Financial Psychopaths Unmasked

Abstract

In this book, three primary factors that affect the financial environment in which financial professionals operate were identified and discussed in depth to identify financial psychopaths. Culture was the first factor examined. The economic system of the United States is based on the Protestant work ethic: people believed that by working hard, they would be blessed and become rich, thus revealing they would be destined for heaven. In many respects, hard work is the ultimate American value, and it has gradually given birth to a culture dominated by money in the form of capitalism. People who live in the United States and work in the investment finance world receive money-oriented cultural cues on multiple levels, given the intrinsic intertwining of money within the US culture. Traits valued within the investment banking culture mirror many of those required to diagnose psychopathology.