Psychopathy and Law —— A Practitioner's Guide

----- 精神病与法律：从业者指南

ISBN: 9780470972373 出版年：2012 页码：314 Helina Hakkanen-Nyholm Jan-Olof Nyholm Wiley

Psychopathy is a central topic in the practice of forensic psychiatry. There are several excellent books on the subject, with more being published each year. Some of these books, however, are quite weighty and comprehensive and seem better suited for academics and researchers than for busy clinicians. Psychopathy and Law: A Practitioner’s Guide is not one of those books. Editors Hakkanen-Nyholm and Nyholm make clearthattheirgoalistotrytobuildabridgebetween the academic and professional worlds by providing anintegrationoftopicsthathaveimmediatepractical application, but are grounded in an empirical and theoretical approach. The target audience is broad, extending beyond mental health professionals to include practitioners from any field that may involve contact with psychopathic individuals. The goal is certainly a laudable one and, on initial inspection of the 13 concise chapters contained in just under 300 pages,thebookhasgreatappealtothebusyclinician. Thethoughtthathereisabookthatcanbereadcover to cover immediately springs to mind. However, the concisenatureofthechapters,whicharegenerally20 pages or fewer in length, made this an easy book to read in a piecemeal fashion. The book is nicely laid out, with case examples in text boxes sprinkled throughout the chapters. The editors have aimed for breadthofcoverage,andthecontentscoperunsfrom a review of the neurobiology of psychopathy to practical tips for interviewing psychopaths. True to their goal, the editors have limited the biological and neuropsychological empirical findings and theoretical perspectives to only two chapters. The remaining chapters cover topics that are potentially relevant to practitioners dealing with psychopathic individuals. Given the appeal of the book after my initial perusal, I really wanted to like it. Reading through it, however,Ifoundexcellentchaptersinterspersedwith