The girl on the cover of Patric Gagne’s new book, “Sociopath: A Memoir,” looks out impassively beneath uneven bangs, lips pursed in a way that suggests there’s trouble behind the mask, like the time she stabbed a grade-school classmate with a pencil or, as she grew older, broke into houses and stole cars.
An unapologetic confession or perhaps a warning comes a few pages inside: “I’m a liar. I’m a thief. I’m emotionally shallow,” Gagne writes. “I’m mostly immune to remorse and guilt. I’m highly manipulative. I don’t care what other people think. I’m not interested in morals. I’m not interested, period. Rules do not factor into my decision making. I’m capable of almost anything.”
That bold declaration leads one to wonder about the veracity of a memoir written by a confessed, if charming, part-time fabulist: “I’m not a perfect messenger,” Gagne said during a Zoom conversation while sitting in front of a bookcase in a house in a city she asked not to be identified over concerns that others with mental disorders might contact her. “I know my stories are true, but I also know not everyone is going to believe them.”
Gagne’s tale is a map of psychological discovery and illicit tendencies. Published by Simon & Schuster, the new memoir traces the life of a girl who grew into a woman trying to understand her sociopathy, which today is often labeled as antisocial personality disorder. Gagne knew early that she was different, fighting an apathy that could spark an anxiousness that provoked destructive outbursts. She mimicked the emotions she lacked to fit into a world where novels and films tended to depict sociopaths as violent and soulless transgressors treading the fringes.