The Psychopath Whisperer, by Dr. Kent A. Kiehl
It's hard to say I enjoyed this book, given its disturbing subject matter, but I certainly learned a lot, and found it fascinating. Dr. Kiehl has spend his career (of which he is only in the middle) using cutting edge technology to figure out how and why psychopaths are different from the rest of us. Why do they not feel empathy for their victims, or remorse for their crimes? Why does the threat of punishment not deter them in the slightest? Why can they not love, or fear, or hope, or dream, or plan anything very well at all?
It turns out that the psychopathic brain doesn't work the same as ours, and it took Dr. Kiehl many years in prisons interviewing and fMRI-scanning psychopaths to figure out just how. There's a whole section of the brain that doesn't do its job the way it does for the rest of us, and this discovery has immense implications for our legal system, as well as treatment for those affected. As the technology continues to get better, and Dr. Kiehl's lab continues to refine its techniques, we'll no doubt learn a lot more about psychopaths and their disordered brains.
Dr. Kiehl's writing leaves a bit to be desired; when describing his work, he's clear and concise and makes a complex subject very approachable. It's when he's describing his inner thought process, or narrating something from his past, that the writing becomes rather wooden and awkward. And his string of successes, at which people essentially throw money at him and his redonkulously expensive equipment, does make one wonder just how many hungry inner city kids could have been fed with the price of a single mobile fMRI. Which isn't to say his work is unimportant; psychopaths commit violent crimes at a far greater rate than the normal population, so if Dr. Kiehl's work directly reduces that human toll, it must be worth it. I wish him continued success on his journey of neurological discovery.
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It turns out that the psychopathic brain doesn't work the same as ours, and it took Dr. Kiehl many years in prisons interviewing and fMRI-scanning psychopaths to figure out just how. There's a whole section of the brain that doesn't do its job the way it does for the rest of us, and this discovery has immense implications for our legal system, as well as treatment for those affected. As the technology continues to get better, and Dr. Kiehl's lab continues to refine its techniques, we'll no doubt learn a lot more about psychopaths and their disordered brains.
Dr. Kiehl's writing leaves a bit to be desired; when describing his work, he's clear and concise and makes a complex subject very approachable. It's when he's describing his inner thought process, or narrating something from his past, that the writing becomes rather wooden and awkward. And his string of successes, at which people essentially throw money at him and his redonkulously expensive equipment, does make one wonder just how many hungry inner city kids could have been fed with the price of a single mobile fMRI. Which isn't to say his work is unimportant; psychopaths commit violent crimes at a far greater rate than the normal population, so if Dr. Kiehl's work directly reduces that human toll, it must be worth it. I wish him continued success on his journey of neurological discovery.
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