Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Chapters 4 and 5

In chapter five of Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test, he meets with a known murderer to determine whether or not he can identify him as a psychopath. Emmanuel Constant, or Toto, was an anti-supporter of the Haitian exiled democratic president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Toto organized a group called the FRAPH to terrorize the supporters of Aristide, which usually involved kidnapping the man of the house to torture him and gang raping the women. Toto fled to America when Aristide returned to power in 1994 and was later arrested in New York. But Toto was not going to go out without a fight, and told the media that the CIA encouraged the formation of FRAPH and funded him as well. Threatening to reveal American secrets on their foreign policy in Haiti, U.S. authorities released him from jail and gave him a green card to work in the U.S. However, he had many restrictions. He was not allowed to talk to media, and he had to live with his mother in Queens without leaving. Ronson found it intriguing that a  murder could settle with his mother in a suburb of Queens so he decided to visit. The visit was brief but when Ronson found out Toto was sent to the Coxackie Correctional Facility he decided to pay another visit. Toto originally showed several qualities of a psychopath but after being interviewed for a second time, Ronson decided there was not way he could be a psychopath. Ronson wanted to use his findings with Toto to analyze his friend Tony's behavior.

Personally I found chapter four to be a little more challenging to read and took more interest in chapter five. When Ronson first interviewed Toto I for sure thought he was a psychopath. He possessed many of the characteristics on the Hare PCL-R checklist. But yet Ronson decided he was not a psychopath. It makes you think that maybe Hare's checklist is not exactly accurate because Toto fit many of the "requirements" of a psychopath. I am starting to think that there is no clear definition of a psychopath or certain way to identify them.

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