This is a summary of the provided text:
The speaker recounts how their curiosity about mental disorders led them to meet a critic of psychiatry, who introduced them to Tony, a man in Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital. Tony had initially faked madness to avoid prison but ended up in Broadmoor. Despite appearing normal, his clinicians labeled him a psychopath, which sparked the speaker's interest in psychopathy.
They attended a psychopath-spotting course, interviewed Al Dunlap, a businessman, and discussed the prevalence of psychopathy in corporate leadership. The speaker realized the tendency to focus on extreme traits when defining someone, a practice common in journalism. They also questioned the overdiagnosis of certain mental disorders and shared Tony's story of being released from Broadmoor after 14 years.
The narrative explores the complexity of diagnosing mental disorders and the consequences of labeling individuals based on extreme traits.
1. The story starts with the narrator, Jon Ronson, at a friend's house who has a copy of the DSM manual, a guide to mental disorders .
2. The DSM manual has grown significantly in size, from a small pamphlet in the 1950s to 886 pages long, and now lists 374 mental disorders .
3. The narrator, Jon Ronson, identifies 12 mental disorders he has, including generalized anxiety disorder, nightmare disorder, parent-child relational problems, and malingering .
4. Ronson is intrigued by the idea of diagnosing mental disorders without professional training and decides to meet a critic of psychiatry, a Scientologist named Brian, who runs a team of Scientologists called the CCHR .
5. Brian introduces Ronson to Tony, a man in Broadmoor Hospital who faked madness to avoid a prison sentence and is now stuck there .
6. Tony, in very good physical shape and wearing a pinstripe suit, claims to have faked madness to get out of a prison sentence where he'd been accused of beating someone up .
7. Ronson is taken to Broadmoor, a hospital known as the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where he meets Tony .
8. Tony's physical appearance and demeanor raise questions about the accuracy of mental health assessments and the potential for individuals to manipulate the system .
9. Ronson's clinician, Anthony Maden, reveals that Tony was determined to be a psychopath due to his hallucinations disappearing when he arrived at Broadmoor .
10. Ronson, intrigued by the concept of psychopathy, enrolls in a psychopath-spotting course run by Robert Hare, the creator of the psychopath checklist .
11. Hare explains that capitalism rewards psychopathic behavior and suggests that corporate psychopathy is a significant issue .
12. Ronson interviews Al Dunlap, a notorious asset stripper, who agrees to be interviewed about his potential psychopathy .
13. Dunlap, under Ronson's psychopath-spotting test, scores highly on the checklist, leading Ronson to label him as a psychopath .
14. After 14 years in Broadmoor, Tony is released due to his high score on the psychopath checklist, which suggests he has a greater than average chance of recidivism .
15. Tony, once released, returns to living with a girl outside of London and is working on getting a woman he fancies in Belgium to leave her husband .