A review by mutualaid
Outsmarting the Sociopath Next Door: How to Protect Yourself Against a Ruthless Manipulator by Martha Stout

3.0

Wow this is quite the book to try to rate. Kind of a behemoth. On the one hand, it is absolutely crucial that leftists and organizers start grappling with the limitations of post-modern pure social constructivism, and grapple with the biology and neurology of consciouslessness and non-empathy. A massive disappointment of this text is that it does not talk about sociopaths and narcissists as parents, and what children can do as survivors. I am the daughter of a severe narcissist and a psychopath, and for whatever blessed reason was born with an extreme empathy. I think the assertion that narcissism is purely environmentally created through child abuse is false, in comparison with psychopathy which is biological. I think there is much to be studied, discovered, tested, and theorized about the relationship and continuum between narcissism (lack of empathy) and sociopathy (lack and empathy and conscious.) But how can this work ever properly be done under imperialist racial capitalism, where science must be paid for and profitable? This author’s work lacks a critique of the racist stereotyping of Black and Brown people as lacking empathy and feeling, and lacks of critique of how bio-essentialism, racism, white supremacy, ableism, fatphobia, and imperialism create obstacles for forming systems and tests for determining psychopathy. Most blatantly, this author never mentions the fact that the profit motive is at the heart of capitalism. She mentions the flaws of capitalism and reduces the solution to choosing better, empathetic leaders, but contradicting herself, she also talks about how institutions themselves can be psychopathic. She also critiques communist dictators. This work, even in it’s highly reductive, pop-psych, bio-essentialist race blind manner, still provides evidence for an anti-state, bottom-up, self-governed, cooperative anarchist society. I wish I could send this author a documentary on Rojava- I may do this! One highlight of the book was the chapter on narcissistics versus psychopaths, which was highly insightful and accurate, very well-done. This book seems to have quite a few literally copy and pasted sections from her first book! In general reading both of Stout’s books this year have got me appreciating my *ability* to empathize, attach, love, be good, be honest, and listen to my conscience more, and to enjoy and find pleasure and promote goodness as much as I can. Leaves a ton of biological and evolutionary questions.