In need of something to read recently, I found The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout, Ph.D., on our bookshelf. Sounds interesting, no?

This book is a very telling and very insightful look into the human conscience, or, in the case of sociopaths, the lack thereof. Did you know that 1 out of 25 Americans has no conscience? And do you even know that means? Well, this book provides a pretty thoughtful perspective on that fact and its consequences.

The human conscience is basically an emotional attachment to others that provides us with a moral compass and helps us to “do the right thing”. But a sociopath — that is, the one out of 25 Americans that does not have a conscience — is not affected one iota about feelings for other people or guilt or shame or any of the other emotions that drive what most of us do. He or she generally has one objective — to “win” or to “dominate” in whatever their circumstances are.

What I found most insightful in this book was the revelation (which I guess seems kind of obvious in hindsight) that not all sociopaths are your stereotypical “cold-blooded killers”; in fact, many of them are not violent at all. But they are selfish and scheming, and are often smart enough (in the cognitive sense) to mask their lack of conscience by outwardly exhibiting socially acceptable behaviors. Not because they want to be liked, but because they are manipulating everyone around them for their own gain (whatever they view that to be).

The other fascinating element of sociopathy that this book examines is the evolutionary aspect of it. If sociopathy is partially hereditary (which it is believed to be), it would seem that over time the sociopaths and the rest of us would “battle” until only one side remained. And it would also seem that the sociopaths, although smaller in number initially, would have the upper hand because they would be able to lie, cheat and steal their way to victory. As Dr. Stout puts it:

Picture people stranded on a small, remote island with limited resources. In the long run, what kind of individual is likely to survive — an honest, moral person, or someone ruthless . . . . If there were few others on the island for the survivors to make babies with — and given that sociopathy is at least partially genetically determined — over a great many generations, might we not end up with an island populated mainly by people who possessed no conscience? Then would not this population of sociopaths proceed without a second thought to deplete the island’s resources completely, and all die?

The book attempts to answer these questions through discussions of various theories of natural selection, including group selection, kin selection, and even gene selection. In discussing this last theory, Dr. Stout quotes Samuel Butler as saying, “A chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg.” Thus, genes for emotional attachment (i.e., conscience) are “selfish” and and exist to enhance their own proliferation. Fascinating stuff.

Now I don’t want any of you to think that the above is intended to be an exhaustive overview of this subject; rather, this it is intended to be a teaser about what this book has to share. And if you’re like me, after reading this you will at least temporarily look at the world through a different lens, attempting to figure out which of the people you know are sociopaths.