Some Recommended Documentaries

Documentaries

A Google and YouTube search will reveal hundreds of movies, documentaries, and websites that feature, describe, or comment on what are, or purportedly are, psychopaths. Unfortunately, far too many of these presentations and commentaries are wildly inaccurate, misleading, or even bizzare. A distressing number of websites have used the PCL-R as a basis for constructing “tests” for determining if you or someone you know might be a psychopath. Others present psychopaths as heroes or as “movers and shakers.” We ask the reader to evaluate these sites critically, and to focus on the legitimate science of psychopathy. Several websites and Internet sources provide up-to-date information on developments in the study of psychopathy (e.g., see www.sssp.com; www.hare.org; aftermath-surviving-psychopathy.org; www.snakesinsuits.com). Many of the researchers to whom we refer in this text have their own websites. Below are several recommended documentaries.

The Psychopath Next Door. https://www.cbc.ca/doczone/episodes/the-psychopath-next-door. A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) documentary by Jeremy Torrie, November 27, 2014. The film received the Aftermath Media Award in 2015. This fascinating hour-long film documents the impact of people with psychopathic traits on those around them. https://aftermath-surviving-psychopathy.org/index.php/2015-aftermath-foundation-media-award-winner/.

Bad Bosses: The Psycho-path to Success? https://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/19/business/psychopath-boss/index.html. A CNN segment and article on psychopathic bosses, January 20, 2012. It made the same mistake about the percentage of psychopathic senior managers as described in S 9.3: The Wall Street “Ten Percenters.”

I, Psychopath. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKvhKI6Kxew. An excellent documentary by Australian Ian Walker, following a self-proclaimed narcissist/suspected psychopath on a disturbing journey into diagnosis and a session in an imaging laboratory in Germany. Hare warned the producer that he was in for a rough time, and that he would not come away from the venture psychologically unscathed. Revealing “off camera” video clips validated this warning.

Psychopath. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60vK6Uw9sSE. A great UK Channel 4 Equinox documentary by Rosalind Arden, with over 5 million views on YouTube. For a transcript of the program, see http://www.hare.org/links/equinox.html. The subject of the program later was released, found with a gun in his car on the way to kill his wife, and died in prison.

I am Fishead: Are Corporate Leaders Psychopaths? https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/i-am-fishead-are-corporate-leaders-psychopaths/. A compelling documentary by Misha Votruba and Vaclav Dejcmar, and narrated by Peter Coyote. The first half is about psychopathy, and the second half about Big Pharma. The producers stated, “We have coined the term Fishead as a metaphor for the fundamental devastating wrongs our society faces today. Fishead is synonymous with these words: problem, devastating, fundamental, selfish, disregard, irresponsible, uncaring, lack of empathy, psychopathic, wrong, mindless, and apathy.”

The Criminal Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7ck8Q_RII. A pilot documentary by Tony Wade for a potential series with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Not picked up.

Psychopath MRI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaTfdKYbudk. A detailed account by Hare of the first SPECT (single proton emission tomography) imaging study of psychopathy (Intrator, J., Hare, R.D., Stritzke, P., Brichtswein, K., Dorfman, D., Harpur, T., Bernstein, D., Handelsman, L., Schaefer, C., Keilp, Rosen, J., & Machac, J. (1997). A brain-imaging (single photon emission computerized tomography) study of semantic and affective processing in psychopaths. Biological Psychiatry, 42, 96-103).