TED Talks

Jon Ronson is easily one of the most unique speakers that I have ever personally seen. In his speech “Strange answers to the psychopath test”, Jon addressed all areas of the test and related them back to personal encounters that he had with actual psychiatric patients in mental institutions. This ranges from one man who faked a state of madness to land himself in what he hoped to be a more “cushy” hospital for the criminally insane rather than going to jail; to another man who believes that he is personally not anything close to a psychopath despite his many characteristics that emphasize otherwise. In his delivery, Ronson addressed every area of possible area of opinion that the audience could have. Normally this approach would weaken the effectiveness of his speech, but due to the manner that he presented it, his speech held a very unique and powerful prowess to it. The most effective part of his speech was his relation of his personal beliefs on the subject of psychiatric practice to the people he’s encountered that were potential, and actual, psychiatric patients themselves. This developed a whole knew sense of understanding of what he was intending to convey to the audience through the stronger development that he achieved when he related it more heavily to his the people he met. Still, on the other hand I feel that my opinion of his speech is misguided due to his constant use of heavy oversimplifications of the diagnostic processes of the psychiatric field. Jon claims that the diagnosis of psychotics is held simply to a checklist of very general qualifications to be inherently insane. To which he claims; “...everyone is a bit psychopathic”. He seemed to skim over the more important and complex issues faced by the professionals and their diagnoses. What he should do in the future is respectively address the issues and his beliefs on them, while also presenting the professional’s side to the situation and giving plausibility to their positions as well. I feel that Jon Ronson had a powerful presentation with a unique delivery that ultimately fell short due to it’s oversimplification of the “grey areas” and the diagnostic process addressed by psychiatric doctors.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jon_ronson_strange_answers_to_the_psychopath_test#t-572930