This review is written with thanks to Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read and review Making A Psychopath.

Blurb:

The closest you can get to the most dangerous minds.

Find out what truly makes a psychopath, from the leading expert who helped to create Killing Eve‘s Villanelle. Dr Mark Freestone has worked on some of the most disturbing psychopath cases of recent times – this is his extraordinary journey with the people society would rather forget.

Danny ‘the Borderline’ killed his defenceless friend without explanation. Tony ‘the Conman’ once tried to dupe someone into buying the Eiffel Tower. Jason ‘the Liar’ had a fantasy life that led to vicious murders around Europe.

With its page-turning true crime storytelling and searing first-hand experience that will leave you reeling, this book opens up a window onto the unseen world of those who operate in a void of human emotion … and asks how we will stop them.

Review:

I read a lot of crime fiction, so I come across a lot of psychopaths while I’m reading, but I was interested to read Making A Psychopath and see how they were presented in real life. Freestone provides a number of case studies, which outline the different ways in which psychopathic behaviour can manifest itself. I found the variations fascinating and I really appreciated that the book is written in a really accessible way. There is no jargon and the more scientific explanations were easy for me to understand and apply to the different examples in the book.

Each chapter focuses on one individual person whom Freestone has treated. I found it interesting to look at their lives in depth and explore what may have led the subjects to act in the way they did. There are some fascinating subjects for debate within the book, such as nature versus nurture, and I definitely finished the book with a lot more to think about than when I started.

It is difficult for me to say much more without rehashing Freestone’s arguments, but I definitely feel more knowledgeable about this intriguing field of work, and I’m not sure it’s one I would feel comfortable entering myself!

Making A Psychopath is available from Amazon.