Reviews with content warning for Violence - Sociopath

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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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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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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sarahweyand's review

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challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

First off, what an interesting book to be narrated by the author. Despite what you may think, Patric is a very engaging narrator and infuses her story with a lot of humor and tone I really enjoyed.

I want to try and keep this review brief because I know I could get really into it if I tried. I see some reviewers repeating a couple of points in the comments and I think they're interesting and want to address them in my own review.

1. Patric has no credentials and the Ph.D. she has is from an unaccredited university/degree mill/somewhere unreliable. Her dissertation can't be found anywhere online.

This is obviously questionable and leads me to doubt some of her academic expertise, but I don't think this takes away from the themes of her story. At its essence, the message of this memoir is to spread awareness of sociopathy/antisocial personality disorder and help destigmatize it. While it would have been really nice to have some more credible sources from an academic and research perspective, it doesn't negate Patric's lived experiences and the fact that her purpose in writing this memoir is a good one.

2. Patric is a sociopath and therefore must be lying/embellishing most of her story. She even said at the start of the book that some conversations were reconstructed and not exact.

I do think it's important to read this book with a grain of salt when it's been written by a self-admitted chronic liar. However, most memoirs are like this. People don't remember the minutiae of every conversation they've ever had with the expectation they might write a memoir someday and need to recall it. This was actually my exact problem with THE GLASS CASTLE, an incredibly well-received memoir that doesn't make this disclaimer but I found to be more egregious in this aspect of storytelling than SOCIOPATH.

I think this story is fascinating and well-told, so I'm willing to give Patric some trust and credit in what she's trying to do. It's not a perfect book by any means, but I couldn't put it down.

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