––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://www.legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
- Posted November 15, 2012
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
The legal field attracts psychopaths, author says
By Debra Cassens Weiss
American Bar Association
Courtesy of Scientific American /Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
CEOs and lawyers are among the professions with the most psychopaths--evidence that psychopathic traits aren't all bad, according to a new book by an Oxford research psychologist.
The book is The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What saints, spies and serial killers can teach us about success. The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have reviews.
It's a matter of degree, author Kevin Dutton argues in the book. At the high end of the scale are serial killers like Ted Bundy. But some psychopathic traits can pave the way to success and help people deal with the stresses of living, Dutton says. His "Seven Deadly Wins" are ruthlessness, charm, focus, mental toughness, fearlessness, mindfulness and action.
Dutton says some professions attract people with psychopathic tendencies, and lawyers are second on the list. The Post quotes one successful lawyer who spoke to Dutton. "Deep inside me there's a serial killer lurking somewhere," the lawyer says. "But I keep him amused with cocaine, Formula One, booty calls, and coruscating cross-examination."
Dutton developed his list of the top psychopathic professions through an online survey last year, he told Smithsonian.com in an interview. "Any situation where you've a got a power structure, a hierarchy, the ability to manipulate or wield control over people, you get psychopaths doing very well," Dutton said.
Digital Spy listed Dutton's top 10 most psychopathic professions:
1) CEO
2) Lawyer
3) Media (TV/radio)
4) Salesperson
5) Surgeon
6) Journalist
7) Police officer
8) Clergyperson
9) Chef
10) Civil servant
Published: Thu, Nov 15, 2012
headlines Ingham County
- Burgee recognized as a ‘Michigan Go To Lawyer’ for business transactions
- MLaw student is presented with Wanda Nash Award
- Videos aim to explain the court system
- 5Qs: Michigan Law School Professor Eve Brensike Primus makes case for improving indigent defense with more public defenders
- From interrogation to liberation
headlines National
- This Los Angeles lawyer found her calling as a death doula
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- Artificial intelligence tools for brief writing and analysis are a small firm litigator’s new best friend
- Baker McKenzie partner drops suit seeking IRS documents on partnership scrutiny
- Family members sue networks after learning of loved ones’ deaths by seeing bodies on TV
- Ex-BigLaw attorney once ‘consumed with remorse’ over $10M client theft sentenced in new scheme