying the harshness of existence, the brutal, sawn-off truth that it can, at times, be survival of the fittest out there. But this is not to say that it has to be that way. The meek, it turns out, really do inherit the earth. It’s just that along the way there are always going to be casualties. “Do unto others” has always been sound advice.”
“Speak softly and carry a big stick, goes the phrase. Good advice, if you want to get ahead—in both the virtual and the real worlds.”
“There will always be a need for risk takers in society, as there will for rule-breakers and heartbreakers. If there weren’t, ten-year-old boys would be falling into ponds and drowning all over the place.”
“Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t understand.” —Homer Simpson
“People with brain damage make better financial decisions than normal people.”
“The most successful stockbrokers might plausibly be termed ‘functional psychopaths’—individuals who on the one hand are either more adept at controlling their emotions or who, on the other, do not experience them to the same degree of intensity as others.”
“A CEO might be non-risk-averse in certain areas of business, but, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t want to walk around a rough neighborhood at night. A psychopath isn’t able to make that distinction. With a psychopath, it’s all or nothing.” Which adds a third factor to our equation: Which means, minus the algebra, that functional psychopathy is context dependent. That, in the language of personality theory, it is “state” as opposed to “trait.” And that, in the right set of circumstances, it can enhance rather than encumber the speed and quality of decision making.”
“Psychopathy was positively associated with in-house ratings of charisma and presentation style: creativity, good strategic thinking, and excellent communication skills.”
“Without doubt, there’s a greater proportion of psychopathic big hitters in the corporate world than there is in the general population. You’ll find them in any organization where your position and status afford you power and control over others, and the chance of material gain.”
“The psychopath has no difficulty dealing with the consequences of rapid change. In fact, he or she thrives on it. Organizational chaos provides both the necessary stimulation for psychopathic thrill seeking and sufficient cover for psychopathic manipulation and abusive behavior.”
“Why psychopaths are still around—the inexorable perseverance of their dark, immutable gene streams—and why the evolutionary share price in this niche personality consortium has remained stable and buoyant over time. There are positions in society, jobs and roles to fulfill, which, by their competitive, cutthroat, or chillingly coercive natures, require access to office space in precisely the kind of psychological real estate that psychopaths have the keys to, that they have on offer in their glossy neural portfolios. Given that such roles—predominantly by virtue of their inherent stress and danger—often confer great wealth, status, and prestige on the individuals who assume them, and that, as Peter Jonason showed us, bad boys seem to have a way with certain girls, it’s really not surprising that the genes have hung about. Biologically, you might say, they punch above their weight.”
“Similar charisma and coolness under pressure can also be found among those who take advantage of society—such as the world’s top con artists. And, when combined with a genius for deception, this jaw-dropping profile can be devastating.”
“Most folk you come across pay no attention to what they say when they’re talking to you. Once out, the words are gone. But a grifter will zone in on everything … Like therapy, you’re trying to get inside the person. Figure out who they are from the little things. And it’s always the little things. The devil’s in the detail … You get them to open up. Usually, by telling them something about yourself first—a good grifter always has a narrative. And then immediately change the subject. Randomly. Abruptly. It can be anything … some thought that just occurred to you out of the blue or whatever … anything to interrupt the flow of conversation. Nine times out of ten the person will completely forget what they’ve just said. Then you can get to work—not right away, you need to be patient. But a month or two later. You modify whatever it is, whatever the hell they’ve told you—you tend to know instantly where the pressure points are—and then tell the story back as if it were your own. Bam! From that point on, you can pretty much take what you want.”
“Research shows that one of the best ways of getting people to tell you about themselves is to tell them something about yourself. Self-disclosure meets reciprocity. Research also shows that if you want to stop someone from remembering something, the key is to use distraction. And, above all, to use it fast.”
“Psychopathy does indeed predict criminal success. That said, there’s a limit. A very high dose of psychopathy (all the dials turned up to max) is as bad as a very low one. Instead, it’s moderate levels that code for greater “accomplishment””
“They might also be better at controlling their emotions than others when the stakes are high and backs are against the wall, which would give them an edge not just outside the courtroom, when planning and effecting their nefarious schemes and activities. But inside it as well.”
“Psychopaths, in other words, not only have a natural talent for duplicity, but also feel the “moral pinch” considerably less than the rest of us. Not always a bad thing when the chips are down and decisions must be made under fire.”
“It’s a fine line, as Captain Woodman says, between hero and psychopath. And often it depends who’s drawing it.”
“If the psychopath can “make” out of a situation, if there’s any kind of reward on offer, they go for it, irrespective of risk or possible negative consequences. Not only do they keep their composure in the presence of threat or adversity, they become, in the shadow of such presentiment, laser-like in their ability to “do whatever it takes.””
“The great epochs of our lives are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.” —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
“Society is becoming more psychopathic.”
“A culture of honor—the readiness to take revenge—gave way to a culture of dignity—the readiness to control one’s emotions. These ideals originated in explicit instructions that cultural arbiters gave to aristocrats and noblemen, allowing them to differentiate themselves from the villains and boors. But they were then absorbed into the socialization of younger and younger children, until they became second nature. The standards also trickled down from the upper classes to the bourgeoisie that strove to emulate them, and from them to the lower classes, eventually becoming a part of the culture as a whole.”
“With infinitely more complex securities, accounting practices, and business transactions,” observes Seth Taube, a senior commercial litigation lawyer, “it’s much easier to hide fraud. It is psychopaths, who are to blame for the global financial crisis, because their “single-minded pursuit of their own self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement to the exclusion of all other considerations has led to an abandonment of the old-fashioned concept of noblesse oblige, equality, fairness, or of any real notion of corporate social responsibility.””
“Reading a book carves brand new neural pathways into the ancient cortical bedrock of our brains. It transforms the way we see the world. Makes us, as Nicholas Carr puts it in his recent essay “The Dreams of Readers,” “more alert to the inner lives of others.” We become vampires without being bitten—in other words, more empathic. Books make us see in a way that casual immersion in the Internet, and the quicksilver virtual world it offers, doesn’t”
“Whether we’re “good” or whether we’re “bad” lies partly in our genes, and partly in our environment.”
“The brain operates using electrical signals, and that, as with any such system, it’s possible to modify the way it works by altering its electrical environment.”
“We talk about gender. We talk about class. We talk about color. And intelligence. And creed. But the most fundamental difference between one individual and another must surely be that of the presence, or absence, of conscience.”
“The imagined, potential reality is significantly more discomfiting than the real one. This explains, of course, our unquenchable urge to procrastinate much of the time. But psychopaths never procrastinate.”
Seven core principles of psychopathy that, apportioned judiciously and applied with due care and attention, can help us get exactly what we want; can help us respond, rather than react, to the challenges of modern-day living; can transform our outlook from victim to victor, but without turning us into a villain:
1. Ruthlessness
2. Charm
3. Focus
4. Mental toughness
5. Fearlessness
6. Mindfulness
7. Action
+ PSYCHOPATHY – PSYCHOPATHY1. CEO 1. Care Aide
2. Lawyer 2. Nurse
3. Media (TV/Radio) 3. Therapist
4. Salesperson 4. Craftsperson
5. Surgeon 5. Beautician/Stylist
6. Journalist 6. Charity Worker
7. Police Officer 7. Teacher
8. Clergyperson 8. Creative Artist
9. Chef 9. Doctor
10. Civil Servant 10. Accountant
“Psychopathy (if that’s what you want to call it) is like a medicine for modern times. If you take it in moderation, it can prove extremely beneficial. It can alleviate a lot of existential ailments that we would otherwise fall victim to because our fragile psychological immune systems just aren’t up to the job of protecting us. But if you take too much of it, if you overdose on it, then there can, as is the case with all medicines, be some rather unpleasant side effects.”
“The problem with a lot of people is that what they think is a virtue is actually a vice in disguise. It’s much easier to convince yourself that you’re reasonable and civilized than soft and weak.”
“Good men sleep peacefully in their beds at night,” George Orwell once pointed out, “because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
“The psychopath’s capacity for charm is, needless to say, well documented. As is their ability to focus and “get the job done.” It goes without saying that it’s a powerful, and smart, combination—and one that all of us could benefit from using.”
“People are as nice as you make them, which, of course, gives you a heck of a lot of power over them.”
“If you climb into the ring hell-bent on knocking the other chap into the middle of next week, chances are you’re going to come unstuck. But if, on the other hand, you concentrate on winning the fight, simply focus on doing your job, well, you might just knock him into the middle of next week anyway.”
“No one has it all their own way. Everyone, at some point or other, “leaves someone on the floor.”
“Give rejection the finger and rejection gives it back.”
“The majority of life’s risk takers tend to score higher on tests of general “mental toughness” than those who are risk averse, with scores on the challenge/openness-to-experience subscale being the single biggest predictor of physical risk taking, and scores on the confidence subscale being the biggest predictor of psychological risk taking. Both of which qualities psychopaths have in abundance.”
“It’s not the violence that breaks you. It’s the threat of violence. That carcinogenic thought process that something terrible is going to happen. And that it’s just around the corner. If you don’t have fear to start with, you don’t need courage to overcome it.”
“Next time you’re in a situation where you’re scared, just think: ‘Imagine I didn’t feel this way. What would I do then?’ And then just do it anyway.”
“The really good traders—the kind of guys that you’re interested in—will have no compunction at all about getting out. About the whys and wherefores, the pros and cons—about whether it’s right or wrong.”
“Psychopaths need to do something. Nothing just isn’t an option.”
“It was rather about being a method psychopath. About being able to step into character when the situation demanded it. But then, when the exigency had passed, to revert to one’s normal persona.”
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”” —HUNTER S. THOMPSON
“The mindset that separates the great from the good in some critical situations, the living from the dead is inherently psychopathic in nature. And also inherently spiritual.”
“The first component [of mindfulness] involves the self-regulation of attention so that it is maintained on immediate experience, thereby allowing for increased recognition of mental events in the present moment. The second component involves adopting a particular orientation toward one’s experiences in the present moment, an orientation that is characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance.”
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.” - Shunryu Suzuki
“Some psychopathic attributes—stoicism, the ability to regulate emotion, to live in the moment, to enter altered states of awareness, to be heroic, fearless, yes, even empathic—are also inherently spiritual in nature, and not only improve one’s own well-being, but also that of others.”
““Play like it means nothing, when it means everything,” replied the snooker legend Steve Davis when he was asked to spill the beans on sporting greatness. “Let go” of bad shots—and, for that matter, good ones—and focus your attention 100 percent on the next one.”
“When the stakes are high and backs are against the wall, it’s a psychopath you want alongside you. But if there’s nothing to play for and you’re on an even keel, forget it. Psychopaths switch off, and take just as much time getting the show on the road as the rest of us.”
“There is also a lot of evidence to show that, once someone gets to a certain level of skill, it is the differences in their psychological approach that differentiates people at the very top.”
“It isn’t so much the case that psychopaths don’t feel anxiety in certain situations, but rather that they just don’t notice the threat. Their attention is focused purely on the task at hand, and extraneous distractors are ruthlessly filtered out.”
“When the person asking for help was at their most vulnerable, and yet at the same time didn’t endeavor to proactively solicit aid, the psychopaths came up with the goods. When it really mattered, they were significantly more likely to step up to the plate than were their (supposedly, at least) warmer, more empathic counterparts.”
W. Somerset Maugham in Of Human Bondage. “Man performs actions because they are good for him, and when they are good for other people as well, they are thought virtuous … It is for your private pleasure that you give two pence to a beggar as much as it is for my private pleasure that I drink another whiskey and soda. I, less of a humbug than you, neither applaud myself for my pleasure nor demand your admiration.”
“The decision to act heroically is a choice that many of us will be called upon to make at some point in our lives. It means not being afraid of what others might think. It means not being afraid of the fallout for ourselves. It means not being afraid of putting our necks on the line.”
“Two very different types of psychopaths: those who had poor impulse control, low IQ, and little empathy (the Henry Lee Lucas type); and those who had better impulse control, high IQ, a sadistic motivation, and heightened empathy (the Ted Bundy or, if you like, Hannibal Lecter type).”
“Not all psychopaths, it would seem, are color-blind. Some see the stop sign in exactly the same way as the rest of us. It’s just that they choose to run the light.”
“Psychopaths showed greater empathy than non-psychopaths.”
Insight
The Functional Psychopath
Dutton introduces the concept of the "functional psychopath," an individual who possesses certain psychopathic traits such as fearlessness, mental toughness, and a strategic mind but does not engage in the antisocial or destructive behaviors typically associated with psychopathy. This idea challenges the conventional view of psychopaths as inherently dangerous or criminal. Instead, Dutton argues that these individuals can thrive in high-stakes environments like surgery, law, and business, where their ability to remain calm under pressure and make unfazed decisions is a significant asset.
Psychopathy and Professional Success
The book explores how the traits that characterize psychopathy can lead to professional success. Dutton discusses how charm, strategic thinking, and ruthlessness can be advantageous in corporate and political arenas. He suggests that the corporate world, in particular, can sometimes favor individuals who can manipulate social situations or who exhibit a strong sense of self-worth and independence—traits often found in psychopaths.
Ethical Implications
One of the more provocative aspects of Dutton's thesis is the ethical implication of valuing psychopathic traits in leaders and professionals. While these traits can lead to effective leadership and innovative strategies, they can also foster environments where ethical lines are blurred or ignored. Dutton prompts readers to consider the moral cost of success achieved through manipulation or emotional detachment.
Biological Underpinnings and Societal Impact
Dutton discusses the biological aspects of psychopathy, suggesting that these traits are not just psychological but have a neurobiological basis. This perspective raises questions about the role of nature versus nurture in shaping a psychopath and the extent to which society should hold individuals accountable for traits that are biologically ingrained.
Psychopathy in Culture and Society
The book also examines how society views and deals with psychopaths, noting that while some psychopaths are criminals, many others manage to use their traits in socially acceptable ways. Dutton explores how cultural perceptions of psychopathy could change if we focus more on the spectrum of traits and their potential benefits rather than just the negative outcomes.
Spectrum and Scalability
Dutton's concept of psychopathy as a spectrum is crucial for understanding his arguments. Not everyone with psychopathic traits exhibits them to the same degree, and the context in which these traits are displayed can significantly affect their impact. This view encourages a more nuanced approach to understanding and managing psychopathic traits in individuals.
Conclusion
"The Wisdom of Psychopaths" by Kevin Dutton provides a nuanced view of psychopathy, challenging the typical negative stereotypes associated with the disorder. Dutton's work suggests that certain psychopathic traits can be beneficial and are often prevalent in successful individuals across various fields. The book encourages reevaluating how we view these traits within societal and professional contexts, proposing that understanding and harnessing certain aspects of psychopathy could lead to better outcomes in leadership, decision-making, and personal resilience. However, it also cautions against the dangers of their misuse, emphasizing the ethical considerations and potential consequences of celebrating or promoting psychopathic behavior without restraint.