Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
Although highly controversial, Hervey Cleckley's Mask of Sanity provides one of the most influential clinical descriptions of psychopathy in the 20th century. At the crux of his argument, Cleckley claims that many psychopathic personalities go undiagnosed because they maintain a social mask that conceals their mental disorder and enables them to blend in with society. Furthermore, many of these affected individuals appear to function normally in accordance with standard psychiatric criteria.Intent on detecting and diagnosing the elusive psychopath, Cleckley has compiled an assortment of case studies and offers suggestions for palliative care. This ambitious work aims to define and examine every aspect of this abstract state of being. Ultimately, Cleckley refines the term "psychopath" and strips it of stigmatization.This classic has transformed the psychiatric definition of sanity and continues to provide insight on American society and psychological introspection.… (more)
User reviews
My primary goal was to understand more about the behaviour and thought
Almost immediately, the reader's curiosity is satisfied with some 15, or so, personal accounts of the author's dealings with "psychopaths", as Cleckley so liberally, and perhaps callously, refers. These stories were exactly what I was looking for. Later in the book, he describes these patients, as our doctors; businessmen; etc...
It wasn't until the very end of the book that I had any clue this book was written in the 40's. Most of the book read just as "fresh as ever". My only clues were it's description of homosexuality as "sexual psychosis", and the author's occasional less-than-politically-correct terminology and references. Although I enjoyed this book thoroughly, I couldn't help myself from asking why it seemed like the author, sometimes, seemed so unrelenting and, in my opinion, aggressive in his discourse.
Even having learned much from this interesting and very well-written book, I felt the need to explore more resources that could offer an account of the disorder from a more, perhaps sympathetic, point of view: something of a different perspective than the one Cleckley so adequately presents.
Whilst updated as time passed, the 5th edition still included the now known to be incorrect hypothesis that homosexuality is a mental disorder. Asides for this the book, although written academically, and
I encoutered mention of this work in Robert D Hare's Without Conscience which noted it was one of the pivotal and first works on psychopathology.
It is an interesting book, yet I found the manner in which it is written made the 596 pages feel more like 1,000. I wouldn't recommend it for recreational reading, however if you have an interest in the topic it is quite the seminal work and worthwhile to see where theories and practice came from.