Surrounded by Psychopaths

**Author:** Thomas Erikson **Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn** How to recognize manipulative people who live among us, understand the psychological tactics they use, identify your own vulnerabilities, and build practical defenses against those who would exploit your natural tendencies for their own gain.

**Who This Book Is For** Anyone who has ever felt confused by a colleague who took credit for their work, a partner who made them question their own memory, a friend who isolated them from everyone else, or a boss whose charm never matched their results. This book is for people who want to protect themselves without becoming cynical, and for those who suspect the wolves are already inside the pen.

The shepherd has a thousand sheep. Someone mentions two wolves nearby. What does the shepherd want to know? Most people ask about the wolves. Where are they? How hungry are they? How can I stop them? But the shepherd knows something most of us forget. The wolves are already inside the pen. They arrived weeks ago. They have been living among the sheep, eating well, growing comfortable. The shepherd does not need to find the wolves. The shepherd needs to figure out which of the animals in the flock are not actually sheep at all. Thomas Erikson opens his book with this image, and it captures something unsettling about modern life. We spend enormous energy worrying about external threats. We install security systems. We lock our doors. We avoid dangerous neighborhoods. But the people most likely to harm us are already inside our lives. They sit in the next cubicle. They share our bed. They attend our family dinners. They manage our departments. They lead our organizations. The statistics are uncomfortable. Researcher Robert Hare, who spent decades studying psychopathy, estimates that two to four percent of the population qualifies as psychopathic. In the United States alone, that means roughly seven million people. Most of them are not in prison. Only the ones with the worst impulse control end up behind bars. The rest walk among us, and they cause extraordinary damage. Erikson tells the story of a young man who approached him after a university lecture. The man stared at Erikson with an unnerving intensity and wanted to know how to use behavioral psychology to take advantage of people. Erikson felt the hair on his neck stand up. He gave a vague answer and moved on. Years later, Erikson learned what happened to that young man. He had taken a job at a company, embezzled a hundred thousand dollars, impregnated two colleagues, drove one of them to a suicide attempt, put two others on extended sick leave for psychological distress, and forced the…