Book Post 5

In the final section of the book I read for the second quarter called The Wisdom of Psychopaths by Kevin Dutton, Dutton draws his final conclusions about the connections between psychopaths. Dutton has dragged on through the entire book to finally reach this point, but in the end it was worth the wait.

Dutton closes out the book with a few key points that I picked up on. Throughout the book, Dutton has keyed into psychopaths and their relationship with society. When he suggested the idea that for a society to thrive it needs psychopaths, I wasn’t as surprised as I would have been before reading this book. Dutton believes 10% is a perfect number for psychopaths and I don’t disagree with him. Psychopaths have very strong traits and characteristics that other people can learn from. They operate in unique ways and can acquire a lot of success in life if they have the right make up. Dutton then continued to explain that there are seven psychopathic traits that form the right make up that allow psychopaths to succeed. Dutton labeled them the Seven Deadly Sins. They are the seven core principles of psychopathy that when applied with due care and attention can allow us to “respond rather than react” when faced with challenges and can transform our view from “victim to victor all without turning into a villain.

1)   Ruthlessness

2)   Charm

3)   Focus

4)   Mental Toughness

5)   Fearlessness

6)   Mindfulness

7)   Action”

In the end, I thought this book made very interesting connections between psychopathic traits and finding success in life, but it didn’t create much interest for me. Although this book has some business points, I believe it is much more psychologically based. I also thought Dutton added too many stories and dragged the book out way too long.