TED Talk: Ronson and his Psychopathic Symptoms

Once upon a blog post assignment, Mrs. Genesky told us to watch a TED Talk.  This is the one I chose:

Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

Jon Ronson believes that psychiatry diagnoses people with normal attributes psychological disorders by only judging the extremes of people (which we do as human nature).  This TED Talk is about a man who begins his story with himself, Ronson, visiting a friend's house and noticing the DSM manual on a shelf.  Very curious to see if he had any psychological disorders, Ronson decided to look through it and self-diagnosed himself with twelve different disorders.  Ronson believed himself to be an extremely normal thing, and these characteristics were parts of himself that he believed to be normal.  He spoke to a Scientologist on this topic and this Scientologist (Brian) was able to get Ronson an interview with a man named "Tony."  Tony was sentenced to five years in prison, so in order to avoid harsh punishment, he faked being mentally insane.  He faked being insane quite well and went to the harshest medical treatment center, Broadmoor.  Ronson spoke with Tony and, following the interview, Tony was perceived to be quite a normal man by Ronson so Ronson contacted the hospital's doctors and asked them why he was still in there.  The doctors told Ronson that Tony didn't have the afflictions he claimed to have, but he was in there instead for being a psychopath.  After becoming trained in recognizing psychopaths, Ronson begins to see the psychopath in everybody, particularly those who are succeeding in a capitalist economy.  Eventually, Tony was let out of prison because the jury decided (during his tribunal) that one cannot be judged based on a checklist.  

Here's the psychopathy checklist:

• glib and superficial charm
• grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
• need for stimulation
• pathological lying
• cunning and manipulativeness
• lack of remorse or guilt
• shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
• callousness and lack of empathy
• parasitic lifestyle
• poor behavioral controls
• sexual promiscuity
• early behavior problems
• lack of realistic long-term goals
• impulsivity
• irresponsibility
• failure to accept responsibility for own actions
• many short-term marital relationships
• juvenile delinquency
• revocation of conditional release
• criminal versatility

I believe the purpose behind Ronson giving this TED Talk is to make the audience more open minded about perceiving other people, and be very careful about putting people in boxes.  He even states:  "you shouldn't define people by their maddest edges."  He points out flaws in the psychiatric practices, and in his practices as a journalist:  we take the most exaggerated moments of someone's life and personality then judge them based on it. 

I find his argument to be credible because he has clearly done his research on the topic.  He took classes on psychopathy spotting, and even did his own field work in which he found out how to interpret the checklist he was given and understand the hiccups in the information he learned. In addition, I find his exploration of different perspectives, from scientologist to psychiatrist to give him a well-rounded argument.  (Side note:  this sounds like a really good ToK paper).  Conversely, his argument could be discredited because he is a journalist, and therefore would not have the extensive knowledge that developed the psychiatrist's perspective in the first place.

Ronson's argument is strong because, as stated above, his research was extensive.  He used a wide variety of resources for his claims, and was clearly knowledgeable on the topic.  Ronson also constructed his story in chronological order, which really helped me (the audience) follow along.  This type of structure and the ease at which the audience was able to follow really helped the soaking and recollection of the main points of his argument.  It was very interesting how he had a main story (Tony's) and in the middle he added a sub-story (Al Dunlap).  The structure and the ease at which Ronson integrated the information into his TED Talk appealed to the logic of the audience.  Ronson would also make a claim and prove it through his real-life experiences and research on the claim.

A large part of Ronson's presentation was humor.  I must admit, I did laugh when Ronson was describing Al Dunlap's home as "Narnia."  He used humor that fit really well with the parts of his experiences he was describing, which only reinforced and made his argument more persuasive.  The lack of dirty humor really makes Ronson a more believable person.  He does push feelings from happiness and relief to sadness and disappointment by describing Tony's arc of freedom and re-incarceration.  The effects of these make the story more enticing and more believable.  Without some of these details, the story may have been received with more skepticism.

I found this talk extremely interesting!  Part of what made me choose it was the concept of the title, and it made me think, what composes a psychopath?  I really enjoy learning what makes people tick and what interesting perspectives this man would reveal to me.  Also, there were around 3.8 million views, which implies that this is an extremely good story.  This story, as a whole, relates to me because I tend to organize and label people without fully analyzing what composes them as a whole. What really intrigued me throughout the story was Tony's duality in nature.  In some parts of the story, I could see the non-psychopathic reasoning behind his actions, and in others I could absolutely discern the psychopathic tendencies in him.

I highly recommend watching this TED Talk!