What is a psychopath?         

Psychopaths are not necessarily mass murderers, baby-killers, etc.  They are people with a brain dis-function, specifically in the amygdala, which renders them incapable of empathy.  One of the results is (as one publication recently put it):  

When individuals with psychopathy imagine others in pain, brain areas necessary for feeling empathy and concern for others fail to become active and be connected to other important regions involved in affective processing and decision-making, reports a new study.

Actually, there is nothing new about this finding.  The guy who is sort of the guru on all this and who wrote the diagnostic test for psychopathy, Bob Hare, figured that out years ago with a very interesting test on a number of convicted murderers from which he determined that psychopaths can’t understand pain in the abstract.  They can feel/experience it, but they can’t conceptualize it.  As a result, they are incapable of feeling empathy for others (the result noted above).  And there is also a vastly diminished sense of fear for themselves.  That’s why they seem so strong and fearless and at the same time so insensitive; they just don’t experience fear and empathy the way we do.

So the normal controls that exist, stemming from the desire not to do harm to others or oneself, just aren’t there. 

It's hardly rare.  In fact, it is generally estimated that 1% of the population is psychopathic (some estimate as many as 4%).

Hare's test evaluates the subject based on twenty traits, which are individually scored; the total score, if high enough, will place the subject on a psychopathic range or spectrum (i.e., a psychopath).

But to really distill this down (or perhaps overly simplify it) we can focus on two things:  Ego and Empathy.  The second is completely lacking, and in a sense as a result, all that is left is the first.

Among Hare's twenty traits:

  • 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
  • impulsivity
  • failure to accept responsibility for own actions
  • many short-term marital relationships 

Sound Familiar?  Donald.  J.  Trump.

Again, we're not trying to name-call here.  We're just trying to recognize what is wrong with him in order to understand him (so we can stop banging our heads against the wall trying to understand him).  Might it be something other than psychopathy?  Sure.  But it’s clearly something. 

And that is really "the key" to understanding Trump.  That his actions flow from some form of mental illness.

And it is not only foolish but dangerous not to remind ourselves of this every single time we analyze anything he's done.

It must be part of the discussion.