Dutton takes the view that we often miss what should be the obvious anomaly sidelined by the charm – But is it all smoke and fingers?
Kevin Dutton is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. He is specialises in the study of Psychopaths, but rather than the traditional forensic route Dutton takes interest how the ‘symptoms’ of psychopathy can have an advantage in a modern world that is fraught with stressors. The psychopath often described as having a selection of specific traits such as cunning and manipulativeness, lack of remorse or guilt, callousness and lack of empathy, charm, grandiose estimation of self, need for stimulation and pathological lying. Not the best characteristics to put on a C.V. It is included in the DSM under the classification of Antisocial Personality Disorder. However in his book The Wisdom of Psychopaths Dutton discusses how these traits are rewarded in society particularly as resistance to stress where others feel the pressure, psychopaths are able to thrive. Self doubt and fear can impair decision making, the psychopath is arguably resistant to this –but would you want one as your boss? Dutton is clear that this is far from the glorification of violent psychopaths (stating only a small minority of psychopaths are violent) rather acknowledging that the ‘spectrum of psychopathy‘ which all people can be measured and the right characteristics in the right circumstances can be a force for good – hence his term ‘the good psychopath‘.
Here is a quote from Dutton’s book the Wisdom of Psychopaths, from James Geraghty cited as one of the UK’s leading neurosurgeons.
“I have no compassion for those whom I operate on. That is a luxury I simply cannot afford. In the theatre I am reborn: as a cold, heartless machine, totally at one with scalpel, drill and saw. When you’re cutting loose and cheating death high above the snowline of the brain, feelings aren’t fit for purpose. Emotion is entropy, and seriously bad for business. I’ve hunted it down to extinction over the years.”
Do we need people like this in such high stakes roles where emotion maybe a hindrance rather than a help? Or is compassion an essential characteristic that allows a surgeon to consider the long term impact of their work?
In fact jobs that Psychopaths are believed to flourish in are;
Kevin Dutton
1. CEO
2. Lawyer
3. Media (Television/Radio)
4. Salesperson
5. Surgeon
6. Journalist
7. Police officer
8. Clergy person
9. Chef
10. Civil servant
here’s the list of occupations with the lowest rates of psychopathy:
Dutton takes the view that we often miss what should be the obvious anomaly sidelined by the charm – But is it all smoke and fingers?
Kevin Dutton is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. He is specialises in the study of Psychopaths, but rather than the traditional forensic route Dutton takes interest how the ‘symptoms’ of psychopathy can have an advantage in a modern world that is fraught with stressors. The psychopath often described as having a selection of specific traits such as cunning and manipulativeness, lack of remorse or guilt, callousness and lack of empathy, charm, grandiose estimation of self, need for stimulation and pathological lying. Not the best characteristics to put on a C.V. It is included in the DSM under the classification of Antisocial Personality Disorder. However in his book The Wisdom of Psychopaths Dutton discusses how these traits are rewarded in society…
Death of a Rising Star: March 31, 1995: Selena is shot to death by the President of her Fan Club.
Her death, 20 years ago today, on March 31, 1995, rocked the Latin music community and devastated millions of fans. The Grammy-winning performer was a fashion icon and a role model for many young women. As TIME described her shortly after her death, “[s]he was the embodiment of young, smart, hip, Mexican-American youth, wearing midriff-baring bustiers and boasting of a tight-knit family and a down-to-earth personality — a Madonna without the controversy.”
When she died, she had just recorded her first album in English and, per CBS News, “was poised to become a crossover success when her death turned her into a legend.”
Her death was even more shocking because it came at the hands of a woman once considered one of Selena’s biggest fans: Yolanda Saldivar, who had founded Selena’s fan club in San Antonio.
Saldivar had also been hired to manage Selena’s clothing boutique, Selena Etc., but was fired a few weeks before the shooting when Selena’s family discovered that she had been embezzling money, Selena’s father told the New York Times in 1995. Selena demanded that Saldivar return some of the boutique’s financial documents, and they agreed to meet at a Days Inn motel in Selena’s hometown of Corpus Christi. But Saldivar refused to turn over the documents, shot the singer and then fended off police during a nine-hour standoff while she sat in a pickup truck in the motel parking lot, holding a gun to her own head.
While Selena has retained her fan base and even attracted a new generation of fans following her death, Saldivar remains in prison, where she is serving a life sentence for the murder. (She will be eligible for parole in 2025.) She has filed a string of unsuccessful appeals, arguing, among other things, that prosecutors coerced her confession and that she received ineffective legal counsel.
She may be better off in prison, however, given the fury of Selena devotees. In 2012, Saldivar’s brother told TMZ that she was still being held in solitary confinement for her own safety. Selena’s father recently told a Corpus Christi TV news reporter that he thought an early release would be a harsher punishment than life in prison.
“Not very many people like her,” he said.
Read TIME’s original coverage of Selena’s death, here in the TIME Vault: Death of a Rising Star
Dutton takes the view that we often miss what should be the obvious anomaly sidelined by the charm – But is it all smoke and fingers? 
Death of a Rising Star: March 31, 1995: Selena is shot to death by the President of her Fan Club.
Forensic Files 