Review of Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go
To Work by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare
Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Dr. Paul
Babiak and Dr. Robert Hare, Regan Books, N.Y. 2006
A Review by
James M. Craven/Omahkohkiaayo i’poyi
I cannot recommend enough, to enough people, the book
"Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Paul
Babiak and Robert Hare. These authors, both highly qualified
on the subject of psychopathy, walk us through, and so richly
illustrate, not only with cutting-edge theory and research, but
also vivid case studies, the "ABCs" of Psychopathy: No
Anxiety; No Bonds; No Conscience. They also illustrate how
the corporate world is increasingly a “target rich” environment
for psychopaths. By the term “corporate world”, they mean not only corporations, but other entities
and institutions we increasingly find corporatized: politico-legal, sociocultural, educational, religious,
etc..
As Robert Hare, inventor of the PCL-SV and PCL-R Checklists for Psychopathy put it:
"I always said that if I wasn't studying psychopaths in prison, I'd do so at the Stock
Exchange.”
The authors begin with explaining the typical behaviors and proclivities of what is referred to as the
general “Anti-Social Personality Disorder” (APD) a diagnostic category found in the American
Psychiatriac Association’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition”
or “DSM- IV” and found among about 3% of the populations of most—not all-- cultures. They then go
on to differentiate, through illustrations and case studies, psychopathy and sociopathy. According to
the authors, psychopathy and sociopathy are closely related and overlapping: malignant narcissism;
shallow affect; lack of empathy and remorse; sense of entitlement and being destined to rule others;
grandiosity; predation; avoidance of taking personal responsibility when things go wrong; adept at
manipulation, schmoozing, networking and conning; see other people as objects to be used and
disposed of when no longer useful; charismatic; thrive on the edge but also calculatingly cautious;
megalomania; cynical and facile deceit; inability to manifest a normal range of human emotions; etc.
The authors note that psychopathy and sociopathy are considered personality disorders and not
forms of mental illness or psychosis per se. Psychosis means that someone cannot, for various
reasons, perceive, understand, react to, or operate within, “reality” as most people, free of psychosis
would. Psychopaths and sociopaths, often not only have a clear understanding of aspects of reality
as most people would understand and react to them, but they even have heightened senses of what
is reality for most people and what most people do; and as predators, they use that knowledge for
their own advantage. For example, most people are not comfortable telling open and naked lies, and
give themselves away when they do so. And since most people think that others are like themselves,
when they encounter the absolute certitude, faked sincerity, and look-straight-into-your-eyes intensity
of a psychopath or sociopath outright lying to them, or manipulating them, they typically react
thinking, that, like themselves, no one could possibly be this certain and appear this sincere if they
were lying; that is precisely what con artists, psychopaths and sociopaths are counting on. As Marx
put it:
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Groucho Marx, that is.
Psychopaths may be distinguished from sociopaths in one fundamental respect. Whereas sociopaths
have no allegiance to, and even contempt for, any values or rules or laws of a wider society beyond
their own small sub-group, such as a gang or cult, psychopaths have no allegiance to anything
transcendent beyond themselves. Within gangs and cults, at war with society, there are certain codes
and sociopaths are capable of holding to forms of allegiance and adherence to transcendent—
beyond the individual--values and rules at least of the sub-group. Psychopaths, are total and ultraindividualists and narcissists, and have no allegiances beyond themselves and their own notions of
their own narrow and selfish interests. Both psychopaths and sociopaths may not only find the
business world a “target-rich” environment, they also can find religious, non-profit, educational, legal,
military and political organizations attractive as well.
According to the authors, the corporate worlds (any organizations run like corporations), are
increasingly a “target-rich” environments for psychopaths for four basic reasons:
1) Some core psychopathic personality traits (“talents”) may seem attractive in job applicants and get
them hired; traits such as: assertiveness; ability to appear genuine when faking sincerity and honesty;
ability to quickly assess vulnerabilities of people and manipulate them; shallow affect; take-charge
narcissism; and expertise manipulating through schmoozing and networking; etc;
2) Superficial notions of effective management and “leadership” (focus on hierarchy; taking charge;
exercise of top-down power and decision-making but with avoidance of accountability; etc) play right
into the hands of psychopaths. Typical proclivities for megalomania, malignant narcissism,
manipulation, intrigue and using/treating people as mere useful objects or instruments, may appear,
to those themselves not real managers or leaders, or even to fellow psychopaths, as “decisive
management”; and even “leadership”. Either like attracts like, or, those lacking substance, typically,
are not willing to select for substance even if they could recognize it.
3) The changing nature and structures of businesses often favor psychopaths. As businesses
become less hierarchical, more lean, more complex and more flat, and as businesses have to
become increasingly flexible and agile, the devolution of power and accountability—or at least
accountability—to what were “lower” levels of corporations, then, in such contexts, the “take-charge”,
ruthless, demanding, manipulative and apparently “results-oriented” managers, often psychopaths,
appear increasingly attractive to those at the top who want power and perks but not proportionate
accountability on themselves. What appear to be “take-charge”, as well as “take-the-heat” types,
sometimes psychopaths, appear to be perfect for those at the very top who want power and perks but
not accountability. Of course, psychopaths typically do the same to those below them.
4) In the context of increasingly lean, complex and agile businesses and other institutions, the types
of individuals who are willing to ignore “cumbersome” and “constraining” rules, laws, best practices in
management, and, are ruthless and devoid of empathy, coupled with abilities to con and manipulate
as well as “direct”, may be attractive in some fast-paced and ultra-competitive organizations.
As Plato, one of the first recorded analysts of psychopathy (along with Lao-tze) put it:
"Those who seek power are invariably the least fit to hold and wield it."
Plato understood, perhaps instinctively, or perhaps from examples around him, that those who would
self-anoint, self-proclaim, self-credential themselves as "leaders", to be parachuted "down" on and
over, those they purport to "lead", demonstrate a certain level of hubris, absolute certainly, malignant
narcissism and megalomania that is breathtaking and extremely dangerous. As an old Chinese
aphorism goes:
"Power is something a good person will not seek, and a bad person should not have."
This book goes far beyond simply listing and illustrating the kinds of behaviors and proclivities that
form the PCL-R or PCL-SV "Checklists of Psychopathy" devised by one of the authors, Dr. Robert
Hare. It gives actual case studies, rich in details, that illustrate how psychopaths get hired, promoted,
operate, and are ultimately caused to exit; either, because of their own ultimately self-revealing and
self-impeaching behaviors, or, because they were finally exposed to the sunlight, accountability and
transparency they eschew and even fear. As the authors show, psychopaths, like the toxic emotional
vampires they are, fear daylight and transparency; they prefer the dark. They do not like to be taped.
They do not like witnesses to conversations. They do not like sustained contact and exposure. They
fear going to paper. They prefer to use surrogates for some of their intrigue. They can lie at the drop
of a hat, and continue to lie, to try to cover-up previous lies. And when caught at lying, they typically
show no remorse or embarrassment, but rather respond with even more embellishment, certitude and
feigned outrage. They are typically very charming, even charismatic, with shallow affect; are adept at
schmoozing, until crossed and exposed. They operate in the shadows and with rumor, and run from
actually confronting face-to-face those they accuse covertly. And they are the first to pre-emptively
accuse others, of precisely what they themselves do and are about: bullying, creating hostile and
toxic workplaces, intrigue, deception, etc. And they typically resent, envy and try to extinguish, those
traits and capabilities they do not possess whether intellectual or emotional.
One area the authors do not explore, and perhaps it is because of their academic preparation and
experience, is the extent to which capitalist and market-based values, institutions actually nurture and
provide target-rich environments for, psychopaths and sociopaths. Capitalism is about profit for power
and power for profit. The supporting “social capital”, or institutions and relationships of capitalism, in
order to generate new markets and effective and profitable demand, celebrate narcissism,
conspicuous consumption, ultra-individualism, living-in-the-moment myopia, wanting it all and wanting
it now, "fake it till you make it", "dress for success", networking, style over substance, shallow affect,
rat-race competition; all of which are values and behaviors not only typical of psychopaths and
sociopaths, but also, what they feed and nurture on. This leads to some cross-cultural and
comparative systems issues that would be interesting to explore: whether the typical 3% of total
populations that are sociopaths and psychopaths in many cultures and systems, are more or less
represented in more communal and less individualistic and less competitive systems and cultures.
Psychopaths are typically hoarders and not sharers of information. They understand well that
information is power. They study organizations and their networks, rewards, punishments and paths
of “upward” mobility well. They typically have a good command of who really holds the power in a
given organization versus what the organizational charts may indicate. They do well on interviews
and know how to deflect questions away from sensitive areas. Many are master psychologists in the
sense, like all predators, they are able to quickly size people up in terms of vulnerabilities and
potential strengths—threats--to them. They are as adept at keeping low profiles and scapegoating
others when mistakes surface, as they are at taking the spotlight and credit for the work of others
when positive outcomes occur.
The authors not only lay out some of the typical “red flags” associated with the presence of
psychopaths and their behaviors in the workplace, they give some proposals to spot them and weed
them out. Psychopaths fear open, free and fair competition in hiring. They fear providing samples of
previous work and detailed reference checks. They fear specificity and accountability in tasking. They
fear specificity on and verification of resumes and employment applications. They fear concrete and
specific performance vetting in interviews and tangible reviews of work and concrete assessments of
actual output produced. They like to be the boss, but deeply resent their own bosses. They will
portray themselves as “team players” but there is only one person—themselves—on the “team” on
which they are “playing”. They believe that “respect” and “trust” can be commanded and/or conned
instead of being earned; and they equate fear with “respect”. They eschew concrete job descriptions
and being held to them.
This is an excellent book rich with practical information as well as actual case studies to illustrate
some of the principles and constructs dealt with in the book. This is not only an excellent supplement
for a psychology or anthropology course, it would be an excellent supplement in many academic
disciplines. This is because psychopaths can be found in many spheres or dimensions of overall
society covered by different academic disciplines: religion, politics, business, academia, media, nonprofits etc.
And finally, although psychopaths typically make up about 3% of most populations, they are
disproportionately represented in management, politics, media, academia and religion. This is
because their defining proclivities and “talents” are often masked or disguised as the “stuff” or
defining qualities and traits of “leadership”, command presence, charisma and “take-charge”
management.
You ignore this book, and its lessons and information, at your own loss and peril.
http://wwwthesixthestate.blogspot.com/2008/07/review-of-snakes-in-suits-when.html