Product Description

"Snakes in Suits" is a compelling, frightening, and scientifically sound look at exactly how psychopaths work in the corporate environment: what kind of companies attract them, how they negotiate the hiring process, and how they function day by day. You'll learn how they apply their "instinctive" manipulation techniques-assessing potential targets, controlling influential victims, and abandoning those no longer useful-to business processes such as hiring, political command and control, and executive succession, all while hiding within the corporate culture. It's a must read for anyone in the business world, because whatever level you're at, you'll learn the subtle warning signs of psychopathic behaviour and be able to protect yourself and your company-before it's too late.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26685 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Paul Babiak, Ph.D., is an industrial and organizational psychologist and president of HRBackOffice, an executive coaching and consulting firm specializing in management development and succession planning. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company. Robert Hare, Ph.D., is the author of Without Conscience and the creator of the standard tool for diagnosing psychopathy. He is an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, and president of Darkstone Research Group, a forensic research and consulting firm. He has won numerous awards for his research, lectures widely on psychopathy, and consults with law enforcement organizations, including the FBI.

Customer Reviews

a study of the pathological personality
This is an astounding, essential reference when it comes to understanding and dealing with psychopathological individuals in the workplace. They are FAR more prevalent than most people imagine, and especially in positions of power and authority, to which they naturally gravitate.

As the authors point out, psychopaths rarely take the form of 'Hannibal Lectur', but are much more likely to come in the guise of a slick, fast talking, charismatic high-flyer, who ruthlessly backstabs and manipulates his way into positions of power, for personal gain. Basically, they are invisible to anyone who does not have the knowledge of how they operate (ie: the majority), and this is what makes them so lethal.

Psychopathy is not a 'mental illness', it is a personality disorder, and as such, psychopaths are usually free of the normal quirks and neuroses of normal people, and instead operate under the blinding inertia of unquestioning self-confidence, without a hint of self-examination or internal doubt - for the psychopath, emotions are simply used as a dramatic tool, in order to evoke pity, guilt, fear or self-doubt in others, for manipulation purposes; and are completely lacking in connection to any deeper meaning.

This book is founded on extensive experience and clinical studies; eg. the Hare Psychopathy Checklists PCL-R; and builds on the established work of Hervey Cleckley ('Mask of Sanity', also recommended). It pulls back the curtain, shows all the tricks, how they work in practice in the modern corporate environment, and how to defend against them. It describes in some detail the scary surreal reality that the psychopath inhabits, in which conscience and emotion are somehow 'pretend' - how their brains are activated in a completely different pattern (as shown on ECG studies) - everything is a coldblooded 'game' of oneupmanship and self-interest, regardless of consequence.

Thoroughly recommended to anyone in a position of responsibility of assessing people - recruitment or management; and also to anyone studying psychopathy and its implications in the real wold.

A must read for every working person
This books gives a wealth of insight into how to deal with psychopaths in the work place. It clearly outlines how the psychopaths with the use of lying, manipulation and charm often easily manages to get pass the screening interviews for high powered jobs in the workplace. It describes the whole process by which the company and the whole workplace becomes toxic due to the psychopath's influence and it offers the steps and solutions to counteract in order to protect oneself and also for businesses to protect themselves.

Yes a powerful book, that adds to the other book by Robert Hare called "Without Conscience".

Book to be in the every company's first day Orientation program
we know politics and often we are the victim of them and many go on doing them with a feeling of sin and hopelessness believing that this is the only way one can survive. This book is for all the 94% of the population who are not psychopaths. This books written in simple language with wonderful examples and It surely gives you the ability to recognise the psychopaths and most importantly how to survive the dangerous psychopaths who always hides in the magic of slogans to bite the next victim.