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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.
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.
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, incarcerationhoneybeewitched87's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Animal cruelty, and Cursing
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Stalking, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol
devynreadsnovels's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Toxic friendship, Grief, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, and Stalking
Moderate: Violence, Infidelity, Cursing, and Alcohol
jmelauren's review
dark
informative
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Mental illness, and Stalking
amachonis's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Stalking
Moderate: Toxic friendship
sarahweyand's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking, Mental illness, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Violence
torturedreadersdept's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Animal death, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Bullying, Dysphoria, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Body horror, and Sexual assault
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 shekylosten's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Stalking
Moderate: Animal death, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, and Toxic relationship