Memoir From an Unreliable Narrator
A Review of "Sociopath" by Patric Gagne
(There is controversy surrounding this memoir with some claiming the author is lying about her diagnosis and schooling. For the sake of this review, I will only discuss the book's quality. If you want to learn more about these claims or read a review that takes them into account, look here.)
STAR RATING: ☆☆☆
Spoiler free review.
“I don’t care what other people think. I’m not interested in morals. I’m not interested, period. Rules do not factor into my decision-making. I’m capable of almost anything.”
I remember coming across a social media creator who had branded herself a sociopath. In one of her videos, she shared all the ‘frustrating’ reactions she gets when she tells people her diagnosis. I remember watching and feeling confused. Why would she care what they think? I thought to myself. Isn’t that the whole point? That they don’t care? The more I scrolled through her content, the more confused I became, and that confusion made me angry. She isn’t a sociopath, I decided while alone in my bed. She has to be lying because none of this is what sociopathy is.
I thought about that creator often over the next week. My angry confusion faded into an understanding that I didn’t understand, and that was okay. I’m not a sociopath. I’m also not a psychologist. Who was I to say what sociopathy is and isn’t? This was a complex personality disorder and all my information came from the media.
Years later, while scrolling through the nonfiction section of Spotify’s audiobooks, Sociopath by Patric Gagne caught my eye. I decided to give it a listen and learned it was narrated by the author herself. I was going through a bit of a mental health spiral at the time and was in just the right mood to hear from someone with a unique perspective on life and the human brain. I finished the audiobook in less than a week.
It’s important to note that Gagne is an unreliable narrator, which is something she hints at herself. All the conversations in the book were ‘reconstructed’ based on memories, Gagne never seems to be in the wrong in any conversation, she’s directly stated she has no problem lying, and her perception of the world is, by definition, skewed. This didn’t turn me away from the book (if anything it intrigued me more) but it’s something I think every reader needs to take into account.
Gagne was born and raised in San Francisco. While most of the book is about her adult life, the first few chapters detail her childhood realization she was different. She didn’t fear consequences or danger, she didn’t feel guilty for doing ‘bad’ things, and she thought her classmate’s emotions were confusing. The only thing keeping Patric from following her darker urges--wandering into stranger’s homes, stealing, and occasional violence--was the idea of further upsetting her parents. She describes this wasn’t guilt but rather a desire to stay in her loved ones’ good graces. It was survival.
She describes a love for her family, juxtaposed against the image of sociopaths as entirely unfeeling and incapable of love. Gagne explains she feels standard emotions like happiness, anger, or sadness, but is entirely unable to feel things like jealousy or guilt. She received a diagnosis and treatment as an adult and decided to pursue a career in psychology so she could help other people like her.
Gagne explains she wasn’t always a writer and this is reflected in some parts of the book. While she conveys her unique experiences through insightful imagery and complex metaphors--which is a hard thing to do--her writing fell flat when it came to dialogue and characters. Her father and husband were the only people that felt more than one-dimensional. This isn’t a direct criticism since the book is centered around Gagne’s inner mind and not focused on establishing a fun and relatable cast, but it was noticeable. The dialogue was believable but whenever Gagne tried to establish a character as funny or witty, their banter never quite seemed to land and was often juvenile.
After reading lengthy review articles and Goodreads reviews, there are certainly some critiques I have to agree with. Gagne’s memoir is self-indulgent and she comes across as someone who thinks they’re very smart (which further adds to the unreliable narrator part). For example, Gagne discusses all the intricate and thoughtful ways she was able to get away with doing “bad” things but doesn’t seem to address the larger reasoning; she is an attractive blonde white girl with an extremely wealthy and successful father going to school in one of the most expensive cities in the United States, who was handed a job in one of the most competitive industries in the world. She is overloaded with privilege and would likely have been called out or caught way earlier if she came from a different economic class or race. This understandably turned some readers away, and while it definitely annoyed me, I was able to push through.
Another criticism people had was Gagne’s lack of medical evidence for her claims. She describes sociopathy as a spectrum, which was something I accepted as her own personal experience, but others have pointed to a lack of research to back this up. Most of the book, actually, isn’t backed by any medical research. A lot of the analysis of sociopathy comes from scenes where Gagne goes on long rants about her own beliefs about the subject with her therapist. I thought these rants were fascinating--I always enjoy reading unpopular perspectives on humanity and life--but I do agree it would have been nice to see some research or factual evidence included. As I understood it, Gagne wanted to keep the memoir focused on her rather than on sociopathy itself. I think this led the marketing to be misleading and left readers frustrated with the lack of research included. It also led to some entirely discrediting her diagnosis. I am not quite sure what to believe.
At the heart of the story is Gagne’s relationship with her husband, David, and it’s where her writing shines the brightest. They briefly dated as teenagers and maintained a friendship for years before getting back together and moving in. Gagne describes David as the only person besides her family members that she felt love for, but hints throughout the book her love was different than normal romantic love; she didn’t seem to care if he cheated on her, she didn’t feel guilty when lying to him, and she didn’t feel a need to be around him all the time. This was something David claimed to understand but visibly struggled with. Readers can tell she’s passionate about their relationship and reading about the complexity between them was fascinating.
Overall, I believe Sociopath is an interesting and entertaining read. I think neurodivergent readers like myself will find some relatability in Patric Gagne’s story. If you can get past an unreliable narrator, loads of privilege, a little self-indulgence, and are willing to take what Gagne says at face value then you’ll enjoy it.
Skeptics might not, and I don’t blame them.
