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spacebras's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
4.5 stars- based on quality and engagement in writing. Not on the author's own experiences or the veracity of her claims cause I don't know her, whose to say! :)
Surprising no one, Sociopath by Patric (short for Patricia) Gagne is absolutely fascinating. Narrated by the author, we're taken through various instances in her life where her emotional distance and apathy are apparent as she struggles to understand why she feels the way she does (or doesn't). Now, in the present day, Gagne has the experience, the research, and the vocabulary to not only help herself navigate through life as someone with an "emotional learning disability", but to assist others just like her.
Gange's goal with Sociopath, is to explain and intellectualize her experiences in a way that will reach others like her, and help create the foundation for a more robust support system for people who have anti-social disorder, sociopathy, and psychoses. She does a fantastic job of relating her experiences in a way that I, a person who definitely feels way too much, can understand the process of thought. Her story is addictive and fascinating, not because of any voyeuristic pleasure, but because of the humanization of a HIGHLY stigmatized condition. When trying to tell my family what I was reading, they immediately recoiled, and that reaction is what she is trying to resolve. She isn't fundamentally a bad person due to her sociopathy. She's just different.
Just released, Sociopath has a lot of well-earned buzz around it. After finishing the memoir, you feel like you know Gagne's intimate thoughts, but you really don't know anything about her. While listening, I kept finding myself trying to look her up outside of her advocacy work and interviews about the memoir. It is very clear that Gagne has had a life few of us could imagine, her father is a hotshot music producer, and she worked in that world for a while too. At points, she would mention famous people she was on a first-name basis with (ex. Hugh Hefner), and I kept thinking "WHO IS SHE??". But her maiden name and her father's name and business are kept intentionally vague (ugh I wanna know! Who is this mysterious music star whom she has an ill-fated relationship with?? It's so movie, it's so LA-coded).
With this buzz, there are also people skeptical of her, her credentials, and her story. Which, sure, to be fair, she outright admits she's a liar. Sometimes antagonists in the memoir are a little too over the top mean, or scenes feel more like a movie than a recollection. But I think that the former can be an indication of her honesty- she's not hiding that she dislikes a person because why would she? And the latter is probably just a by-product of living and working in LA- I'm 86% sure it's not a real place, and she possibly had some script writer friends help her at some point. Those "Movie Moments", are pretty apparent and a little jolting. And her instance of calling her anti-social impulses her "darkness" was pretty cheesy. But ultimately harmless.
Her credentials, a Ph.D., seem to have been a source of confusion long before the memoir when she was writing essays for magazines about her sociopathy. There seem to be some accreditation issues with where she studied, but honestly, that doesn't really bother me. Gagne talks openly about how she isn't a good student and she is openly a sociopath. It stands to reason that your standard clinical psychology program probably doesn't want her/sees her as a liability. A so-called "diploma mill" might have been her only option because she is a marginalized person working at a deficit. The first thing Gagne does in Sociopath is mention how privileged and lucky she is, even as a rich, white, cis lady, she can't waltz into UCLA and say: "Hi I'm a sociopath, let me become a psychologist." The field is, ironically, very biased against people with mental health issues. Sociopathy is a loaded diagnosis as well, which she goes into great detail in the memoir about why she prefers this term. It's stupid for people to rag on her for it- it's her decision! If we're still letting people say they have "Asperger's" she can say she's a sociopath imho.
Surprising no one, Sociopath by Patric (short for Patricia) Gagne is absolutely fascinating. Narrated by the author, we're taken through various instances in her life where her emotional distance and apathy are apparent as she struggles to understand why she feels the way she does (or doesn't). Now, in the present day, Gagne has the experience, the research, and the vocabulary to not only help herself navigate through life as someone with an "emotional learning disability", but to assist others just like her.
Gange's goal with Sociopath, is to explain and intellectualize her experiences in a way that will reach others like her, and help create the foundation for a more robust support system for people who have anti-social disorder, sociopathy, and psychoses. She does a fantastic job of relating her experiences in a way that I, a person who definitely feels way too much, can understand the process of thought. Her story is addictive and fascinating, not because of any voyeuristic pleasure, but because of the humanization of a HIGHLY stigmatized condition. When trying to tell my family what I was reading, they immediately recoiled, and that reaction is what she is trying to resolve. She isn't fundamentally a bad person due to her sociopathy. She's just different.
Just released, Sociopath has a lot of well-earned buzz around it. After finishing the memoir, you feel like you know Gagne's intimate thoughts, but you really don't know anything about her. While listening, I kept finding myself trying to look her up outside of her advocacy work and interviews about the memoir. It is very clear that Gagne has had a life few of us could imagine, her father is a hotshot music producer, and she worked in that world for a while too. At points, she would mention famous people she was on a first-name basis with (ex. Hugh Hefner), and I kept thinking "WHO IS SHE??". But her maiden name and her father's name and business are kept intentionally vague (ugh I wanna know! Who is this mysterious music star whom she has an ill-fated relationship with?? It's so movie, it's so LA-coded).
With this buzz, there are also people skeptical of her, her credentials, and her story. Which, sure, to be fair, she outright admits she's a liar. Sometimes antagonists in the memoir are a little too over the top mean, or scenes feel more like a movie than a recollection. But I think that the former can be an indication of her honesty- she's not hiding that she dislikes a person because why would she? And the latter is probably just a by-product of living and working in LA- I'm 86% sure it's not a real place, and she possibly had some script writer friends help her at some point. Those "Movie Moments", are pretty apparent and a little jolting. And her instance of calling her anti-social impulses her "darkness" was pretty cheesy. But ultimately harmless.
Her credentials, a Ph.D., seem to have been a source of confusion long before the memoir when she was writing essays for magazines about her sociopathy. There seem to be some accreditation issues with where she studied, but honestly, that doesn't really bother me. Gagne talks openly about how she isn't a good student and she is openly a sociopath. It stands to reason that your standard clinical psychology program probably doesn't want her/sees her as a liability. A so-called "diploma mill" might have been her only option because she is a marginalized person working at a deficit. The first thing Gagne does in Sociopath is mention how privileged and lucky she is, even as a rich, white, cis lady, she can't waltz into UCLA and say: "Hi I'm a sociopath, let me become a psychologist." The field is, ironically, very biased against people with mental health issues. Sociopathy is a loaded diagnosis as well, which she goes into great detail in the memoir about why she prefers this term. It's stupid for people to rag on her for it- it's her decision! If we're still letting people say they have "Asperger's" she can say she's a sociopath imho.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Stalking
Moderate: Cursing, Suicide attempt, Violence, Animal death, and Classism
This book is written about sociopathy by a sociopath. She does not couch her feelings or her actions. She never overtly harms anyone besides one instance where she
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