Dangerous Personalities

de Toni Sciarra Poynter, Stephen Hoye

This is not only a great book for learning about different dangerous personality types and how to protect yourself from them, but it's also a fantastic writer's resource for those wanting realism in their bad guys...or even their anti-heroes. Looking for a controversial flaw for your hero? This book has you covered! *Delight* The author, as a former police officer and FBI profiler doesn't go into the clinical terms, but describes the behaviors of people with dangerous personalities using the words of victims in statements to police and the FBI, so they are as you would likely experience them. The personalities he describes are narcissistic, emotionally unstable, paranoid, and predator. In clinical terms some of these can be covered by more than 1 mental health disorder, depending on the specific criteria met, but they result in the same danger -- a predator is a predator, regardless of the diagnosis. He discusses famous and less famous cases and criminals as well as his own experiences. He also goes into the additional dangers of people who have a combination of the dangerous personalities such as a person who is emotionally unstable and a predator or who is a narcissistic, emotionally unstable paranoid person. At the end of each chapter where he discusses a dangerous personality type, he gives a list of words, good and bad, that victims have used to describe the perpetrator. This list of descriptive words from victims' mouths can be a gold mine for a writer looking to write a realistic villain. Additionally, he lists over 100 questions for us to ask ourselves to help identify dangerous people in our lives -- another author's gold mine as well as important for those living with the real thing.