The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson

Yep, love JR, and the Psychopath Test is another provocative and fascinating book by him. He uncovers some very disturbing trends during his investigation into the world of mental health

The overriding issue is how mental illness is defined. For example, the DSM, which is the standard psychiatric textbook for diagnosing mental illnesses used to be a slim 65 pages, however by 1980 it was almost 500 pages. Numerous new syndromes with a checklist of symptoms, many which drug companies are eager to exploit

Jon Ronson is always funny and charming, and The Psychopath Test is no exception, however this style belies the very serious issues he uncovers

Essential reading

Another radio legend whose style is far from bombast returns this week: Jon Ronson with his new podcast for Audible, The Debutante. His 2021 series for BBC Sounds, Things Fell Apart, was his best work yet: a series of half-hour dispatches from the origin stories of the culture wars, untangling the knotty roots of the anti-abortion movement, the wave of book-banning in American schools and much more.

He takes this approach again to the story of Carol Howe, the titular debutante of the series. She wasn’t a debutante for long. Becoming a white supremacist in the early 1990s, then, less terrifyingly, an intelligence informant, she was ignored after telling authorities about an extremist rightwing plan to blow up a federal building. A few months later, the Oklahoma City bombings killed 168 and injured more than 680.

“Carol Howe was offering that rarest thing,” Ronson says, his tone as always one of beguiling, often unnerving, childlike wonder, “a momentous conspiracy theory that might actually be true.” His wide-eyed approach to his subjects continues to work because he never sensationalises them and because of his rigour – he tracks down Howe’s old friends and ex-boyfriends and archive recordings to dig into her story. He also leaves some threads tantalisingly untied, respecting the audience’s ability to retain information. All 10 episodes have been released simultaneously. I can confirm the first two are brilliant.

www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Debutante-Audiobook/B0BV18S28C

Good writer but I hate listening to his voice, wish someone else would narrate his stuff. He seems to have a slappable voice if such a thing exists. No doubt me, but his voice is the aural equivalence of Cristiano Ronaldo's face.

I'd agree with him on "halt And Catch Fire" saw it a year or two ago and it's great.