Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil

Dean A. Haycock, PHD, is a science and medical writer living in New York. His books include Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil, Characters on the Couch: Exploring Psychology Through Literature and Film; The Everything Health Guide to Adult Bipolar Disorder, Second and Third Editions, and The Everything Health Guide to Schizophrenia. He earned a PhD in neurobiology from Brown University and a fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health to study at The Rockefeller University. The results of his research, conducted in academia and in the pharmaceutical industry, have been published in Brain Research, the Journal of Neurochemistry, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, and the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, among others. His feature articles have appeared in many newspapers, magazines, and other outlets, including the Huffington Post, Salon, WebMD, Annals of Internal Medicine, the Lancet Neurology, Drug Discovery and Development, BioWorld Today, BioWorld International, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Current Biology. In addition, he has contributed articles on a variety of topics to The Gale Encyclopedia of Science and The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health.

How many times have you seen a murder on the news or on a TV show like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and said to yourself, "How could someone do something like that?" Today, neuroscientists are imaging, mapping, testing, and dissecting the source of the worst behavior imaginable in the brains of the people who lack a conscience: psychopaths. Neuroscientist Dean Haycock examines the behavior of real life psychopaths and discusses how their actions can be explained in scientific terms, from research that literally looks inside their brains to understanding how psychopaths, without empathy but very goal-oriented, think and act the way they do. Some don't commit crimes at all, but rather make use of their skills in the boardroom. But what does this mean for lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, victims, and listeners--for anyone who has ever wondered how some people can be so bad. Could your nine-year-old be a psychopath? What about your co-worker? The ability to recognize psychopaths using the scientific method has vast implications for society, and yet is still loaded with consequences. Contains mature themes.