This is a very interesting book. I like the way the author describes the different traits of psychopaths and how they manifest themselves differently in people. The case studies were fascinating. This book is a great read for both mental health professionals as well as lay persons.

Making a Psychopath is a well written book attempting to describe and dispel some preconceived notions about psychopaths and serial killers. Dr. Freestone takes us on a tour of his interactions with several individuals that have completed terrible acts against others. Dr. Freestone shares that the term psychopath is overused and that an individual labeled with this diagnosis is most often afflicted with others such as: autism, borderline personality disorder, other personality disorders, and schizophrenia. Seven case studies were presented it this book so that the reader can understand the individuals being discussed. It was interesting to read about each of the individuals and gain an understanding of what may have precipitated their awful actions. This book provides valuable insight into what may have contributed to the actions of these seven individuals, including temperament, background, and family life. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really was happy to get a copy but outside of the first chapter, it just didn't hold my interest. I wanted the cases to be more in depth.

It's not a bad read, just not for me.

The author chose to focus on the stories of various people he had worked with that have a diagnosis of psychopathy. It is an interesting read.

This wasn’t exactly a scientific research study book, but more of a memoir through the author’s experience with very different people and how they all qualify as psychopaths more on a scale of traits than the typical movie trope.

I did pick this up for the Killing Eve reference that he worked on helping create her character, but there was not much in depth on that. Oddly enough I didn’t mind as his observations were really intriguing about his other profiles.

The biggest take away from this book I had is that just like other health studies, males have been studied and documented throughly enough to diagnose. Women, however, have not. Towards the end around the one female, he agrees she presents exactly as a male on traits and yet there are far more women psychopaths out there that have never been studied, as they very very likely present psychopathy different than their male counterparts. I want to read an entire book about that.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to read this book primarily because of my extensive education in psychology, but I was deeply disappointed in it. The best of the book was the first chapter entitled The Masks of Psychopathy as it provided the most information about the psychopath. Following that was the 7 case studies. I don’t have an issue with the seven being composites — many books that have case studies typically are composites. But the subtitle of The Making of a Psychopath is misleading - My Journey into 7 Dangerous Minds. These were not journeys at all, they were more like brief visits, outings or day trips if I am being generous. The reader doesn’t get to really know these people and that makes it difficult to understand them. I think what is missing from these vignettes is a real psychological understanding and it was very telling to me that in the chapter about Danny, the author refers to what a psychologist said about Danny. Well, that got me curious and I discovered that the author was neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist. Rather he is a sociologist and he has a doctorate so can rightly call himself a doctor, which he does do as the author of this book though it is misleading. So now that I know this about the author, I realize that I was looking for a psychological case study, which the author was not able to provide. And that he was a consultant on a TV show featuring a psychopath does not give him the credentials I was looking for, and actually expecting from the author of such a book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really, really wanted to like this book. The synopsis sounded fantastic, and while I’ve never heard of Dr. Mark Freestone, I was interested in hearing about his encounters with people who have psychopathic tendencies. I should have seen the part about him having a TV show as a red flag, because to me he seems like the British Dr. Phil.

The synopsis was quite misleading. This isn’t a look into the minds of “the world’s most violent real-life criminals”, it was just the author’s account of seven people who were diagnosed as being psychopaths, along with a lot of boring personal stories about himself. The whole book is him re-diagnosing the seven people with things like autism, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia, even though his PhD is in sociology. I’m not sure what his qualifications are to diagnose major psychiatric disorders, but it seemed like rambling pontification to me.

The stories about each person were really incomplete - an interesting tidbit would be thrown out, then the author would leave it and continue on with mind-numbing psychobabble. The ending was mostly about how the “psychopath” label is misused and over-diagnosed, which is probably true. I did learn that the UK prison system is much more kind than America’s, that’s for sure. This read like a textbook in a lot of parts, but then the parts that weren’t medical were poorly written and loose. I saw it through, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it. There have to be better books on the subject than this. A disappointed two stars for this one.

(Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Dr. Mark Freestone, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

Really well written book about the intricacies of people diagnosed as psychopaths. Too often this word is thrown around as a general description of people who behave badly. Mark Freestone did an excellent job of holding your attention with a good mix of clinical and anecdotal information.