Stories from NPR : NPR

In Lenny Abrahamson's new film, a 5-year-old boy lives with his mother in a prison fashioned by a psychopath. Critic David Edelstein calls Room an amazing and "heart-stopping" survival story.

Dr. James Fallon studies the most dangerous kind of person: The psychopath. His job is to get up close and personal — but in the process, things get mighty personal.

True or false — psychopaths are insusceptible to contagious yawning. Ophira Eisenberg and Jonathan Coulton get down to the scary truth.

What makes someone a psychopath? Can these traits be passed through family lines? Neuroscientist James Fallon, and author of The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey Into the Dark Side of the Brain, discusses his scientific and personal exploration into the antisocial mind.

Is there a definitive line that divides "crazy" from sane? With a hair-raising delivery, Jon Ronson, author of The Psychopath Test, illuminates the gray areas between the two.

Jon Ronson, the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats, has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. His newest book, Lost at Sea, is a collection of true mini-adventures he has written along the way.

A new study suggests using the term psychopath adds an average of five years to criminal sentences. But once a biological explanation was included, the length of the sentence dropped. In other words, our sympathy for the idea that biology might be responsible for criminal behavior is powerful.

Psychologist Robert Hare created a test that measures whether someone is a psychopath. The test is used extensively in our criminal justice system to help decide whether inmates should get parole — and even to determine whether or not someone should be put to death. But Hare is now worried that his test isn't being properly used.

Twenty-six years after Robert Dixon Jr. went to prison for acting as an accessory to murder, friends and family swear that he is a new man, one committed to redeeming the second half of his life. But according to a test that holds incredible power — some say too much — in the U.S. justice system, Dixon is a psychopath, incapable of reform.

In this week's podcast of Weekends on All Things Considered, President Obama leaps into the mind field of Middle East politics. Plus, remembering Macho Man, legendary director Norman Jewison, and what it means to be a psychopath. Also, Priscilla Ahn and a post-rapture pet sitting business.

Journalist Jon Ronson spent two years talking to psychopaths, psychiatrists and even Scientologists in an effort to learn more about psychopathy and its effects on society.

Brian Dugan pleaded guilty last year to raping and murdering 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico in 1983, and he was put on trial to determine whether he should be executed. Neuroscientist Kent Kiehl testified that Dugan could not help his neurological makeup.

Sharon Stone returns as a gorgeous novelist (and apparent psychopath) in a sequel to her 1992 smash hit Basic Instinct. This time, she's matching wits and sexual techniques with British actor David Morrissey instead of Michael Douglas. David Edelstein has a review.