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When asked to review this book, I felt some ambivalence. On the one hand, being interested in all “bad” behaviors, I found the book's subtitle compelling enough to want to read the book. On the other hand, I wondered whether the analytic readers of this journal would be interested in the thoughts of a forensic psychiatrist. Debating these thoughts, I glanced at the index of the book. My eyes lit up immediately. References to Abu Nidal and Jack the Ripper beckoned me. I knew that I had to read this book.
Recently published by Plenum Press, the book is written by Robert Rieber, Professor of Psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. This is one of the most prestigious centers of learning for Criminology in the United States and favorably biased me toward the author's credentials. A quick look further informed me that the book is organized into a foreword, the author's introduction, and seven chapters. There are about thirty pages of end notes, which comment on the literature supporting the author's theses. Finally, there is the index which is detailed and accurate.
Although the book was written before the recent White House scandal, it is as if the author was all knowing. In the first chapter, on “Social Breakdown and Social Distress Syndrome,” he refers to “corruption and recklessness in government” and illustrates such recklessness with the Watergate scandal; current events in the White House make his point even more topical. There were other points that I do not find as congenial to my thinking. For instance, the author refers to some “distinctly human abilities” to trust, cooperate with, and have affection for others. Actually these abilities are shown by some other primates as well and are not necessarily “human.” Moreover, in discussing Turnbull's study, the author refers to “normalized psychopathy.” In adversarial court proceedings, I have used the word “normal” in several different ways (i.e., Gaussian,