Scan barcode
A review by mstall_
Sociopath: a Memoir by Patric Gagne
informative
medium-paced
3.75
I have two wolves inside of me, and they both have no idea how to feel about this book.
Sociopath by Patric Gagne is just that: a memoir about a woman who was diagnosed with sociopathy in her early twenties (although she reminds us often throughout the book that there is not DSM-V F code for sociopathy specifically). It's her retelling of her experiences as a child -- feeling different, apathetic and anxious about her apathy. She wrote this book in hopes that more people with similar disorders (which currently fall under Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-V) feel less alone. For someone who proclaims they can't access empathy, she sure carries a lot of care for others with her diagnosis.
Like I said, my two wolves are both confused. One on hand, it feels refreshing to read about this illness from someone's lived experience. On the other hand, as a therapist who has worked with some people with ASPD, my hackles were up. I can appreciate deeply the stories and meaning we as humans make of our lives and experiences and, in the same breath, my work has instilled an alert system when the story feels too "crack resistant". What I mean by that in terms of Sociopath, is that often Patric's narrative felt like it was illiciting feelings from me that I wasn't sure were my true feelings. Like I suddenly found myself in an orb with her examining her behaviors as "not that bad" and I was starting to lose sight of the cracks in her story.
Patric doesn't gloss over her violent or anti-social behaviors, in fact the subtext almost reads like she celebrates them. And, maybe she does! That would definitely support her diagnosis. She talks a lot about how sociopaths need to find adaptive ways to "release the stuck stress" that won't put them in jail. For most of the book what works for her is breaking and entering people's homes while they're away (sometimes when they are there), stealing cars from frat bros, and stalking a woman who is threatening her father. I couldn't help but think that first and foremost, these are obviously not adaptive behaviors AND they would absolutely land someone in jail if they were caught, especially if that person wasn’t also a white, pretty blonde woman who was a stellar student at UCLA and had money and connections to high power people in LA. I had no doubt that if Patric had been caught, because of her privilege, she would not have been incarcerated.
I think this book was an interesting read -- it read like fiction so it was easy to jump into the narrative. However, like I said earlier, that might be intentional. Overall I’d recommend the book, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
Sociopath by Patric Gagne is just that: a memoir about a woman who was diagnosed with sociopathy in her early twenties (although she reminds us often throughout the book that there is not DSM-V F code for sociopathy specifically). It's her retelling of her experiences as a child -- feeling different, apathetic and anxious about her apathy. She wrote this book in hopes that more people with similar disorders (which currently fall under Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-V) feel less alone. For someone who proclaims they can't access empathy, she sure carries a lot of care for others with her diagnosis.
Like I said, my two wolves are both confused. One on hand, it feels refreshing to read about this illness from someone's lived experience. On the other hand, as a therapist who has worked with some people with ASPD, my hackles were up. I can appreciate deeply the stories and meaning we as humans make of our lives and experiences and, in the same breath, my work has instilled an alert system when the story feels too "crack resistant". What I mean by that in terms of Sociopath, is that often Patric's narrative felt like it was illiciting feelings from me that I wasn't sure were my true feelings. Like I suddenly found myself in an orb with her examining her behaviors as "not that bad" and I was starting to lose sight of the cracks in her story.
Patric doesn't gloss over her violent or anti-social behaviors, in fact the subtext almost reads like she celebrates them. And, maybe she does! That would definitely support her diagnosis. She talks a lot about how sociopaths need to find adaptive ways to "release the stuck stress" that won't put them in jail. For most of the book what works for her is breaking and entering people's homes while they're away (sometimes when they are there), stealing cars from frat bros, and stalking a woman who is threatening her father. I couldn't help but think that first and foremost, these are obviously not adaptive behaviors AND they would absolutely land someone in jail if they were caught, especially if that person wasn’t also a white, pretty blonde woman who was a stellar student at UCLA and had money and connections to high power people in LA. I had no doubt that if Patric had been caught, because of her privilege, she would not have been incarcerated.
I think this book was an interesting read -- it read like fiction so it was easy to jump into the narrative. However, like I said earlier, that might be intentional. Overall I’d recommend the book, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it.