Are Celebrity Chefs The Biggest Psychopaths?
This kind of makes sense; Eater reports that Kevin Dutton, author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths, has ranked the 10 most psychopath-filled professions, and chefs come in ninth.
CEO's are apparently more likely to be psychopaths, followed by lawyers and TV and radio workers. (Side note: journalists come in at six. Oops.)
Of course, the whole point of Dutton's book was to show that psychopathy might actually be more common in boardrooms and businesses than jails. The "functional psychopaths," Dutton writes, "use their detached, unflinching, and charismatic personalities to succeed in mainstream society." In fact, sometimes the more "psychopathic," the more likely to succeed, thanks to the charm, egocentricity, independence, and focus often associated to psychopathy.
Of course, this all makes sense when looking at chefs, most particularly celebrity chefs (combining number three and number nine on the list). Take the necessary traits of a chef (focus, independence) and the necessary traits of a successful media personality (superficial charm, slight egocentricity) and you have yourself the perfect psychopath. Now what about chefs-turned-journalists... ?