Making a Psychopath: My Journey into Seven Dangerous Minds

Freestone, a sociologist who studied the treatment of psychopathic patients in prisons, shows “how very diverse criminal psychopaths are” in his brisk if somewhat flat debut. Freestone kicks things off with a brief overview of brain biology, but the bulk of his survey consists of case studies. He primarily uses composites of patients to create archetypes of psychopathic behaviors: there’s “Paul,” a charismatic and manipulative hit man who got prison staff members to do him favors at their own peril, including one who lost her job after being seduced by him; “Arthur,” who was abused as a child and became a “parasitic psychopath”; and “Eddie,” who overcomes his tendencies to create a life of peace. Freestone also includes a study of Angela Simpson, who savagely murdered a man in 2009 and is the rare example of a female psychopath. The author convincingly concludes that “it is the environment the child grows up in that makes the difference in creating a criminal psychopath,” and makes a case that “forensic psychology and psychiatry are often insufficiently attentive to social context.” The analysis is sound, though the methodological choice to create composites sucks much of the drama out of the proceedings. Still, it’s a fine introduction to the workings of psychopathy. (Mar.)