Surrounded by Psychopaths: How to Protect Yourself from Being Manipulated and Exploited in Business (and in Life) [The Surrounded by Idiots Series]

I cannot emphasize enough how much young professionals need to read this. After reading his first book 'Surrounded by Idiots', there was a rapid change in my perspective as i could relate it to almost every single person in my life and I could definitely understand that how a professional who might seem like an idiot is necessary for an efficient team depending on the color they fall under. This book takes it a step further to understand the "phsycopaths" amongst those 4 colors. As the author mentioned that this book is a bit more darker and harsher than his previous one and I definitely agree to that, but let's face it not everything is unicorns and rainbows. Personally, both his books have helped me a lot professionally and I can totally see how some people might find value from this in their personal lives as well. I highly recommend this book for young professionals who have a couple of years of corporate exposure. With all that said, I would not recommend reading this book before the previous one 'Surrounded by Idiots', although the author does a quick recap in the beginning, I felt it would have a stronger impact if the reader is well aware of the 4-color-idiots from his first book.

Reading last two chapters in which are some main points, reading about author, reading various of the chapters within for starters--only starters for now-- seems book will be of value for those uninformed about the disc system and about how a psychopath is correctly defined for now and how to avoid being mistaken for one by others. For now notes on self defense echo most advice one finds in various places about aimng to leave and do it safely if at all possible when dealing with one or more such individals in any sphere of life. Author gives reasons why it's important. This reveiw may or may not be reconsidered later.

this author has a great sense of humor and delivery. He is from the UK so he has a few approaches that are a bit less nuanced then I prefer. For instance not everyone is a psychopath, some are not antisocial at all, they may be Narcissistic personality disordered. This is something he does not go over at all. So that was my biggest rub. Otherwise, informative, entertaining and easy to grasp.

I can easily recommend this book to anyone and everyone I know. The people he describes really exist. My father and his brothers were abused and damaged by one. Later, my family was torn apart by one. Then, I worked for a family who all had those traits and used them to grind people down. I nearly lost everything, including my mind and my will to live. It wasn’t until I left completely that I saw how dire my situation had become. I also learned why I may have been the type that was frequently a target for narcissists and psychopaths. It took months away from the psychopath bosses (a father with narcissistic and psychopathic tendencies, one covert narcissist son and one overt malignant narcissistic son with psychopathic tendencies). But I recovered a good deal of myself. My mother even said, “Thank god you left that Hell hole! I’ve finally got my daughter back!”

This is a great book. However, the author can be quite repetitive. I believe it’s on purpose, to hammer home the message. But it can be slightly off-putting. I encourage you to read on past those parts. The observations and insight you will gain may literally save your life.

The author conflates psychopathy with ASPD and makes too many either controversial or incorrect claims. Yes, psychopaths are born with a structural brain difference. Psychopathy is not nurtured. However, the inability to consider consequences, sadism and grandiosity go with ASPD. ASPD is a personality disorder! Personality disorders stem from attachment injuries sometimes combined with genetic factors. ASPD is nurtured. It can and has been successfully treated before. And don't get me started on the childish 'point, grunt, BAD' way that the author disparages these individuals. It's hardly better than the way every lay person calls their ex a narcissist, by which they really just mean 'bad person'. People with personality disorders are still human beings. Characterizing them this way does not help; if anything, a person with ASPD becomes justified in their antisocial perspective because society is anti-them. I did like the vignettes and explanations of manipulation tactics. Always good to get more and more examples when you're trying to successfully identify behavior in your life. The DISC (or maybe just the way it's explained here) has got to be the most overly simplistic model of personality I've come across. But if you can overlook that, it does provide some assistance in conceptualizing others and predicting their behavior.

The surrounded by psychopaths book isn’t very informative. I’m assuming that the other books in the series are written for an 8th grade reading level without much substance just like this book. The advice is only useful if lack common sense. How this author supposedly is an “international bestselling author” is truly beyond me. Returning this book! A waste of money in my honest opinion.