Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend

Publisher’s Weekly says of Barbara Oakley’s latest book, Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend :

Borne out of a quest to understand her sister Carolyn’s lifelong sinister behavior (which, systems engineer Oakley suggests, may have been compounded by childhood polio), the author sets out on an exploration of evil, or Machiavellian, individuals. Drawing on the advances in brain imaging that have illuminated the relationship of emotions, genetics and the brain (with accompanying imaging scans), Oakley collects detailed case histories of famed evil geniuses such as Slobodan Milosevic and Mao Zedong, interspersed with a memoir of Carolyn’s life. Oakley posits that they all had borderline personality disorder or antisocial personality disorder, a claim she supports with evidence from scientists’ genetic and neurological research. All the people she considers, Oakley notes, are charming on the surface but capable of deeply malign behavior (traits similar to those found in some personality disorders), and her analysis attributes these traits to narcissism combined with cognitive and emotional disturbances that lead them to believe they are behaving in a genuinely altruistic way.

Reviewer Keith Harris puts it this way:

Although most readers of Oakley’s book fortunately won’t have direct experience of the larger-scale psychopaths, it’s interesting to extend her ideas to the realm of everyday life. Most of us will encounter plenty of our own petty tyrants (a term brought into common parlance by Carlos Castaneda): out-of-control bosses, back-stabbing coworkers, neighbors who persist in outrageous behaviors, obnoxious or shamefully fickle relatives or in-laws. While it’s certainly bad form (and risky if done indiscreetly) to perform shade-tree diagnostics on such people, readers of Oakley’s book will certainly have a lot to think about; perhaps it will provide a little comfort to have some theory at least about what’s behind all the mayhem . . .

That tyrannical boss? Your manipulative boyfriend? Don’t blame them. It’s just the genes talking.