The acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir of the author’s struggle to understand her own sociopathy and shed light on the often maligned and misunderstood mental disorder.
“A cross between a podcast by relationship therapist Esther Perel and a salacious tell-all.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing” felt.
She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.
In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.
But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.
This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.
Milena
2025-02-03
As a psychopath myself, I find this a little bit too much attention seeking as if we would be special in some way. No, we are not special and do not deserve special attention. But of course we do deserve to be open and free about our personality disorder and less stigmatized. We should be able to live freely and openly as anyone else with a personality disorder or other mental illness. Because we're just normal like anybody else, we're just thinking and feeling a bit differently which is not a crime. And most of us are kind and law abiding citizens just wanna get by and live a good life and nothing else. I don't want to harm anyone, I just want to live a happy life with lots of love, happiness, kindness, goodness and normal wealth so I can get by. I don't want any special attention - actually quite the opposite, I just want people to leave me alone and not be so fucking mean all the time. Neurotypicals are way more mean than psychopaths in my opinion. I think psychopaths think more before we speak and make sure that we don't say or do anything bad cause we cognitively can understand things better than neurotypicals with all their emotions and stuff getting in their way.
Anna
2024-12-10
Hon är så cool :p
Ana
2024-09-26
Well written and insightful. Recommend to everyone interested in psychology and people.
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