Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Sociopath by Patric Gagne

6 reviews

peggydean's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Addiction, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Self harm

zombiezami's review

dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

 Over the past few years, I've been making an effort to seek out perspectives from people with heavily stigmatized diagnoses: anti-social personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc. I'm very committed to disability justice action, and I think this is an important part of that that often gets overlooked. If we accept that mental illness is a disability, than we have to accept that it's, well, unacceptable to malign specific illnesses and disorders as if people with them are inherently evil. 

As an autistic person, I felt very seen in this book. Like the author, I too have many experiences of people getting angry at me for not having the facial expression/emotional reaction that they expect in a given situation.  I felt the frustration of the author as she tried her best to be honest and fit in, yet people still made assumptions about her and tried to use her. Overall, I thought the book was well written and often hilarious. I highly recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Stalking, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Bullying, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Classism, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

Minor: Pregnancy, Murder, Animal death, Suicide, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Forced institutionalization

Eugenics, incarceration

devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexism, Mental illness, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Cursing, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Drug use, Self harm, Addiction, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

bella613's review

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

I loved this book!
Patric tells us stories of her own life, and brings up a very important conversation on being diagnosed and sharing your diagnosis. The world is extremely hypocritical when it comes to mental and emotional health. People have double standards, ableist expectations, and preconceived notions, and this book gives plenty of examples of how that hurts the ones who are different. But it also gives plenty of examples of taking positive steps toward helping yourself if you are different. 

I see a lot of reviews complaining that Patric's socioeconomic background made her sociopathic personality, basically, a non-problem for her and that is why she lives a relatively "normal" life as opposed to the stereotypical expectation for a sociopath. I think these people forgot the fact that it's a memoir, and that she has no obligation to have had the worst life in order for her story to be worth being told. She's trying to help other sociopaths by changing the narrative on what being a sociopath means, not trying to be the one speaking for all sociopaths. I really liked that she talked about it being on a spectrum, like autism and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Having an "emotional learning disability" is simple, easy to understand and relate to. 

Another major criticism I've seen in multiple places is her credibility. To be honest, I don't really care if she has a PhD or not. She has well developed thoughts and theories, and I didnt read this book as a textbook, so it doesn't matter to me if she has a degree. 

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has been judged, misunderstood, or underestimated because their mind works differently than most people's. And I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what it feels like to have a mind that works differently. This book isn't only about being a sociopath. There is so much to relate to. I love that she embraces herself as she is and underlines the difference between the neurology and behavior. Everyone has different ways of understanding and relating to the world around them, and everyone's mind is beautiful. There's always more than one way to look at everything and Patric beautifully flips the narrative on sociopaths. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Toxic friendship, Grief, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Stalking

Moderate: Violence, Infidelity, Cursing, and Alcohol

toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I loved this memoir! What a fascinating look into the mind of a sociopath. Patric Gagne offers so much insight into how her mind works and debunks a lot of misconceptions that people may have about sociopathy while detailing her life in stories that are often heartbreaking, laugh out loud funny, and just plain interesting food for the brain. I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death of parent, Self harm, and Death

Minor: Murder and Blood

gicb38's review

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Animal death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Bullying, Medical trauma, and Emotional abuse