Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

Explaining that most studies on psychopathy are undertaken in prison, the author relates his encounters with a prisoner he calls “Ray.” After earning a master’s degree in psychology in the early 1960s, Hare’s first job was as a psychologist at the British Columbia Penitentiary. Ray was his first client, and Hare was immediately struck by the prisoner’s intense energy and eye contact. The author sensed Ray was testing him when he produced a knife and revealed he intended to stab another inmate. Hare did not report the incident as he wanted to gain the prisoner’s trust. However, in hindsight, he recognizes that Ray saw this as a weakness he could exploit. From then on, Ray monopolized his time, making constant demands. When Hare supported his request to transfer from the machine shop (where he had made the knife) to the kitchen, Ray used the opportunity to secretly distill alcohol. Hare then supported Ray’s transfer to the auto shop. Each time, Ray persuaded him that the change of environment would support his rehabilitation. Hare was on the brink of getting Ray a roofing job with his father on release when the other staff revealed they had all been manipulated by Ray in the past. He was shocked by Ray’s “nastiness” when he turned down the request.

Before leaving the prison to begin a doctorate, Hare bought a cheap car from a prison officer and had it repaired in the prison’s auto shop. On the journey to Ontario with his wife and young daughter, the car’s brakes failed. An inspection of the car revealed the brake line had been cut, and ball bearings were found in the carburetor. Hare suspected that Ray was responsible.

After completing his doctorate, Hare got a job at the University of British Columbia. During registration week, he overheard a new student claiming to have worked as his assistant in prison. Ray was unphased when Hare confronted him, and his transcript of qualifications was proven fraudulent. Hare spent the next 25 years researching what motivated individuals like Ray to serially manipulate and deceive others.

Hare acknowledges there are amusing aspects to Ray’s story. However, he has heard many distressing reports of psychopaths since. One example is the story of Elsa, a divorcee who met Dan when she was lonely. Dan quickly moved in with Elsa. Although he claimed to be a United Nations translator, he brought home electrical appliances, claiming he was storing them for a friend. Regularly going missing, he would return smelling of alcohol and perfume and became aggressive if she asked where he had been. He would then coax her into trusting him again. One evening, Elsa asked Dan if he would mind getting some ice cream from the local store. Furious at the request, Dan left and never returned.

The chapter concludes with the story of twins Ariel and Alice. The girls’ parents, Helen and Steve, noticed their daughters’ contrasting personalities from a young age. Ariel was well-behaved, while Alice was always in trouble. Helen and Steve had the persistent feeling there was something wrong with Alice. When their kitten was found strangled, they suspected Alice was responsible. While Ariel went to law school, Alice supported her drug addiction with theft and sex work. Her parents paid for bail and recovery programs on numerous occasions. At the age of 30, Alice remained a source of anxiety. Doctors and psychiatrists had failed to come up with a diagnosis or effective treatment plan. Helen and Steve were left wondering, “Is [Alice] crazy? Or just plain bad?” (20).

Hare argues that the “mad or bad” question is crucial when addressing the legal responsibility of psychopaths. Defining whether psychopaths who commit crimes do so deliberately establishes how they are treated by the criminal justice system. If considered to have a mental illness, they are the responsibility of psychiatric institutes. However, if their actions are calculated, they belong in prison.

Much of the misunderstanding of psychopathy stems from the word itself, which translates from the Greek as “mental illness (from psyche, ‘mind’; and pathos, ‘disease’)” (21). Also, the word “psycho” is generically used in the media to convey extreme mental illness or delusion. However, Hare explains that psychopaths do not experience delusions, hallucinations, or any other form of psychosis. Fully aware of their motivations and actions, they exercise free will. A person who killed someone while suffering from schizophrenic delusions would be judged insane and hospitalized. Meanwhile, a psychopathic killer would be sent to prison. Many people struggle with this concept, as psychopaths’ actions seem incomprehensible and, therefore, “insane” to most people. However, psychopaths do not have mental illnesses “in the legal or the psychiatric sense of the term” (22).

Edward Gein is an example of a serial killer who had a mental illness. Gein ate victims and created clothes, lampshades, and masks from their skin. His crimes were the basis for fictional representations of serial killers in The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, most serial killers do not have mental illnesses, despite the atrocity of their crimes. Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy were diagnosed as psychopaths and, therefore, legally judged sane. Hare reveals that it has taken centuries to establish this distinction.

The terms psychopath and sociopath are often used synonymously, even among researchers and clinicians. Hare suggests that the term sociopath is sometimes preferred, as it does not possess the linguistic connotations of psychosis and mental illness. Consequently, it is possible for the same patient to receive different diagnoses. The introduction of the term antisocial personality disorder as synonymous with both sociopathy and psychopathy has created further diagnostic confusion. Introduced in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1980, antisocial personality disorder is diagnosed by identifying “a cluster of criminal behaviors” (24). These behaviors are easier to accurately assess than an individual’s character traits. However, Hare argues that clinicians use ASPD and psychopathy interchangeably. This is misleading, as psychopathy involves “a cluster of both personality traits and socially deviant behaviors” (25). Furthermore, many psychopaths have not been convicted of crimes.

Hare outlines the history of psychopathy research. In the early 19th century, Philippe Pinel was one of the first psychiatrists to focus on psychopathy, defining it as “insanity without delirium” (25). A World War II investigation into how soldiers ended up in an army detention center revealed the negative role of psychopaths during the conflict. Soldiers with psychopathy were fixated on their own goals, unmindful of the welfare of fellow soldiers, and were more likely to desert. They were also reckless in battle and, therefore, had a greater chance of being killed. This discovery underlined the need to accurately identify psychopaths in the army selection process. Hare points out that the truth about psychopaths in warfare contrasts with the Hollywood trope “[t]urn a psychopath inside out, and you find a hero” (25). This concept is exemplified in the 1967 movie The Dirty Dozen, in which a group of criminals heroically succeed in a dangerous World War II mission.

Hervey Cleckley’s 1941 book The Mask of Sanity marked a breakthrough in psychopathy research. Providing the first checklist of psychopathic traits and case studies of his patients, Cleckley emphasized the importance of identifying psychopaths as they pose a danger to society. The American psychiatrist outlined his patients’ inability to learn from experience as they repeated the same crimes. He also described the ability of psychopaths to manipulate others, persuading judges they should be in psychiatric hospitals rather than prison and talking their way into release. Cleckley compared the absence of empathy and a moral compass in psychopaths to color blindness. By raising awareness of psychopathic traits, Cleckley wanted to protect the public from harm.

Hare’s research began in the 1960s in the University of British Columbia’s psychology department when diagnosing psychopaths was still a gray area. His studies were conducted in prisons and complicated by the inmates’ tendency to lie in psychological tests. Many prisoners knew how to fake responses to indicate mental illness or suggest they were suitable for parole. Consequently, Hare and his fellow clinicians developed other means to identify psychopaths based on Cleckley’s work. Hare created a diagnostic tool for psychopathy, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), now used by practitioners worldwide. The checklist allows medical professionals to distinguish psychopaths from individuals displaying criminal behaviors or antisocial traits.

Hare lists the character traits and interpersonal characteristics of psychopathy. Psychopaths are glib and superficial, egocentric and grandiose, deceitful and manipulative, possess shallow emotions, and lack remorse, guilt, and empathy. However, the author emphasizes that readers should not attempt to diagnose themselves or others. Diagnosis is a complex process that requires clinical training to identify “a cluster of related symptoms” (34).

The glibness and superficiality of psychopaths often translate into a likable or even charming façade. They are often amusing, articulate, and convincing, telling long stories and falsely claiming specialist knowledge. These traits can be hard to identify without knowing the individual well. Psychopaths are also unconcerned by the exposure of their lies. Hare illustrates these characteristics with the case of Jeffrey R. MacDonald, a physician who killed his wife and children. Before his trial, MacDonald convinced writer Joe McGinniss of his innocence. McGinniss’s book Fatal Vision (1983) recounts how the writer was fooled into liking and trusting MacDonald before realizing he was guilty. During the trial, MacDonald’s glibness was evident in the way he described the horrific deaths of his family.

Egocentricity and grandiosity are displayed in a psychopath’s overinflated sense of worth, pomposity, and belief that they are justified in following their own set of rules. Consequently, they often decide to defend themselves at trial “with disastrous results” (38). Despite an unshakable belief in their own abilities, psychopaths are rarely capable of achieving meaningful goals. Successes usually involve exploiting someone else.

Psychopaths are often honest about their lack of guilt. Before his execution, Ted Bundy, who killed up to a hundred women, stated that he felt no remorse and believed guilt was an unhealthy control mechanism. Psychopaths frequently make up excuses for their actions, such as amnesia, blackouts, or temporary mental illness. They also minimize the impact of their actions on others, often presenting themselves as victims. After battering his wife to death, dentist Kenneth Taylor complained of missing her, stating that no one understood his pain.

Psychopaths have no insight into other people’s inner lives or feelings. Attuned to the vulnerabilities of others, they view them as deserving targets of exploitation. Furthermore, they are likely to view “family members as possessions” (45). For example, a woman who permitted her boyfriend to sexually abuse her five-year-old daughter argued that the child belonged to her.

Psychopaths’ talent for deceit and manipulation is illustrated by a research subject of Hare’s who saw a couple admiring a boat for sale and claimed to own it. The couple handed over a deposit check of $1,500. Serial killer Ted Bundy further illustrates the psychopath’s ability to convince others into unwise behavior, persuading his female victims to get into a vehicle with a stranger. Bundy often used crutches or an arm sling as props, realizing that young women were more likely to be deceived if he appeared “temporarily disabled.” Good-looking and charming, Bundy studied psychology at college and worked as a counselor on the college crisis hotline. In Anne Rule’s book The Stranger Beside Me, the author analyzes Bundy’s convincing facade, revealing she worked on the same crisis line as the serial killer and found it hard to believe he was a murderer.

Hare describes the shallow emotions of psychopaths, explaining that their understanding of most feelings is primitive and based on their own needs or desires. During Hare’s research, a psychopath who robbed a bank noted the bank teller’s fear with curiosity, describing how she shook and could barely speak. Experiments prove that psychopaths do not experience the unpleasant bodily sensations that accompany fear (sweating, a pounding heart, butterflies in the stomach, etc.). In non-psychopaths, these physiological responses prompt avoidance of situations that are likely to be dangerous. Hare offers the lawyer Norman Russell Sjonborg as an example of a psychopath’s shallow affect. Sjonborg brutally killed a client he had defrauded and showed no emotion afterward. At his trial, Sjonborg’s wife described how her husband admitted he did not feel emotions and learned “appropriate emotional responses” from books (54).

Hare describes the typically unstable lifestyle of the psychopath, involving antisocial behavior that transgresses society’s rules. The author explains that this behavior, combined with the character traits listed in Chapter 3, “provide[s] a comprehensive picture of the psychopathic personality” (57).

Psychopaths are impulsive, rarely considering the consequences of their actions. They do not learn to modify their desire for immediate gratification and often break off relationships or quit jobs on a whim. One of Hare’s research subjects described going to the gas station to buy beer and committing an impromptu violent robbery when he realized he had forgotten his wallet. Psychopaths do not worry about the future or their lack of progress in life.

Psychopaths lack the inhibitory controls that prevent most people from becoming aggressive when angry. They are short-tempered, easily offended, and often react to failure or criticism with violence or verbal abuse. However, these angry outbursts are brief, and psychopaths quickly return to their usual demeanor. For example, a prisoner who was accidentally nudged by another inmate brutally assaulted the offender before returning to his place in the dinner line. Hare emphasizes that such aggressive behavior is not a loss of control, as psychopaths are aware of their actions in these situations and are not driven by intense emotions.

A craving for excitement is another characteristic of psychopaths. This urge manifests in numerous ways, such as drug taking, flitting from one relationship to another, or committing crimes. Psychopaths’ aversion to monotony and routine makes them unsuited to work that is repetitive or requires sustained concentration.

An irresponsible attitude toward commitments and obligations also characterizes psychopathy. Consequently, psychopaths often have poor credit histories and make unreliable partners, employees, and parents. This trait is illustrated by Diane Downs, who claimed to love the young children she neglected and shot. Psychopaths also routinely exploit family and friends financially. Hare notes that psychopaths have been known to manipulate others into becoming criminal accomplices. In his true crime book In Cold Blood, Truman Capote highlights how Richard Hickock utilized the violent propensities of Perry Smith to kill four members of the same family.