Surrounded by Psychopaths: How to Protect Yourself from Being Manipulated and Exploited in Business (and in Life)

I cannot emphasize enough how much young professionals need to read this. After reading his first book \’Surrounded by Idiots\’, there was a rapid change in my perspective as i could relate it to almost every single person in my life and I could definitely understand that how a professional who might seem like an idiot is necessary for an efficient team depending on the color they fall under. This book takes it a step further to understand the \”phsycopaths\” amongst those 4 colors. As the author mentioned that this book is a bit more darker and harsher than his previous one and I definitely agree to that, but let\’s face it not everything is unicorns and rainbows. Personally, both his books have helped me a lot professionally and I can totally see how some people might find value from this in their personal lives as well. I highly recommend this book for young professionals who have a couple of years of corporate exposure. With all that said, I would not recommend reading this book before the previous one \’Surrounded by Idiots\’, although the author does a quick recap in the beginning, I felt it would have a stronger impact if the reader is well aware of the 4-color-idiots from his first book.

I can easily recommend this book to anyone and everyone I know. The people he describes really exist. My father and his brothers were abused and damaged by one. Later, my family was torn apart by one. Then, I worked for a family who all had those traits and used them to grind people down. I nearly lost everything, including my mind and my will to live. It wasn’t until I left completely that I saw how dire my situation had become. I also learned why I may have been the type that was frequently a target for narcissists and psychopaths. It took months away from the psychopath bosses (a father with narcissistic and psychopathic tendencies, one covert narcissist son and one overt malignant narcissistic son with psychopathic tendencies). But I recovered a good deal of myself. My mother even said, “Thank god you left that Hell hole! I’ve finally got my daughter back!” This is a great book. However, the author can be quite repetitive. I believe it’s on purpose, to hammer home the message. But it can be slightly off-putting. I encourage you to read on past those parts. The observations and insight you will gain may literally save your life.

I really enjoyed this book and keep turning the pages till it ended. It was healing and insightful read.

This book actually contains a bonus – a recap of the author\’s Surround by Idiots book that uses the DISA. The DISA categorizes human behavior patterns into colors that coordinate to their personalities. He created this book after finding out that some people (specifically, psychopaths) were taking advantage of the descriptions of personality traits to take advantage of people\’s weaknesses. The author clarifies the difference between \”psychopathic traits\” and full-on psychopathy. He shows where the overlap lies, how you can identify traits in yourself, and how you can avoid falling victim to other another person\’s manipulations, whether in a personal or a work relationship. There are a lot of real-world stories and comparisons to help you identify the psychopaths in your world, to help you fix your own personality weaknesses (or at least be aware of them), and what you can do to get out of a bad relationship. Because sometimes that is the only solution. And if, dear reader, you start to identify psychopathic traits in yourself, know that if you can love, feel, and otherwise have emotional responses, you are not a psychopath! Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin\’s Press for an advanced reader\’s copy for review.

I received this book specifically to write a review. That said, I try to be honest and transparent in all my reviews. (Please see the enclosed pictures.) Thomas Erikson wrote a previous book, Surrounded by Idiots, and if you liked that one, you will love this one. This is the perfect gift book to that manager or leader moving onto a new level in an organization. There is a little bit for everyone in this book. He uses the popular DISC (Dominance, Influence, Compliance, and Stability) model of human behavior to both explain how to recognize psychopathic behavior as well as how to counter it. There is also a well-done, entire section on how to avoid being manipulated in general. I read the book cover to cover three times. After the last reading, a few things jump out. Thomas\’ best defense against undue manipulation by others is to have positive self-esteem and to know how to avoid the situations that lead to you being manipulated. For example, the \”D\” personality, represented by the color red in the book, tries to force you into making a decision too quickly. In this case, you create space by begging off from making a decision in the tight space, and so on for each of the personality types. Thomas spends a good amount of time describing the differences between a socially awkward D,I, S, or C personality and a psychotic one. (There are substantial differences.) This would have been a very useful to me 40 years ago. The book points out that the number of clinically diagnose-able psychopaths could represent up to one in every twenty five people, and they tend to cluster in places like non-profits, the government, and the military. My one nit with this excellent book is sometimes you cannot escape, avoid, or divert the psychopath, e.g, he or she is your commander, and the ways of dealing with psychopaths in those situations is palpably different than the others described in the book. All in all though, this is a good read, and it has a lot of practical, useful information for all of us.

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