James Fallon Book order

“Compelling, essential reading for understanding the underpinnings of psychopathy.” — M. E. Thomas, author of Confessions of a Sociopath For his first fifty-eight years, James Fallon was by all appearances a normal guy. A successful neuroscientist and professor, he’d been raised in a loving family, married his high school sweetheart, and had three kids and lots of friends. Then he learned a shocking truth that would not only disrupt his personal and professional life, but would lead him to question the very nature of his own identity. While researching serial killers, he uncovered a pattern in their brain scans that helped explain their cold and violent behavior. Astonishingly, his own scan matched that pattern. And a few months later he learned that he was descended from a long line of murderers. Fallon set out to reconcile the truth about his own brain with everything he knew as a scientist about the mind, behavior, and personality.

This is the true story of two brothers-in-law who traveled to the Central Highlands of Vietnam where one of them was stationed during the Vietnam War. For Jim, an anti-war guy, this was just another funky place he'd have to talk about. For Nick, a West Point soldier and Special Forces ranger, who really believed in the war, this was a trip to his past, a place he'd never spoken about. The author never intended to write about the trip, but something happened to them during one day of their trip that rocked him deeply. This story is about that one day in April 1996, a day Jim and Nick spent together in a small village in the Central Highlands.