Claudia Moscovici 
Dangerous Liaisons explains the motivations of psychopathic individuals, which are far more relevant to understanding their evil actions than their so-called motives. Motives are often rational and justifiable. By way of contrast, psychopaths’ motivations are always pathological and unjustifiable. What I say here about male psychopaths applies to female psychopaths and male victims as well as to psychopaths and victims of the same gender. In my last book, Velvet Totalitarianism: Post-Stalinist Romania, I described the disordered mentality and policies of a psychopathic dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, who wanted to control and destroy an entire nation. In Dangerous Liaisons, I’m sketching the psychological profile of the garden variety psychopath who wants to control and destroy individual women by seducing them, isolating them from their loved ones, undermining their moral compass and, if he gets the chance, eventually discarding them once he’s sucked all the use value out of them.
Dangerous Liaisons draws upon previous studies of this subject. Hervey Cleckley’s The Mask of Sanity (St. Louis: Mosby, 1976) paved the road for understanding psychopathy during the 1940’s, with significant revisions of that work that continued into the 1970’s. More recently, Robert D. Hare’s Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us (New York: Guilford Press, 1998), as well as the book he co-authored with Paul Babiak, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (New York: Harper Collins, 2006), gave us the contemporary criteria for recognizing its symptoms. Martha Stout’s popular The Sociopath Next Door (New York: Broadway Books, 2005) increased public awareness of this phenomenon. In addition, the psychology research of Sandra L. Brown, M.A. in Women Who Love Psychopaths (Penrose: Mask Publishing, 2009) and in How to Spot a Dangerous Man Before You Get Involved (Alameda, CA: Hunter House, 2005) has helped attune readers to the psychological profile of those who fall prey to psychopaths. Last but not least, the work of Susan Forward, Steve Becker, Roger Melton and Joseph Carver also helps the general public understand better this dangerous personality disorder and its impact on victims.
Unfortunately, even many of the journalists who cover criminal psychopaths in the news appear to be uninformed about this personality disorder. Harrison Koehli, a writer who knows a thing or two about psychopathy, reprimands fellow journalists for not understanding that Neil Entwistle, a man who killed his wife and new baby for no apparent reason, was a psychopath. At the conclusion of his article, Koehli urges us to read carefully Hervey Cleckley’s work and inform ourselves about psychopathy. He states, emphatically, “Widespread knowledge of the reality of psychopathy on this planet is the essential first step to securing our future and that of our children. Make it your priority to spread the word.”
That’s exactly what I do in Dangerous Liaisons. In the first part of the book, I revisit Cleckley’s seminal work on psychopathy, The Mask of Sanity, to explain its most important elements clearly, for a general audience. I also rely upon high-profile media stories that readers are, most likely, already familiar with—such as the cases of Neil Entwistle, Mark Hacking and Drew Peterson—to sketch the psychological profile of psychopaths and their techniques of luring their targets. Identifying dangerous predators is our first line of defense against them. I will also explore the other side of the coin—the kind of targets psychopaths tend to select—in order to present a picture of who might be susceptible to psychopathic seduction, how it happens and why. Being aware of our vulnerabilities to social predators constitutes our second line of defense against them. In the third section, I draw upon studies of recovering victims—or survivors—to discuss strategies of escaping psychopathic seduction and reclaiming one’s life. Freeing oneself and recovering from the psychopathic bond represents the third, and perhaps most powerful, defense against psychopaths. After all, as they say, living well is the best revenge.
By all accounts, psychopathic seduction is unlike any other kind of human experience. It’s more spellbinding and euphoric initially. For that reason, it’s far more addictive and harmful than any other kind of human bond. It’s also more fragile and illusory, likely to disintegrate, quite literally, overnight. Of course, even loving couples may grow apart over time. But previously warm relations with a psychopath can dissolve suddenly and for no apparent reason. When involved with a psychopath, your psychological and moral make-up undergo a radical transformation: always for the worse. When immersed in psychopathic relationships, strong, healthy and confident women can become anxious, insecure and depressed. Previously moral and compassionate women can behave unethically and uncaringly towards those they love.
It’s very difficult for those who have not experienced this kind of mind-control to fully understand it or to relate to those who did. When people tell you, with the best of intentions, to just get over it, they don’t quite grasp what they’re advising you to get over. It’s even harder for normal human beings to comprehend the mentality of the psychopaths themselves, since they’re so abnormal and deficient, despite the mask of sanity that temporarily camouflages their malady. This is why, aside from addressing other victims of psychopathic partners, I also address the general public. I believe that information about this dangerous personality disorder can be potentially useful to everyone, not just to those who are or have been personally involved with psychopaths. Anyone can fall victim to these social predators, even if solid moral principles and clear-cut boundaries may help protect some individuals from (literal) psychopathic seduction. In addition, from a social and psychological perspective, there’s nothing more dangerous, at least in terms of its potential to harm to others, than psychopathic individuals. The most inhumane and destructive leaders in history are psychopathic dictators. The most notorious serial killers, such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, are psychopaths. The infamous individuals like O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson, Mark Hacking and Neil Entwistle, who, seemingly out of the blue and without any remorse, kill their wives or children, are psychopaths as well. Psychopathy is the malady of lovelessness and the psychological root of evil. To understand it better means to protect ourselves better from evil individuals.
Dangerous Liaisons/Legături Periculoase, Editura Vremea, http://www.edituravremea.ro/leg–turi-periculoase–cum-s–recuno–ti-un-psihopat–i-s–scapi-din-mrejele-lui
