Psychopathology symptoms can be found throughout societies, particularly during periods of accelerated transition and socioeconomic strain. When Hyatt argues that "the entire species is simply a resource for the latent, hidden viruses of this planet - much as this planet may be a resource for another planet" (55), he is fusing Charles Fort with the prospect of entire societies undergoing memetic engineering.

This process can be observed through changes in literary genres, cultural archetypes and film conventions. Hyatt includes an extensive list of films for studying the hero-psychopath. Whilst examining Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990), Hyatt observes that "psychopath-protagonists are highly limited by the circumstances of their social environment" (104). For Scorsese's protagonists, the Mafia code of silence (Omerta) is just as restrictive as a penal code.

Hyatt mentions key historical flash points (108) where psychopathologies ("hystories" or hysterical epidemics, according to Princeton University professor Elaine Showalter) flare up on a mass scale. He includes the sinking of the Lusitania that drew America into World War I, the Chicago 7 trial, and the 1980s McMartin pre-school trial. There are plenty of others to be found, including Hill and Knowlton's spin-doctoring, in 1990, of Iraqi soldiers murdering Kuwaiti babies by unplugging their incubators, and Living Marxism magazine's court battle over allegedly faked Bosnian Serb concentration camp photos.

These sections are probably the most useful in Hyatt's book, for they point to a broader vision that transcends the narcissism of many prototypical hero-psychopaths.

Machines Against The Rage

The Psychopath's Bible has plenty of insights about how to wreak chaos and destroy people. Hopefully its readers will take Hyatt's advice to study Depth and Social Psychology over casting death spells at one another.

If, as psychologist Robert Lindner warned in the 1950s, rebellion is a deeply human ("normal") act, then consumerist society still has a long path to travel in order to accept Hyatt's perspective. Even so, the would-be magician who wants to add Hyatt's Toxick Magick to their arsenal should also familiarize themselves with the research conducted by Carol Gilligan, Stanley Milgram and Laurence Kohlberg on the multidimensional nature of personal ethics. One of the reasons why psychopaths are so alluring is that they often fuse post-conventional insights, together with alienation from conventional society and psychopathology that is "fixed" at the pre-rational level. The competent magician will collate the post-conventional insights but avoid the developmental problems.