A former burglar and joyrider becomes a specialist in clinical psychology
SOCIOPATH
A memoir
PATRIC GAGNE
368pp. Bluebird. £18.99.
NEURODIVERSITY is a key concern of contemporary politics, education and healthcare. The term encompasses numerous early-onset conditions, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, in which developing brains are said to be “wired differently”. (The contrast is with acquired differences such as head injury or dementia.) Many neurodiverse people feel that society does not make life easy for them. Memoirs by Chris Packham and Dara McAnulty (autism) and Hannah Daly (dyslexia, dyspraxia), among others, have raised public awareness and boosted campaigns for better treatment.
Some kinds of neurodiversity, however, are less well served by the media, and Patric Gagne’s Sociopath: A memoir provides a good example. Its topic is that cluster of sometimes dangerous tendencies, including extreme manipulativeness, disregard for rules and a lack of guilt and empathy, that clinicians have variously labelled psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder, or callousunemotional traits (all hereafter referred to as sociopathic-like conditions, or SLCs). SLC signs often emerge early, and research suggests the causal presence of neurodevelopmental and/or genetic components. Yet other aspects of brain function are also relevant: notably anxiety, in Gagne’s case, and the intelligence that has helped this former joyrider and housebreaker to become a clinical psychologist specialising in sociopathy and domestic violence. The author knows the research, knows what it is like to live with the condition, and skilfully communicates both.
Most descriptions of SLCs are by men, about men. They are more commonly diagnosed in males and, as is the case with autism and ADHD, can look different in males and females. Men and boys are more likely to act out in ways that bring them into the criminal justice system. But female sociopaths also act out. In primary school Gagne steals other kids’ belongings and stabs one of them in the head with a pencil. She, however, gets away with it, in ways that speak eloquently of the intersection of social status, intelligence and societal expectation. In the US and elsewhere, a poor, and poorly educated, boy might not have been so fortunate.
Sociopath tells the story of Gagne’s development chronologically. The child who is aware of being different becomes the angry, self-analysing teenager, then the young woman tempted by bad company, and finally the wife and mother settled with a loving husband and children. It’s a fragile redemption, needing constant work, as she makes clear, and she knows she has been lucky. If at times the narrative arc seems a little neat, well, we all smooth things over when talking about ourselves. An autho
