Trump, by the symptoms
Hare’s test for psychopathy evaluates the subject based on twenty traits, each scored from zero (not applicable) to one (partial match or mixed information) to two (reasonably good match).
Not every trait needs to be a match. If the total score is over thirty, you’ve got yourself a psychopath.
So, here, the twenty traits of the Hare psychopath test, cross-referenced as to our president.
1. glib and superficial charm
This is an interesting one (and more nuanced than many of the others). Some people are charming because they genuinely have an interest in the people they are talking to and what they are saying. That is something that is “felt.” It truly is charming.
Of course, by definition psychopaths don’t actually care about anyone else. But they understand the need to charm others. Hence the “glib and superficial” charm. Look at his smile. It’s not a smile; it’s a smirk.
This puts it well:
How does Trump glide past trouble that would make others stumble? In a phrase, it is the charm of a rascal.
The psychopath can also be charming, precisely because the charm, the smile, the positive response, is all faked (because the psychopath isn’t really experiencing emotion in the first place). Therefore the “mask” doesn’t “crack.” See below.
2. grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
Politically:
“I’m just thinking to myself right now, we should just cancel the election and just give it to Trump, right?”
Professionally:
“I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively.”
Physically:
“My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”
Intellectually:
"Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault."
Sexually:
“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me – consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.”
3. need for stimulation
Because psychopaths don’t really “feel”, they have a constant need for outside stimulation. They are easily bored, and the boredom is very unpleasant for them.
Trump’s short attention span is legendary. Just by way of example, there were the reports from inside his debate preparation team, which included:
“Mr. Trump can get bored with both debate preparations and debates themselves.”
. . . and
“He has paid only cursory attention to briefing materials.”
His ghost-writer put it bluntly:
“He has no attention span.”
4. pathological lying
Lest we risk breaking the internet, let’s just use the popular vote issue as an example. Trump’s now-infamous tweet (which he’s never taken down):
"In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."
What’s so great about this one is how transparent its source is: Trump’s ego.
5. cunning and manipulativeness
From his own biography, The Art of the Deal:
"The final key to the way I promote is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.
I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration — and a very effective form of promotion."
Sorta like “alternative facts,” huh?
What’s so chilling about this is how close it is to Hitler’s “big lie” theory.
6. lack of remorse or guilt
Oh, man. Again, don’t want to break that internet.
How about this one?
7. shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
Again this one is more nuanced and therefore from an academic perpspective, more interesting. As is discussed above, the psychopath doesn’t really experience emotions in the way others do. But they do learn how they are “supposed” to look. They learn how to pretend to have emotion. But it doesn’t go very deep; they are basically just putting on a mask. Hence Trump’s smirk, rather than a smile.
It would appear that there is a relationship between this, that is, the low-grade emotions and the resulting shallow affect on the one hand, and on the one hand, the charm.
In Jon Ronson's book The Psychopath Test, he interviews a former Haitian death-squad leader, Toto Constant, who awkwardly feigns crying in front of him and then later, as Ronson leaves and turns around for a last wave (as people do), has a broad smile on his face. But when Ronson in unexpected fashion turns around a second time to see him, Constant is expressionless. Blank affect. That broad smile was just something he did; it was "faked." Constant later says that he has emotions but that he "chooses" which to have and when. So he is basically admitting (without knowing it because he has no concept of the matter) that he has no emotions but that he just strategically chooses to put them on as the situation warrants (of course, for his benefit, something else he "admits"). He doesn't understand emotions. They are just masks that he puts on as appropriate. This is consistent with the research, which states that psychopaths don't have actual emotional responses to events, but they learn to approximate them through experience and observation of others.
This may be why psychopaths succeed at what the test and the literature describe as their "glib and superficial charm"; because their "masks" don't "crack." When you have conversation with a normal person, that person isn’t going to absolutely love every single thing you say at the same 100% level. There will be some variance. You consciously or sub-consciously will pick up on that and know that you aren't getting 100% positive feedback. And that's fine; that's how we learn from others through everyday conversation. But with a psychopath, if he has chosen to be charming, you will be getting 100% positive feedback, because it is a mask in the first place. It won't vary with his internal emotional responses to what you are saying because there are no internal emotional responses to what you are saying. As a result, you "are charmed."
It's also worth noting that the psychopath can often display a blank affect. Remember Trump's nearly expressionless response to being skewered by Obama at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner?
8. callousness and lack of empathy
9. parasitic lifestyle
Example: Trump is famous for stiffing contractors and laborers on building jobs and the like.
10. poor behavioral controls
His self-defeating behavior really does result from an inability to control himself, particularly when his ego is being bruised. The Gold Star example is just one. Remember Alicia Machado?
11. sexual promiscuity
Y'all can guess what this links to, right?
12. early behavior problems
They are well documented. What is so interesting about his childhood misbehavior is how in-line they are with psychopathy. As reported here, he once tried to push a kid out a second-floor window during a fight, was known for his “playground taunts,” and “classroom disruptions” and as one teacher recalls, “would sit with his arms folded with this look on his face — I use the word surly — almost daring you to say one thing or another that wouldn’t settle with him.”
Even scarier, he has personally admitted that as a child his “temperament” was “not that different,” than it is now. Great. An obnoxious brat in the White House. What could go wrong?
13. lack of realistic long-term goals
Well, you gotta give him that he got into the White House. Though it surely wasn't it realistic at the time . . . (and didn't transpire in the way he might have thought it would, but rather as an unhappy accident of the electoral college).
But really? He’s going to single-handedly “fix” the United States?
14. impulsivity
15. irresponsibility
Asking Russia to hack the Democratic party:
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.” “I think that you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens. That will be next.”
And again.
Or, remember when he claimed the election was “rigged” before he (technically) won it?
How about attacking and then blasting the Australian Prime Minister?
Or refusing to accept intelligence briefings?
16. failure to accept responsibility for own actions
17. many short-term marital relationships
Ivana: 1977 - 1992
Marla: 1993 - 1999 (note relationship “overlap”)
Melania 2005 - counting
18 - 20.
The first seventeen factors are solid.
The last three factors (juvenile delinquency, revocation of conditional release, criminal versatility) apply to those who have been in the criminal justice system. Absent his (family’s) wealth, one can assume Trump would rank on these as well.
But again, no one (or three) factor is required to qualify “psychopathic” on the spectrum.
Remember 0 if the factor does not apply, 1 if it does somewhat, and 2 if it is a reasonably good match. A total score of 30 (25 in the UK) = psychopath.
You can do the math on our man Trump.
Read more here.