Are YOU a psychopath (and could it be the secret to

success)?: New book by SAS hero Andy McNab

reveals why having their character traits is vital to
winning life's battles
By Andy Mcnab and Dr Kevin Dutton
Published: 00:58 GMT, 6 May 2014 | Updated: 00:45 GMT, 7 May 2014

Hello. My name is Andy McNab and Im a psychopath. That statement comes as a bit of a shock
when you first hear it, doesnt it?
Finding out that I could be classified in this way was certainly a surprise to me but it turns out that
Im what they call a good psychopath and its certainly done me no harm in life. In fact, I believe
its the reason Ive been so successful.
Ive certainly come a long way since I was a kid. Abandoned on the steps of Guys Hospital in a
Harrods bag as a newborn baby, I was adopted and brought up on a tough housing estate in SouthWest London. Ive faced a lot of challenges, but one has always been

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Two-faced: Andy McNab's new book claims that being a psychopath could be the recipe to success
If youve read my books, youll already know that I was in the British Army for 18 years. Eight as
an infantryman and ten in the Special Air Service.
My first book, Bravo Two Zero, was the story of my time as part of an eight-man Special Forces
operation behind enemy lines in Iraq during the first Gulf War. For that, I was decorated for bravery
along with three other soldiers from the Bravo Two Zero patrol. In fact, our mission became the
most highly-decorated action since the Boer War battle of Rorkes Drift in 1879.
Ive since written more non-fiction, thrillers and film scripts, and produced films. Im also involved
in business both in the UK and the U.S., particularly start-up ventures. Ive gone from enemy lines
to movie lines and from battle plans to business plans and Ive never given a single thought to the
possibility of messing up.

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And I have always been up for stuff, whether its being number one through the door on a hostage
rescue; going undercover in Derry with a South London accent; or, these days, talking to the board
members of a company thats going bankrupt because they dont know their backsides from their
elbows. Whatever the situation, Ive always thought, Ill get away with it and I always have.
This is just one quality of the good psychopath and Im telling you all this because, with the help
of my psychologist friend Dr Kevin Dutton, I want to show you how to make the most of your own
inner psychopath. Dont panic. Were not trying to turn you into Hannibal Lecter, just to identify
some simple psychopathic strategies for getting the most out of life.
DR KEVIN DUTTON SAYS: Whenever most of us hear the word psychopath, images of
infamous serial killers flash across our minds. But psychologists use the term to refer to a much
wider group of individuals who have a distinct cluster of personality traits.
As you might expect, reduced empathy for others and lack of conscience are among them. But they
also include ruthlessness, fearlessness, impulsivity, self-confidence, focus and coolness under
pressure.
Imagine each of these as a dial on one of those recording studio mixing desks. No one characteristic
is necessarily bad in itself. Its the particular combination of levels at which they are twiddled up
or down that matters.
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Bad psychopaths cannot regulate their behaviour in this way. There are many possible explanations
for this, including the start they get in life and what else theyve got going on in their personalities.
But the end result is that their dials are set at dangerously high levels and either stuck fast, or very
difficult to turn.
In good psychopaths, those able to adjust the settings according to different social contexts, the
same traits can actually be very constructive and there are various jobs and professions which, by
their very nature, demand that some of these mixing-desk dials are cranked up a little higher than
normal.
For example, theres no point having the visionary thinking and instinctive feel for the market
necessary to be a top businessman if you lack the ruthlessness to fire people who arent pulling their
weight, or the nerve to take a calculated risk when appropriate. One of the worlds leading hedge

fund managers told me he produced his best returns when the markets were chaotic and panic was
rife.
I find that environment relaxing, he said. Take 2008, when the market was down 20 to 30 per
cent. I was up 20 per cent. When markets are calm and steady, my returns are not materially
different to the average. I have no advantage in that environment.
A certain level of psychopathy is also required to be a great surgeon because you must disassociate
yourself emotionally from your patients.
I have no compassion for those whom I operate on, one leading neurosurgeon told me. That is a
luxury I simply cannot afford. In the theatre I am reborn: as a cold, heartless machine, totally at one
with scalpel, drill and saw. Emotion is seriously bad for business. Ive hunted it down to extinction
over the years.
Soldiering is another profession in which it seems reasonable to expect some unusual settings of the
dials and in 2010 I got a chance to do a radio interview with Andy, the UKs most famous trained
killer.
Some time later, he agreed to be subjected to one of the gold standard tests for psychopathy, which
involves measuring subjects brain activity as they are bombarded with nauseating images of road
accidents, torture and death.

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Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, in the film American Psycho. Whenever most of us hear the
word 'psychopath', images of infamous serial killers flash across our minds. But psychologists use
the term to refer to a much wider group of individuals who have a distinct cluster of personality
traits
In most of the population, these images have the grey matter firing like the brains answer to Guy
Fawkes night. But Andys graphs were as flat as a pancake. The explanation lies in a little peanutsized structure within the brain called the amygdala.
Ancient and steeped in evolutionary tradition, it regulates those emotions that are chiefly related to
survival, including fear, anger and pleasure, and its where the big instant decisions, such as fight or
flight, are made.
In psychopaths, like Andy, a section of the amygdala, the part that corresponds to fear, is
underdeveloped and, when I explained this to him, many things about his life slotted into place.
Even as a kid, I never thought of anything as dangerous, he told me. I thought of it as fun, like
going through the levels on a video game.
In fights, I felt detached, like I was watching myself in slow motion and thinking clearly about

what needed to be done and how I was doing to do it. There was no fear, no emotional connection to
what was happening.
While you might not identify with those feelings, there is evidence that psychopathy like height
and weight lies on a spectrum. Sure, at the sharp end you may well find your serial killers and
axe-murderers. But all of us have our place at some point along the continuum.
You can get a general indication of where your psychopathy dial is set by taking the test on the
facing page. And remember, there is no objectively correct setting at which your mixing-desk
levels should be set.
That will always depend on the particular circumstances you find yourself in, and with our help
you can fine-tune your individual dials to ensure you get what you want out of life, starting with the
first and most important principle of being a good psychopath:
JUST DO IT... NOW
There are many ways to avoid success in life, but few beat procrastination. With the advent of
modern technological distractions Xboxes, Facebook, Twitter and the like its steadily on the
increase.
In the late 1970s, roughly five per cent of the population thought of themselves as chronic
procrastinators, whereas today that figure hovers around 25 per cent.
Procrastination costs billions of pounds a year in lost profits, decreases personal effectiveness and
destroys teamwork by shifting your responsibility on to others, who become resentful. It also has a
negative effect on health, with studies suggesting that students who are chronic procrastinators have
weaker immune systems and report more cold and flu-like symptoms than those who arent.
But there is one group of people who never put things off. Psychopaths.
This is down to their under-strength amygdalae. As Ive explained, the amygdala is involved in
many of our emotions and motivations. And its this hedonistic, spur-of-the moment part of our
neuro-anatomy which sees us dreaming instead of doing, and turning on the telly instead of filing
that report.
To over-ride your own amygdala, try these practical steps:
1. Visualisation.

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In psychopaths a section of part of the brain called the amygdala, the part that corresponds to fear, is
underdeveloped
Research shows that when we imagine doing something playing tennis, for instance the same
areas light up in the sensorimotor region of our brain as if we were doing it for real. So close your
eyes and visualise yourself doing what you want to do. Picture yourself carrying out the task, and
executing it successfully avoiding interruptions and focusing on the job at hand.
This is one of the methods used by members of the SASs Counter-Revolutionary Warfare team
when training for hostage rescue scenarios in the Killing House, a building at the SAS barracks in
Hereford used as a mock-up for terrorist situations. Before storming the Killing House, we would
go through in our heads the precise drill for engaging the enemy and getting the hostages to safety,
says Andy.
Lobbing in a flash-bang, a stun grenade . . . quick scan of the room . . . short burst tap-tap of
machine-gun fire if necessary . . . room clear, move on.
2. Focus on the future
Their dictatorial amygdalae cause procrastinators to fold in the face of immediate challenges, opting
for short-term pleasure over long-term gain. So next time you find yourself putting off something
important, stick your feet up in a quiet corner, and ask yourself this: Is how bad Im going to feel
when I have to rush this task under pressure going to be anything like how great Ill feel when Ive

got it under my belt in good time?

3. Downsize your time.
Procrastinators wait for large, unbroken, marble-smooth slabs of time upon which to get started
instead of rolling their sleeves up and making do with more temporary, makeshift, rough-and-ready
surfaces.
Thats very different to Andy, who once told me that he hammered out large chunks of his books not
in some big comfy armchair at home or some sun-dappled villa on the Algarve, but in train
carriages and in the food courts of motorway service stations.
I spend a lot of time on the move, he said, and you just have to work when you can.
Recently, much of that work has gone into collaborating with me on our no-nonsense guide to being
a good psychopath.
Over the course of this series, we will show you how to use psychopathic principles to get served
first in a busy bar, win over that girl or guy or your dreams, and get the promotion you deserve.
You will also learn, among other things, why talking to telephone cold-callers can be to your
advantage, get tips on effective dressing from Barack Obama and discover why taking a cold
shower might help you get a raise.
But of course none of this will be of any use if you dont get on and do it and, on that subject, Ill
leave the last word to Andy.
We used to have a saying in the Regiment, he says. Leave till tomorrow only the stuff that youre
prepared never to do.
Extracted from The Good Psychopath's Guide to Success by Andy McNab and Professor Kevin
Dutton published by Bantam Press on May 8th, price 12.99. To order a copy for 11.49 (incl
p&p) call 0844 472 4157