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Snakes in Suits: Psychopaths in the Workplace

by Paul Babiak

Snakes in Suits: Psychopaths in the Workplace Cover
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Synopses & Reviews

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Publisher Comments:

Let's say you're about to hire somebody for a position in your company. Your corporation wants someone who's fearless, charismatic, and full of new ideas. Candidate X is charming, smart, and has all the right answers to your questions. Problem solved, right? Maybe not.

We'd like to think that if we met someone who was completely without conscience — someone who was capable of doing anything at all if it served his or her purposes — we would recognize it. In popular culture, the image of the psychopath is of someone like Hannibal Lecter or the BTK Killer. But in reality, many psychopaths just want money, or power, or fame, or simply a nice car. Where do these psychopaths go? Often, it's to the corporate world.

Researchers Paul Babiak and Robert Hare have long studied psychopaths. Hare, the author of Without Conscience, is a world-renowned expert on psychopathy, and Babiak is an industrial-organizational psychologist. Recently the two came together to study how psychopaths operate in corporations, and the results were surprising. They found that it's exactly the modern, open, more flexible corporate world, in which high risks can equal high profits, that attracts psychopaths. They may enter as rising stars and corporate saviors, but all too soon they're abusing the trust of colleagues, manipulating supervisors, and leaving the workplace in shambles.

Snakes in Suits is a compelling, frightening, and scientifically sound look at exactly how psychopaths work in the corporate environment: what kind of companies attract them, how they negotiate the hiring process, and how they function day by day. You'll learn how they apply their "instinctive" manipulation techniques — assessing potential targets, controlling influential victims, and abandoning those no longer useful — to business processes such as hiring, political command and control, and executive succession, all while hiding within the corporate culture. It's a must read for anyone in the business world, because whatever level you're at, you'll learn the subtle warning signs of psychopathic behavior and be able to protect yourself and your company — before it's too late.

Review:

"Psychopaths are described as incapable of empathy, guilt, or loyalty to anyone but themselves; still, spotting a psychopath isn't easy. Babiak, an industrial and organizational psychologist, and Hare (Without Conscience), creator of the standard tool for diagnosing psychopathology, present a study of the psychopath in the corporate landscape. A common description of psychopathology states that subjects 'know the words but not the music;' Babiak and Hare state that 'a clever psychopath can present such a well-rounded picture of a perfect job candidate that even seasoned interviewers' can be fooled. In between a disposable series of narrative acts that follow a psychopath's progress ('Act I, Scene I - Grand Entrance;' 'Act III, Scene II - An Honest Mistake?' 'Act V, Scene I - Circle the wagons'), thorough research and anecdotes from a number of sources-current literature, news media, and showbiz among them-to illuminate the power of the psychopath to manipulate those around him, as well as what strategies can be used to identify and disarm him. Clear and complete, this is a handy overview for managers and HR, with enough 'self-defense' techniques to help coworkers from getting bit." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Book News Annotation:

Babiak, a practicing industrial and organizational psychologist, and Hare (psychology emeritus, U. of British Columbia) examine the reasons why psychopaths thrive in the atmosphere of high-risk, high-commitment organizations and industries. Using a running scenario, they describe (for non-psychopaths) identifying suspicious behaviors, dealing with manipulation, playing roles in the psychopath's drama, having conflicting doubts and observations, and protecting yourself and your company. They give a number of truly frightening but mercifully short examples from their own experience. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Synopsis:

A noted corporate psychologist teams up with the author of "Without Conscience" to take a revealing look at psychopaths in the workplace--how to spot their destructive behavior and stop them from creating chaos in the modern corporate organization.

About the Author

Paul Babiak, Ph.D., is an industrial and organizational psychologist and president of HRBackOffice, an executive coaching and consulting firm specializing in management development and succession planning. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company. He lives in Dutchess County, New York, with his wife.

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claudichameleon, March 13, 2009 (view all comments by claudichameleon)
Having lived with a true psychopath for over 20 years, I know how hard it is to recognize & deal with people like this. (He was diagnosed by many different psychiatric/psychological professionals over many years.) If you don't know them personally & spend lots of time in therapy & studying hundreds of books & such about them, they are almost impossible to spot & even when they're manipulating you, you'd swear it wasn't so. Babiak & Hare give good descriptions & advice about how to spot & deal with people like this, although because it's in a business context, & thus it's limited. I've seen the man I lived with completely take over a work situation with super intelligent, educated, smart, reasonable people...many of them psychiatrists, psychologists, & social workers!...& within a couple of months completely upset & control everyone there. REPEATEDLY! Going from place to place & perfecting his MO along the way. If you hadn't seen it & didn't know, you'd never believe it could be done so easily. He considered it a challenge to work with Psychology professionals & said he found them easier to manipulate than many others. But anyone in a profession that has status was his ideal prey. He liked to bring people down & the higher up the status ladder they were the more he enjoyed it. I don't think Babiak went into enough detail about the sadistic & sado-sexual aspects of psychopaths, which is a very strong commonality in most of them. And the sadism doesn't have to be sexual to "get them off". Nor are they usually fussy about gender. Hurting anyone is just fun for them, adult, child, male, female, anyone. THAT SADISM is really what people need to keep in mind. (Babiak really should have stressed this more.) Unlike ordinary people, psychopaths will painstakingly set up situations in which they can manipulate hurting someone. They set "traps" & slowly manoeuvre people into them, delighting when the trap snaps shut & their prey is terribly wounded.
Still, the book is very good as far as it goes & it enlightens in the respect of providing an answer for the questions so many ordinary people ask when horrendous corporate-political crimes come to light: "How could anyone do that? Who are these people anyway?"

It's all about learning the PATTERNS psychopaths & their victims adhere to. Once you learn those & have them firmly in mind, then you can see when the patterns are unfolding...in anyone, anywhere. Like Dr. Frank's book, "Bush on the Couch", you learn that there are actually a lot of "psychos" out there; recently there have been a lot of them in very high places; they often form their own "clubs", involving several or many of them in tight nit groups (like the Skull & Bones Club the Bushes were in); & no matter where they are they all follow certain very distinctive behaviour PATTERNS.

These things might have been made clearer in the book. But really, if anyone is interested in this topic, they should read several books!
The most important thing I've found in recognizing & dealing with a psychopath, is to be BRUTALLY HONEST yourself! This, I think is another reason they "home in on" the corporate context...where, in recent years (under politicians who favour unbridled/anything-goes "free trade" w/o any regulations or restraints) a kind of ruthless/conscienceless lawlessness, brutality, & greed were praised!...Psychopaths very much fit the bill. (As the authors emphasize.)
When so many people are not being really honest with themselves or others, psychopaths have a huge opening to slip into. And because of pride, people will deny that they're being abused by someone, & even make excuses & justifications defending that individual to maintain the illusion of being in control themselves.

Though all abusers aren't total psychopaths, psychopaths are always abusers. And the same things that apply to battered-wives & other victims of long term abuse, also apply to those who have suffered the creeping stealthy sadism of psychopaths. Once you've been there...provided you survive it & are honest enough to admit it & then learn about it...you really do see the patterns enacted every time, for anyone, anywhere.
Anyone who is really honest & really looks at the facts without rose coloured glasses, excuses, justifications, denial, knee-jerk projections or other EVASION tactics...will see the Bush administration & the leaders of the "neo-Cons" (& "Cons" they were!) following the same patterns of psychopathic behaviour unwaveringly. Then you also see the "neo-Dems" (wimpy Democrats!) as following the patterns of "battered-wives" & victims of psychopathic bullying behaviour.

But I guess that's another couple of book or three.
Maybe Babiak & Hare will do some follow-ups. There just can't be too many books about this because people really do need to learn to recognize such people, identify their behaviour patterns, & unstintingly learn to counter their abuse.
This book is a very good start.
CC *-)

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780060837723
Subtitle:
When Psychopaths Go to Work
Author:
Babiak, Paul
Author:
Hare, Robert D.
Publisher:
Libri
Subject:
Human Resources & Personnel Management
Subject:
Organizational Behavior
Subject:
Psychology, Industrial
Subject:
Antisocial personality disorders
Subject:
Industrial & Organizational Psychology
Publication Date:
May 2006
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
336
Dimensions:
9.20x6.68x1.16 in. 1.33 lbs.

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