This is the memoir of a sociopath, Patric Gagne, who is also a clinical psychologist and advocate for people suffering from sociopathic, psychopathic, and anti-social personality disorders.
Patric knew from an early age that she didn’t feel things the way other children did. She didn’t feel guilt or empathy, but often she used to feel pressure building up inside her brain which she could only release by doing something ‘bad’. Badness consisted of stealing into houses when nobody was home and taking little trinkets, or such as sneaking out of a house as a little girl where she had been at a slumber party and walking home by herself in the dark when everyone in the house was asleep. She tried hard, with limited success, not to cause physical harm when the pressure was building up. As she grew older her bad episodes changed and she got away with a lot of more ‘risky business’, to borrow a phrase.
Patric’s self-awareness gave her the ability to observe her own behaviour and regret the unhappiness it caused her mother, while at the same time being unable to experience guilt or empathy. I love reading psychological studies and this one was exceptionally interesting because of its being in the form of a memoir. Patric is clever and funny and is obviously loved by people close to her. She is awfully honest, for a self-confessed liar. Her aim is to help other sociopaths understand the condition and know how to deal with it through therapy and treatment.
This is a memoir like no other I have ever read. It is brave and fearless and absolutely memorable for that.
Published by Pan Macmillan
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