Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

16 reviews

melodyseestrees's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

1.75

This book can be summed up as "I learned a symptom checklist, went out psycho-spotting, and you can too!" He spends the entire book armchair diagnosing people, especially those for whom he wonders if the psychologists got it wrong (all of which were men). He talks about a few other individuals but they get a few paragraphs in comparison to the men. He interviewed more Scientologists than psychologists and I found that a bit troubling. There is very little to this book besides interviews and biased conclusions. 
He trivializes symptoms in the DSM even though it is accepted that these symptoms are to have significant impact on the individual's life. 
I was expecting a more nuanced discussion of the failings of the system. Perhaps how it isn't really built for anyone who is not male or Caucasian. 
The attempts at humor fell flat and actively detracted whatever points the author was dancing around. The author was also not very focused on his own points and jumped all over the place at times. This felt like directionless info-dump. 
If you are familiar with this author you might enjoy this book. I did not. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide

Minor: Classism, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Eating disorder, Excrement, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Ableism, Confinement, Gaslighting, Rape, Self harm, and Cursing

Many of the content warnings are a sentence or two in passing. Not a whole lot is detailed.

abimyers_reads's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Mental illness

daralexandria's review against another edition

dark funny informative fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Confinement

Moderate: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Sexual assault

mgbellm's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual violence, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

puglover's review against another edition

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Murder

Minor: Physical abuse, War, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

sam_rm94's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Suicide, Mental illness, Murder, and Sexual violence

mellowbread's review against another edition

funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

The people who are the right sort of mad are a bit madder than we fear we're becoming, and in a recognisable way. We might be anxious but we're not as anxious as them. We might be paranoid but we aren't as paranoid as them. We are entertained by them, and comforted that we're not as mad as they are.

Spectacularly entertaining. It was very refreshing to hear someone's take on diagnostic criteria of mental illnesses and what it means to be normal and sane. As a Psych student, it got me thinking further about the way we categorise people based on their differences, which are emphasised and labelled. The humour scattered throughout the chapters is what made me devour this in a few sittings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Violence and Murder

softgirlari's review against another edition

funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

teekeita's review against another edition

funny informative mysterious fast-paced

3.75

my partner and i have a book club and this was the first pick. it’s totally not my style of book so I didn’t know what to expect - but i quite enjoyed this! Ronson’s non-fic writing style is storytelling-led and didn’t feel like most non-fic (by white men 🫣) reads. i learned *so* much about psychology, psychiatry, and psychopaths. some of the information is quite violent though and it can be a bit jarring as it sometimes appears unexpectedly - so CW. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Murder, Mental illness, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

thechocolatefinger's review against another edition

challenging funny reflective slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Rape and Excrement