Manufacturing Social Distress: Psychopathy in Everyday Life

by Robert W. Rieber

Book Overview

Toward the Psychology of Malefaction This is a book about human wickedness. I would like to identify two obstacles in the path that this book seeks to traverse. One obstacle is an inappropriate scientism; the other is an inappropriate moralism. There is a kind of scientism that prevents us from seeing that human beings are responsible for what happens on the planet. It is a view that, in the name of science, downplays the role of human beings as agents...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306453460
• ISBN13: 9780306453465
• Release Date: February 1997
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 221 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Legal Look at Psychopathology

The study of psychopaths has received focussed attention the last 10 years because so many have achieved responsible positions in society, then feel free to act above the law. Instead of giving a psychological rundown, Rieber looks through the legal lens at the behavior of psychopaths, and puts forward reasonable causes of social distress that leads to social dysfunction and psychopathy. To illustrate his points he ranges through recent history, news items, movies, literature, making this book available to a wider audience than a textbook might be. Unfortunately it's published by a textbook publisher which has raised the price outside the usual range, but if you're rich enough, it's worth it.