This book was a Godsend and changed my life. I spent almost two decades with a sociopath trying to figure this person out. Finally, all my questions have been answered by Martha Stout. I only wish I could have had the benefit of her book years earlier. I now understand there are manipulative people in the world who have no conscience. They are attracted to bighearted people they can easily manipulate. Sometimes you must get to know someone in a close, personal relationship before you realize he or she is a sociopath . . . they are able to 'blend in'. After reading The Sociopath Next Door I realized my 'friend' was a textbook sociopath. Everything Martha writes in this book is true . . . and I have lived it as proof.