A review by clovetra
Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight by M.E. Thomas

reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

i am hesitantly skeptical regarding this book. let me get that out of the way first and foremost. if you are looking for a completely factual and scientific novel about sociopaths, this is not for you. do not go into this expecting a perfect crystal clear insight into a sociopath’s mind. 
however, with that being said, i did thoroughly enjoy this book. taking everything with a grain of salt, i do feel like this is a respectable insight into the mind of one sociopath. 
many online criticise this book for the author not being diagnosed, which i really don’t get because… she literally is. it’s the first page. she has an entire chapter going over the diagnostic process. secondly, people criticise the fact the author was (at the beginning) anonymous. as time has passed and M.E. thomas’ identity has been revealed, obviously that point is moot. but even if she was still anonymous, how many people can confidently sit there and say they wouldn’t have a negative gut reaction to someone in their life saying “oh hey i wrote that book. a book that details some horrible things i have done. and some thoughts that are definitely not considered normal. and how i have no empathy. and i view people as objects. yeah i wrote that.” even if everyone in the world read this book, you cannot sit here and tell me society is not  prejudiced against diagnosed sociopathy. and the final criticism i often see is that this book reads horribly. it reads like it is written by an unreliable narrator who is a raging narcissist. and like…. yeah it is! thomas literally discusses that. of course it reads like it’s written by a narcissist, that’s literally a “diagnostic criteria” for being a sociopath. oh it reads like she thinks she’s better than everyone? she does! that’s like a big thing of being a sociopath! oh she’s an unreliable narrator? duh. if you are taking every single story thomas proposes as gospel…. that isn’t her fault.
even though i do disagree with online crackpot theories that she isn’t a sociopath, i’m also not a psychiatrist, so i do want to take everything not posed as facts in this book with a grain of salt. but this was incredibly fascinating. i’ll say even if thomas is a “faker”, this defo has begun to make me see sociopaths in a different light. what with all the studies she cites, as well as her explanations of things such as how a sociopath experiences “love” and how to be a high functioning sociopath, i do think this book has really opened my eyes to a lot of my own biases. that isn’t to say this book has completely shattered my bias, as like i said i don’t want to completely trust this book, especially since it is not written by a professional but instead one person’s lived experiences, but this book has started the process. 
at the very least, i can confidently walk away from this book and say my preconceived notions of what it means to be a sociopath have changed. at the most, i can say this book has piqued my interest to the point i could almost see myself basing my honours degree on sociopathy.
i will say, however, completely unrelated to the actual material itself, that this book does use some outdated terminology, namely “aspie”, “aspergers” and “transgenders”. that isn’t to say this entire book should be thrown out because of it, but yet again, it makes me question how relevant this book still is, especially in terms of research and theories posited by thomas herself.
tldr; a good read for those with an interest in psychology, but don’t consider this a bible on sociopathy.
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