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Without Conscience
- The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Health & Wellness, Psychology & Mental Health
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Publisher's Summary
Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. With their flagrant criminal violation of society's rules, serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are among the most dramatic examples of the psychopath. Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. Perhaps most frightening, they often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets. Presenting a compelling portrait of these dangerous men and women based on 25 years of distinguished scientific research, Dr. Robert D. Hare vividly describes a world of con artists, hustlers, rapists, and other predators who charm, lie, and manipulate their way through life. Are psychopaths mad, or simply bad? How can they be recognized? And how can we protect ourselves? This book provides solid information and surprising insights for anyone seeking to understand this devastating condition.
Critic Reviews
Featured Article: The Best Audiobooks About Psychopaths
There's no denying the allure of psychopaths. There's something disturbing but fascinating about people so ruthless and manipulative, who lack the ability to feel guilt or remorse over their actions. Stories of psychopaths abound in just about every mystery subgenre, from action-packed thrillers to nuanced psychological character studies, and also stand out in works of psychology and neuroscience. Listen to some of the most riveting books about psychopaths.
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What listeners say about Without Conscience
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Douglas
- 03-01-12
When I gave up on books that supposedly would...
tell me how to avoid getting taken advantage of (like the moronic How To Deal With Difficult People) and the worse than useless In Sheep's Clothing), I decided to take a look at the opposite end of the problem--the manipulators themselves: a much better idea, as it turns out. Without Conscience provides a nicely developed portrait of the psychopath, people born without the ability to empathize and register normal human feelings, even though they can imitate them convincingly enough to con and abuse others. (There are an estimated 2 million psychopaths among us in the US, and they are not to be confused with their most extreme representative: the serial killer. Chances are you know or have known a psychopath.) The neurology represented in this book is a bit behind the current wisdom and for better information about the brain's role in psychopathy, one might read The Science Of Evil and The Tell-Tale Brain. Overall, Without Conscience is a very useful book for understanding the serious manipulator and how to deal with him/her.
94 people found this helpful
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- PhreshMeet
- 03-26-12
Father of a certain school of thought
This book was written twenty years ago but the concepts are not dated. Hare developed the Hare Checklist for Psychopathy that has gained wider and wider acceptance as time has gone on. Your life has been touched by a psychopath/sociopath. The significance of that influence likely determines how interested you are in the subject. If your interest is high you must read this book as a seminal work on the subject. If your interest is somewhat lower, I would recommend the more recently written The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout.
50 people found this helpful
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- Cathi
- 11-28-11
Interesting and disturbing at once
The book is an astounding portrait of the psychopath, with lengthy descriptions of how they act, how they think, and how they see the world. The author clearly knows what he is talking about and the narrator is fluent with excellent diction and tone.
The multiple examples are engaging and easy to relate to.
I did find it a little repetitive towards the end.
My main dissatisfaction, though, stems from the book's inconclusiveness. The author paints this very detailed picture of this major problem but then offers little practical advice on how to deal with it both as individuals or as a society. I would have liked more concrete advice.
35 people found this helpful
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- ComputerBastard
- 07-25-12
The Definitive Work on Psychopathy
Hare created this genre of non-fiction and remains the master all others attempt to imitate. I originally purchased this book in paperback form many years ago, read it 2-3 times, and then lent it to a friend who never returned it. It was worthwhile enough for me to buy the audiobook format.
Hare was responsible for developing the gold standard in the identification of psychopathic personalities. This is a standard currently in-use across the criminal justice system worldwide. The author clearly distinguishes the characteristics of psychopathy, and discusses at length the way these individuals move amongst us in society. This book is objective, non-sensationalized, and presented in a to-the-point and interesting way that is both satisfying and enlightening for the layman. Advice for dealing with potential psychopaths at both the societal/institutional and personal levels are also informatively presented. This isn't your typical black-art psych book - Hare backs his conclusions up with solid research and decades of inventorying verifiable psychopaths from the nation's prison system.
Read it and see if you can pick out the psychopaths in your life.
31 people found this helpful
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- Debbie
- 03-18-13
Excellent Research, Sociopath Next Door Better
While Dr. Hare is the authority on psychopaths, and I gained a full understanding of what a psychopath is from his book, I found that his research dealt much more with the criminal element. The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout was more helpful to me, as it covers more of the day to day people we are in contact with every day . . . the ones we work with and for, go to school with and unfortunately have personal relationships with. I can now spot one a mile away. Wish I knew then what I know now . . .
17 people found this helpful
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- Randall D. Raymond
- 02-16-12
Fascinating book on a fascinating subject
I have long been fascinated with the subject of psychopathy, and this book covers the subject well. Dr. Hare obviously knows his subject well, and is able to communicate his knowledge to a lay audience.
9 people found this helpful
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- LL Terry
- 04-23-12
Interesting, but Self Absorbed
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Yes, but you only need to read/listen to half of it. It's very repetitive.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The whole concept is interesting and he does get much credit for his "psychopath" test. No question there. But nothing really new after that.
Any additional comments?
I read the Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout first. Her book was newer (2007 compared to 1999) and referred to this one so I decided to give it a try. This book was a bit too self-congratulatory for me and repetitive without giving insight or answering basic questions. It's more a series of the author's experiences and how revolutionary he was in drafting the psychopath test. Stout's book went more into possible causes, contrasting and comparing which gave one things to think about. Maybe it was unfair to compare Hare's book to Stout, but I really got tired of him halfway through and I find this subject matter riveting. Based on the first book, I would have second thoughts about listening/reading a second book of his.
22 people found this helpful
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- Linda
- 10-01-12
A glimpse into the mind of a psychopath
Amazing that some people really have no regard for others. I used to believe that people had a natural caring for others, especially their own family members and spouse. Now I realize some people lack the ability to have feelings of caring. I seem to have had the misfortune of having a parent and a husband who fit the description. I always wondered if they were just plain mean, or if they were mentally ill. This book does an excellent job of describing what actually happens in the mind of a psychopath. I'm happy that I got this book. I have a better understanding of this problem than I ever had before, and I no longer have to wonder what I did wrong. By the way, I'm now happily married to a great guy who treats me well and is not a psychopath.
13 people found this helpful
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- David
- 04-24-14
Martha Stout's book is better
This was not a very good book. Having listened to several audiobooks about psychopaths, notably Martha Stout's The Sociopath Next Door and Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test, I think the lesson learned here is that journalists are better writers than academics.
Criminal psychologist Robert Hare is famous for having devised the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, which is referenced several times by Stout and Ronson. However, in this book he spends entirely too much time talking about how much research he's done and how clever he is to have formulated this unique way of studying and understanding psychopaths, yet the actual evidence he cites is largely anecdotal and even speculative at times. I started to doubt the doc's credibility about the third time he used fictional characters (e.g., Hannibal Lecter, Buffalo Bill) to make a point.
He does this throughout Without Conscience: he will describe psychopathic behavior, and then use a sensationalist example, often from a movie! He talks about psychopaths as if they are monsters who are practically a separate species. Granted, many psychopaths, even those who aren't murderers, are monsters. But it hardly seems useful or truly serving the cause of truthful inquiry to dwell on how horrible psychopaths are, using serial killers as the primary examples, even though Hare himself admits that serial killers are an extreme minority of psychopaths, rather than addressing more interesting and informative questions like how to identify psychopaths and what to do about them.
Martha Stout and Jon Ronson cover much the same ground, and while of course they talk about the most spectacular, cruel, and flamboyant psychopaths as well — serial killers, bigamists, con-men, etc. — they do both more entertainingly and with a little more sense of balance, addressing the fact that most psychopaths, while horrible people to deal with, live fairly ordinary lives (often miserable ones), doing as much damage to themselves as others. Whereas Hare seems to want everyone to hire a professional like himself and apply the Hare Psychopathy Checklist whenever you suspect you're dealing with a psychopath, which could be anyone who exhibits any psychopathic behaviors.
Here is where Hare's book also seems to flounder: he uses many examples of psychopathic behavior, and conflates them with psychopaths. Rapists, for example, are "often" psychopaths, he says. Yet while noting that not all rapists are psychopaths and not all psychopaths are rapists, Hare then goes on to describe rape as a crime that is typical of a psychopathic mindset, the extreme lack of empathy for others, the lack of impulse control, etc. Okay, and? What does this actually tell us about the relationship between rape and psychopathy?
He makes vague assertions about how various crimes, from stock market manipulation to government fraud and abuse to violent crime, "may" be the result of psychopaths, and that this is evident of the massive social and economic damage psychopaths do. Well, yes, I'm sure a lot of Wall Street predators and street-level grifters and conniving, bad people everywhere in-between are psychopaths, but not all of them, so just how many are and what is the measurable contribution of psychopaths to our social ills? It's impossible to say, but Hare just hints that psychopaths are becoming more common, as evidenced by how much "worse" society is getting - again, with no evidence.
The few chapters that were interesting and informative were those that talked about what makes a psychopath's brain different — they seem to often have linguistic mannerisms like misusing words or inventing neologisms, and they also seem to often have poor impulse control, an inability to control themselves even when they may be very smart and quite capable of foreseeing the consequences of their actions. This would also explain why psychopaths tend to get caught out eventually, whether they are serial killers or just that lying manipulator in your office who's always telling stories behind people's back.
Hare does not offer much hope for the treatment of psychopaths, since he points out the condition seems to start in childhood, if not at birth, and no form of behavioral therapy actually changes them: at best, you might convince a psychopath to "play by the rules" so long as they are convinced it's in their best interests.
Overall, while there were some interesting bits and a very comprehensive description of psychopathy, Without Conscience appeared to me to be scientifically weak, too much a vehicle for Robert Hare to promote himself and his work, and not as good as other books that have covered the same subject.
31 people found this helpful
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- Angie
- 06-04-12
Well researched
This is the book that will reveal the dark side of people. A must read to survive the society the we live in.
12 people found this helpful
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- Heidi
- 10-07-14
fascinating
Would you listen to Without Conscience again? Why?
Yes read it over 20 yes ago . Brilliant.
What did you like best about this story?
No nonsense no drama
What does Paul Boehmer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
Clear vocals
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
not that kind of book
Any additional comments?
don't feel you need to be a forensic professional to enjoy this book
3 people found this helpful
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- Yoni
- 04-27-15
Eye opening
This is a fascinating book. Really makes you think and very accessible. Great listen. Look forward to hearing more.
2 people found this helpful
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- EtherealWizard
- 04-13-13
The Psychpoath
As a post graduate Psychology student, trained counsellor and presently 3rd year undergraduate Mental Health Nurse, this audio book has been invaluable in furthering my understanding of a person deemed to be a psychopath. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone curious to glean a better understanding as to the working mind and behaviour of people classified with this unfortunate condition. Although difficult to treat, this condition can be treated and people can improve their lives.
7 people found this helpful
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- Ms. Deborah Klayman
- 01-05-17
Fantastic book, terrible narration
This is a fantastic, fascinating book. Unfortunately the narration is terrible - it sounds computer generated. I'm going to buy the book instead as it was very hard to listen to.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 05-08-22
Great book on the nature of psychopathy!
Great book on the nature of psychopathy, from an academic angle. Full of real situations, followed by quotes from sociopaths, giving insight to their varying motivations and thinking. Allthough old, this book doesnt feel outdated, as it describes the behavior and reasoning of psychopaths.
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- Marty
- 06-05-21
everyone should read
Great insight into the mind of a psychopath.
A very interesting book if not a bit sobering.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-14-20
brilliant
Great inside story of how psychopaths act and can treat people. a great read all round.
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- bancomonkey
- 10-12-20
worth a listen
interesting enough content. was not too impressed with the narrator. Still worth listening to though.
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- Bernadette Mulcahy
- 09-22-20
The A to Z Guide to Understand a Psychopath.
The narration of this book by its author was excellent. Most especially that the author took the time to explain complex issues within Psychopathy in user friendly 'layman term' throughout. I have a special interest in the subject matter, therefore it was a brilliant, insightful and informative read based on facts. I found it difficult to put this book down. If one has ever had the 'Brutal Torpedo' that IS a Psychopath rip into and through one's life, emotional and financial stability - I would strongly advise you to read this book. For those left behind when the 'Psychopath is finished with you', there is much validation, understanding and healing to be had from this book. I would like to thank the author for writing this book and sharing his knowledge, thus enabling people such as myself to recover on a much more deeper level.
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-12-20
Terrible narration, and needs updating
I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time because of my work as a social worker. This is the only reason I persisted with such terrible narration. It was as if the text was being read by a computer. I particularly hate the way he said “psychopath” which is difficult, in a book about psychopaths. As I listened, the phrase ‘to a man with a hammer, every problem is a nail’ popped into my head. At times, the book felt a little like it was scaremongering as if there is a psychopath lurking around every corner, and yet in 20 years of social work including in a prison I think I have only met one or two who would fully meet the criteria. I am sure for those who have lived with a psychopath this book would be a validating experience. It certainly needs to be updated, many of the references were really out of date as of course was the research. Nevertheless, an interesting read into how to spot one if you have the misfortune of meeting one.
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- Ken
- 10-18-21
Very useful.
I really enjoyed this. Very enlightening. Well written, consistently interesting and helpful. My sincere condolences to anyone reading this book for insight on a friend or family member though. Sounds like a pretty awful situation.
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- Meaghan Quinn
- 04-21-21
Fascinating!
This audio book is nothing short of outstanding. I found it to be absolutely fascinating, yet incredibly disturbing, that people like the ones Robert Hare describes actually exist in this world. I highly recommend this book for those that are interested in this sort of topic - there were a lot of “Oh My God” and eyebrow raising moments!! Loved it :)
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- Anonymous User
- 12-11-20
brilliant
loved it, kept me interested the whole way through the audio book . highly recommended particularly for those who work with psychopaths
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- Kellie Davis
- 11-16-19
Brilliant
And absolutely life changing
I’m both enlightened and devastated at the same time
A must read
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- Lisa
- 10-09-19
a book i will listen to more than once.
if you think you may have a psychopath in your life, this is a must listen to.
anyone interested in criminology or psychology, this will most likely be on your list of must listen to books.
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- Julie Lowe
- 07-02-18
I love this book.
Best book written on psychopathy. Easy to understand. I can listen to it again and again.
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- Kim
- 02-10-18
Amazing! Thorough descriptions and explanations.
What made the experience of listening to Without Conscience the most enjoyable?
The authors descriptions and evaluations were well explained for the layman to understand
What other book might you compare Without Conscience to, and why?
Snakes in Suits as it deals with psychopaths in the workplace but its not as well written and researched as Without Conscience is, possibly because psychopaths in the community are harder to get solid evidence on.
What does Paul Boehmer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
He has a strong voice that adds an intensity to listening.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, if I had the time.
Any additional comments?
Highly recommended and easy to listen and understand.