Evil Genes

by OAKLEY, BARBARA PHD

• ISBN13: 9781591025801
• ISBN10: 159102580X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-10-31
• Publisher: Prometheus Books

Summary

Takes readers inside the head of the kinds of malevolent people you know all too well, but could never understand. Starting with psychology as a frame of reference, it uses cutting-edge images of the working brain to provide startling support for the idea that 'evil' people act the way they do mainly as the result of a dysfunction. It is a tour de force of popular science writing that brilliantly melds scientific research with intriguing family history and puts both a human and a scientific face to evil.

Author Biography

Barbara Oakley is an associate professor of engineering at Oakland University in Michigan.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 15
Preface	p. 19
Introduction	p. 23
In search of Machiavelli	p. 39
Psychopathy	p. 49
Evil genes	p. 59
Using medical imaging to understand psychopaths	p. 89
Insights from my sister's love letters	p. 109
The connection between Machiavellianism and personality disorders	p. 131
Slobodan Milosevic : the butcher of the Balkans	p. 151
Lenses, frames, and how broken brains work	p. 173
The perfect "borderpath" : Chairman Mao	p. 211
Evolution and Machiavellianism	p. 253
Shades of gray	p. 285
The sun also shines on the wicked	p. 323
For pondering	p. 345
Acknowledgments	p. 349
Text credits	p. 353
Illustration credits	p. 355
Endnotes	p. 359
Glossary	p. 401
Index	p. 417
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.