Is Donald J Trump a psycopath?
Like most of the country I knew about Trump before he appeared like a black swan or a golum in the Republican primaries. He became an object of my contempt in reports from the NY Times after building his tower, much before the primaries. The Times reported that Trump lurked outside his building to waylay celebrities and invite them in to promote his building.
My contempt and disdain for him only grew as Trump managed to constantly get himself in the news. So it was no surprise to me when he plunged into the Republican primaries. And it was no surprise to me when he destroyed 16 hapless wannabe candidates.
As more and more media exposure exposed Trump it became clear to me what was happening. Trump had some magician like capability to destroy his opponents. He wiped out Jeb Bush ((and his $100M bank account) with one comment. (That’s a “low energy campaign.”) He deflated Marco Rubio with “Little Marco”. He punctured Cruz with “Lying Ted”. These vicious sobriquets had pinpoint accuracy to take down his competitors. What accounted for their devastating power?
Then I realized, drawing on my own business experience, that Trump was a psychopath. Psycopaths have unusual powers. Hitler and Mussoslini were psychopaths. They have psychic abilities to identify and hone in on the vulnerabilities of their victims and their competitors. Vide: the slicing through the primary field of 17. These special powers fit them especially in crowd situations – so that Trump has made his supporters believe that they have a special bond with him. In realty, of course they have no bond. The psychopath has only his interests at heart.
In the 70s Robert Hare analyzed the psychopathic syndrome and came up with a template for use in evaluating neurotic persons. Hare analyzed a cluster of characteristics and created the following diagnostic template:
At heart, Hare’s test is simple: a list of 20 criteria, each given a score of 0 (if it doesn’t apply to the person), 1 (if it partially applies) or 2 (if it fully applies). The list in full is: glibness and superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, cunning/manipulative, lack of remorse, emotional shallowness, callousness and lack of empathy, unwillingness to accept responsibility for actions, a tendency to boredom, a parasitic lifestyle, a lack of realistic long-term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of behavioural control, behavioural problems in early life, juvenile delinquency, criminal versatility, a history of “revocation of conditional release” (ie broken parole), multiple marriages, and promiscuous sexual behaviour. A pure, prototypical psychopath would score 40. A score of 30 or more qualifies for a diagnosis of psychopathy. Hare says: “A friend of mine, a psychiatrist, once said: ‘Bob, when I meet someone who scores 35 or 36, I know these people really are different.’ The ones we consider to be alien are the ones at the upper end.”
For convenience here is a list:
• glib and superficial charm
• grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
• need for stimulation
• pathological lying
• cunning and manipulativeness
• lack of remorse or guilt
• shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
• callousness and lack of empathy
• parasitic lifestyle
• poor behavioral controls
• sexual promiscuity
• early behavior problems
• lack of realistic long-term goals
• impulsivity
• irresponsibility
• failure to accept responsibility for own actions
• many short-term marital relationships
• juvenile delinquency
• revocation of conditional release
• criminal versatility
A prototypical psychopath would receive a maximum score of 40, while someone with absolutely no psychopathic traits or tendencies would receive a score of zero.
Just test Trump against this list and use your own diagnostic skills.
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