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God bless you for addressing workplace bullying and the psychopathic boss. As a high-school teacher, I am privileged to help students reach their full potential through high standards, love, and encouragement. So I was astounded when the charter school I worked for replaced a compassionate, inspirational leader with a truly psychopathic boss. This workplace bully had achieved some success at student recruitment in his former position and trained under another psychopath. Within one school quarter, he had turned a fragile, hard-working staff into a fearful, insecure mob of rumormongers. Teachers had been brought to tears, jobs had been regularly threatened, staff had been pitted against one another, and the lies and criticisms were ceaseless. Students, too, had become alienated by his unapproachable, often condescending demeanor. The corporate office, true to form, turned a blind eye, blatantly refusing to admit that it had made a poor administrative choice, preferring the possibility of increased revenue to the long-term vision of a positive school environment. I got out with my self-esteem barely intact, but others languish out of fear of unemployment. Warning: Don't confuse cruel, unethical, and devious behavior with "tough management." Psychopaths are too expensive for even the most financially viable companies.

Kathleen Crocker
Phoenix, Arizona

Where Are the Crazy Women?

I am appalled by your complete lack of reference to women in "Is Your Boss a Psychopath?" With women-owned businesses generating more than $2.5 trillion annually, I'd say there's a good chance that there are a few females in charge somewhere. Your article not only uses the pronoun "he" in every instance (even with a lame nod at your supposed reason for doing so), but there isn't one single visual image -- both print and online -- that references women executives. In doing this, you have managed to alienate a huge percentage of your female readers by violating a key journalistic rule of inclusiveness. You also send the clear message that "only men can be bosses." It's enough to make one psychopathic.

Carol Nix
Raleigh, North Carolina

Editors' Note:

Actually, Leona Helmsley was cited as a "boss from hell," proving that women can indeed hold their own with men in this regard. But we'd also like to point out that this was an article exposing an atrocious style of management, not one to be emulated, and one at which men have excelled for centuries. Surely this is not a club to which women should aspire. We suggest that you look at the many positive articles we run about women managers, including, but by no means limited to, the recent lengthy package on top women business builders (May). In fact, we are aware not only of the economic power of women-owned businesses you cite but also of the high proportion of women readers of Fast Company (a much higher proportion than for any other business magazine), and we believe that much of our coverage reflects that awareness. We're sorry you feel that "Is Your Boss a Psychopath?" failed in this regard, but really, don't you think this was one article women would be happy to be largely left out of?

Fast Company, Are You Nuts?

Being a longtime reader of the works of psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, I found your article to be the same psychobabble bulls -- t that's excreted by all the other quacks (psychologists and psychiatrists) that medicalize behavior. A so-called psychopath is someone who doesn't have any morals. That's not the same as lacking an eyeball or a hand. Actually, a psychopath is someone who has a set of moral values we abhor; he or she has no qualms about the method of getting to his or her goal. If that means people losing their jobs to an overseas vendor, that's the breaks. The Aaron Feuersteins [CEO of Malden Mills] are few and far between. The psychopathic screening tests that Hare suggested wouldn't have caught anyone. Here's what Szasz said about intelligence tests: hocus-pocus used by psychologists to prove that they are brilliant and their clients stupid.

Martin D. Kessler
Cambridge, Massachusetts

I strongly disagree with your harsh portrayal of Henry Ford in your July 2005 issue. He was one of the greatest innovators of his time. As for his strong antiunion stance, given the United Auto Workers' stranglehold on the automotive industry today, I'd like to think Henry's heart was in the right place. Also, you mentioned an affair. Didn't the great Jack Welch dump his wife? So is he a psychopath, too?

Peter Kihn