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A NEW BOOK called ‘Confessions of a Sociopath; A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight’, written by pseudonymous author ME Thomas, describes what it’s like to be a sociopath — someone who lacks the ability to feel or sympathise with others.

Sociopaths can be sexy and beguiling; they take risks the rest of us don’t and come across as bold and exciting. Socially, they are often leaders, the life and soul of the party.

The downside is that they regard others to be used, don’t feel sympathy, empathy or guilt, and are often one step away from becoming what psychologists used to call psychopaths: criminally vindictive types whose only motivation is to take advantage of weaker people.

In her book, Thomas describes many disturbing episodes from her own life, including the time she let a baby possum drown in her swimming pool because she couldn’t be bothered to fish it out with the net. In another chapter, she describes a recurring dream in which she kills her father with her bare hands – because she hates him.

Thomas is also a successful law professor, has children, and teaches Sunday school. Or so she says – grandiose lying is one of the characteristics of being a sociopath.

In her new book, Thomas says that a checklist of symptoms published in 1941 by Dr Gervey Cleckley really hit home with her.

Here are ten of them… so are you a sociopath?