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222 reviews for:
Talking with Psychopaths and Savages: A Journey into the Evil Mind
Christopher Berry-Dee
2.69 AVERAGE
222 reviews for:
Talking with Psychopaths and Savages: A Journey into the Evil Mind
Christopher Berry-Dee
2.69 AVERAGE
dark
informative
medium-paced
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Very disjointed and very surface level. He barely touches upon the tragedies that happened. He just skims and gives the basics. He talks more about gun control than the killers and their victims. We never got into their heads. He said he has personally talked to a few of them, yet you'll never know what happened in those meetings so it's not really talking with psychopaths is it? To do that, you actually have to have a conversation with them. You won't learn anything at all. He barely goes into the crimes, nor the killer themselves nor the victims, so what is the point if you're not going to focus on atleast one of these?
Also, the writer can be very grating at times. He seems to think he's god like in understanding psychopaths. Unless you have telepathy, you cannot know what goes on in someones mind. A lot of the time, psychology is just an educated guess based on behaviour but even then, bias can play a huge role and just because someone throws a label on you, it doesn't mean it's true. (e.g. Autistic women getting a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder when really, they were actually autistic.) Let's dial down the ego when we have the power to put life changing labels on people.
I don't get the point of this book. He constantly references his other books and this book doesn't add anything new to the conversation. It says very little and is repetitive. He talks a lotta smack, but he is all talk, no walk.
Also, the writer can be very grating at times. He seems to think he's god like in understanding psychopaths. Unless you have telepathy, you cannot know what goes on in someones mind. A lot of the time, psychology is just an educated guess based on behaviour but even then, bias can play a huge role and just because someone throws a label on you, it doesn't mean it's true. (e.g. Autistic women getting a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder when really, they were actually autistic.) Let's dial down the ego when we have the power to put life changing labels on people.
I don't get the point of this book. He constantly references his other books and this book doesn't add anything new to the conversation. It says very little and is repetitive. He talks a lotta smack, but he is all talk, no walk.
I started to read this book and got about a third of the way through. Unfortunately, a lot of the reviews on this site are true. This book might have been readable with a fine-tooth edit, but it did not have the luxury. It is confusing, untruthful, and full of arrogance. There are some interesting pieces, but they are amongst pages of words that make no sense. I've never read a book before that mentions its word count and continuously talks about how people begged the author to write the book. I have also purchased Berry-Dee's book about serial killers, so I hope that will be better.
This is the last book I will purposefully read about true crime. I started it before I understood the true exploitative nature of true crime, especially in connection with murder.
I did not enjoy this book, and I will be donating as soon as I can.
I did not enjoy this book, and I will be donating as soon as I can.
fast-paced
i liked it a lot, but i spent 10 years reading so i can’t even rate it properly jbsjbsd
dark
informative
medium-paced
This author has an incredibly high opinion of his own abilities...and a woeful inability to structure a narrative. Too disjointed to really appreciate the points he was trying to make.