Outsmarting the Sociopath Next Door: How to Protect Yourself Against a Ruthless Manipulator

Description

While the best way to deal with a sociopath is to avoid them entirely, sometimes circumstance doesn't allow for that. What happens when the time comes to defend yourself against your own child, a boss, or ruthless ex-spouse? Inspired by the many chilling and often heartbreaking emails and letters she has received over the years, Dr. Martha Stout uncovers the psychology behind the sociopath's methods and provides concrete guidelines to help navigate these dangerous interactions. Organized around categories such as destructive narcissism, violent sociopaths, sociopathic coworkers, and the sociopath in your family, Outsmarting the Sociopath Next Door contains detailed explanation and commentary on how best to react in these situations to keep the sociopath at bay. Uniting these categories is a discussion of changing psychological theories of personality and sociopathy and the enduring triumph of conscience over those who operate without empathy or concern for others. By understanding the person you're dealing with and changing the rules of the game, you'll be able to gain the upper hand and escape the sociopath's influence. Whether you're fighting a custody battle against a sociopathic ex or being gaslighted by a boss or coworker, you'll find hope and help within these pages. With this guide to disarming the conscienceless, Dr. Stout aims to give readers the tools to protect themselves while conducting a broader examination of human behavior and conceptions of normality.

Martha Stout, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in private practice, served on the faculty in psychology in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School for twenty-five years. She is the author of The Sociopath Next Door and The Myth of Sanity. She lives on Cape Ann in Massachusetts.

"Dr. Stout's book is mandatory reading on how to effectively deal with sociopaths before you get hurt."-Joe Navarro, former FBI special agent and the author of Dangerous Personalities "[Dr. Stout's] often grim but ultimately reassuring primer will leave readers feeling better prepared to face the malign individuals in their lives."-Publishers Weekly Praise for The Sociopath Next Door "It sounds like a treatment for a creepy psychological thriller: a world in which one in every 25 people walks through life without a drop of human compassion . . . [But] Martha Stout, Ph.D., says this is not science fiction. . . . Stout claims that 4 percent of the population are sociopaths who have no capacity to love or empathize . . . Stout details the havoc sociopaths wreak on unsuspecting individuals-marrying for money, backstabbing co-workers, or simply messing with people for the fun of it."-Sara Eckel, Salon "What do the confidence man, the impostor and the serial killer have in common? As Martha Stout points out in The Sociopath Next Door, they are all missing something essential: a conscience."-John Rooney, Ph.D., Philadelphia Inquirer "A chilling portrait of human beings who lack scruples the way someone born blind lacks eyesight . . . Stout describes respected professionals who tell outrageous lies simply to confuse colleagues . . . authority figures who deceive, seduce and even murder just to relieve the boredom that is the usual state of the sociopathic mind. A useful-if appalling-guide to help you recognize conscienceless individuals . . . a heartening affirmation of the empathic mindset that comes naturally to the vast majority of humans."-Martha Beck, O: The Oprah Magazine "Stout's well-researched and carefully conceptualized book on conscience is thought-provoking and spiritually satisfying. Her finding, that conscience comes from loving people, is just what we need to know in these dark and angry times."-Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Letters to a Young Therapist and Reviving Ophelia "A practicing psychologist, Stout has seen too many lives hurt by the conscienceless few, so she's out to alert the 'good people.' Her book is alarming. It's a call to arms, a plea for vigilance on the part of people of conscience so they will recognize the ruthless among them."-Rob Mitchell, Boston Herald