Sociopath by Patric Gagne – Book review

The word ‘sociopath’ does not come with the most positive connotations, so when I saw this book, a memoir by Patric Gagne, I was really intrigued. Growing up in America, she is the daughter of a music mogul and follows his footsteps into music management, this is her real-life account of life as a sociopath.

From the beginning it’s made clear that this isn’t a crime story detailing a dark and disturbing life, but one of a woman who struggles with fitting into society, and how she navigates her urges and impulses and people’s reactions when she tells them she is a sociopath.

What is a sociopath?

If you look up ‘what is a sociopath?’ most results say something along the lines of: Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong.

This is something that Patric struggled with her whole life. Sociopath explores this and details her struggles with the lack of resources and help for people with her condition. This memoir is essentially her story of initial self diagnosis due to the lack. For example, she discovered that ‘sociopath’ wasn’t listed as a separate disorder in an overarching journal, often lumped in with psychopath.

The key difference being that sociopaths have the ability to learn the emotions they don’t naturally have, psychopaths don’t. So Patric felt overlooked and misunderstood for a long time, as she felt she had the ability to learn the emotions she naturally lacked.

Overlooked and misunderstood

From her disruptive behaviour growing up – stealing cars at university, regularly breaking into empty houses to be in the quiet of somewhere – Patric knows she has impulses and has to act on them to make her feel better, which is what’s causing her problems.

Coupled with her ‘nothingness inside’ and total lack of guilt or remorse, she watches and copies people to see their behaviour to certain situations and masks to try and appear how other people expect her to. Interestingly, this is exactly what Fern Brady describes in her memoir, Strong Female Character, where she talks about her autism diagnosis. Not suggesting they are the same in any way, just an observation.

A key moment for Patric is when she meets the love of her life, David, as he helps ground and navigate her, saying to her at one point:

“You have a choice about whether you want to be a bad sociopath, or a good one. And it’s your choice Patric, not anyone else’s.”

Throughout the book, it’s clear there have been a lot of conflict and struggles in Patric’s life. There are sad moments where she says she feels exploited by her friends sometimes, or they use her as a blank canvas to project their emotions onto, which is exhausting for her. They use the fact she’s not ruled by emotion to their benefit.

Overall, Sociopath was an interesting read, she ends on a positive note to show that the connotations usually associated with the condition can be changed and it’s her aim to make sure other people that need help like she does, get it.

• Get your copy of Sociopath here;
• Audiobook narrated by Patric Gagne;
• Running time: 11 hours 07 minutes;
• Published by Pan Macmillan 2024;
• 368 pages;
• Book review rating: