The Psychopath's Portrait. A Profiler on Serial Killers

The wide audience learned about profiling relatively recently, and thanks to writers and filmmakers, there are now many myths, speculations, and fabrications associated with it. The book by professional profiler Anna Kulik allows us to peek into this nerve-wracking and imaginative world. She tells the history of profiling and how its methodologies are applied in modern conditions, including in the business sphere, and helps to understand the differences between psychopaths and sociopaths, as well as the factors that influence the formation of a serial killer. In addition, Anna reveals details of a profiler's work, illustrating the narrative with examples and interesting stories from her own practice. Before you is not just a portrait gallery of the most terrifying maniacs and psychopaths, nor a dry criminological study, but an engaging psychological and documentary essay. At the same time, the author, deeply immersing herself in the biographies of notorious criminals: the "Bityzovsky Maniac" Pichushkin, the "Angarsky Maniac" Popkov, Chikatilo, Mikhasevich, Spesivtsev, Tkachev, Golovkin, Mokhov, Iskhakov, Kabanov, Sokolov, and others, — does not justify them in the slightest. On the contrary, in the book, they appear not as heroes or mysterious villains with deep philosophies and great ideas. We will see them as they truly are — weak, narcissistic, incapable of compassion.