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.

Chapter 3 Blog

In this chapter, Ronson explores the methods of Canadian psychiatrist, Elliot Barker, and recalls how his program slowly fell apart. One of Barker's ideas he was influenced by a psychotherapist named Paul Bindrim. Bindrim's psychotherapy sessions required patients to remove their clothing so their new sense of physical nakedness would facilitate emotional nakedness. Barker applied this idea to help psychopaths inside the Oak Ridge hospital for the criminally insane. He started to build a stronger connection with much of his patients and patients proved to be more gentle. This is an important point in this chapter to demonstrate the different ways of dealing with psychopaths. Another concept in this chapter is how even doctors become "patients". Ronson uses several examples to show that doctors tire and put involve themselves so much into their projects that they eventually become a patient themselves. Barker retired from his job when a younger prodigy took over named Gary Maier. Maier continued Barker's work but it was also found that their idea of therapy was only worsening the psychopaths. Many of the psychopaths that were released soon committed more crimes. Ronson's idea of this chapter was to illustrate different perspectives of how to treat psychopathy and it's potential outcomes.

I thought this chapter was very detailed, but I actually enjoyed it more than the other chapters. I found it extremely interesting how psychotherapists suggested their patients no to wear any clothes during therapy and how this made patients more comfortable and open up easier. One thing I didn't understand from this chapter is why the government allowed Barker to supply his patients with LSD. I know if I were a Canadian citizen I would not want my tax money paying for drugs for psychopaths. I also didn't think of LSD as a treatment, it mainly distracted the psychopaths from their daily routines. I also thought it was interesting how much freedom some of the psychiatrists gave their patients, like the woman whom they let paint with her own poop. Overall I found this chapter entertaining and it was kind of cool to learn about what kind of treatments were used on psychopaths.