Psychological Assessment of Donald Trump

On May 12, 2016, I published the post, “Will our next President be a psychopath?” It was a reference to Donald Trump and his mental instability, which was obvious (to me) even before he became President.

The post included these comments:

The June, 2016 issue of Discover Magazine contained a very interesting article titled, “Into the Mind of a Psychopath.” (“Fifty years ago, his chilling experiences as a prison psychologist led Robert Hare on a lifelong quest to understand one of humanity’s most fascinating — and dangerous — disorders.”).

The word (“psychopath”) has become a synonym for a certain type of evil, denoting a specific breed of cunning, bloodthirsty predator who lacks empathy, remorse and impulse control, readily violating social rules and exploiting others to get what he or she wants.

Psychopaths are capable of the most heinous crimes, yet they’re often so charming and manipulative that they can hide behind a well-cultivated mask of normalcy for years and perhaps their entire lives.

Only the ones who get caught become household names, such as Ted Bundy, “Killer Clown” John Wayne Gacy and “Ken and Barbie Killers” Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

Research suggests 1 in 100 people are psychopaths who tend to blend in, like cold-blooded chameleons. We know psychopaths make up 15 to 20 percent of the prison population, at least 70 percent of repeat violent offenders and the significant majority of serial killers and sex offenders.

The post ended with this clear reference to Donald Trump:

I suppose most politicians have some measure of the psychopath in them. The lying and manipulation alone are qualifications. But, some are more psychopathic than others, and I suggest that this year, one  is an extreme case — an extreme psychopath.

Subsequently, on July 28, 2019, I published “A psychopath slipped into the White House,” in which I listed:

. . . the Robert Hare Checklist of Psychopathy Symptoms. It consists of 20 symptoms which are rated 0 to 2. Zero means “does not apply,” one ‘applies somewhat’ and two ‘applies fully’.  Subjects score between 0 and 40.

Normal individuals typically score less than five and many non-psychopathic criminals (who do actually have symptoms of antisocial personality disorder) may score 20 to 22.https://mythfighter.com/2019/07/28/a-psychopath-slipped-into-the-white-house/

I showed how Donald Trump stacked up on that test. He scored 39 out of 40 — the most extreme psychopathy score imaginable for a human being.

You can reference that scoring by clicking this link and seeing how you would score him.

Psychopathy is just one of what is known as the “dark triad,” which also includes narcissism and machiavellianism.

They are what psychologists use to evaluate dangerous or destructive personalities.

There is a test for Dark Triad measures (which include psychopathy and Machiavellianism) — those are what psychologists use to evaluate dangerous or destructive personalities.

Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) is a real psychological instrument that’s widely used in research settings.

It was first developed by Raskin and Hall (1979). It appears in hundreds of peer-reviewed psychology papers and is considered the “gold-standard” self-report scale for grandiose narcissism (as opposed to “vulnerable” narcissism, which requires other instruments).

It covers: Entitlement / Grandiosity (Narcissism), Manipulation / Cynicism (Machiavellianism), and Callousness / Impulsivity / Lack of empathy (Psychopathy).

The subject is ranked on five levels: 1 = Strongly Disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly Agree and there are 27 questions.

I asked ChatGPT to apply those rankings to Donald Trump. Here is its response:

Chat GPT’s assessment: A clinician seeing these traits might say: “This person shows extremely elevated narcissistic traits, with strong malevolent tendencies.

If corroborated in functional assessment, they could meet criteria for NPD — potentially among the most extreme seen.”

Narcissism is far more than merely self-love; else we all would be narcissists.

It is a serious, pathological condition as described in the September 27th issue of New Scientist Magazine, “The truth about narcissists: How to handle them, and can they change?”

Although narcissistic personality disorder is rarer than you might think, psychological research suggests it can come in two different types, one of which may be underdiagnosed.
By David Robson

Looking back, the signs were obvious: an extreme need for control, a pathological tendency to exaggerate and an almost comical sense of superiority.

My family member claimed to know more than everyone about everything, no matter the topic. He claimed to have the makings of a world-class teacher, doctor, writer or athlete, while also boasting about his modesty. Any disagreement would result in shouty rants or violent outbursts.

Family friends could barely believe it when I told them. “When he meets us, he acts like charm personified,” is how one put it. These were all classic traits of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), a condition characterised by a disregard for the feelings of others combined with an extreme sense of self-importance, often manifesting in interpersonal abuse.

By the mid-1920s, the term “narcissist” came to describe a more general personality disorder, but it would take another 50 years for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to include NPD.

Narcissism is considered one side of the “dark triad”, a trio of personality traits that can drive callous and cruel behaviour

NPD, according to its DSM definition, is characterised by grandiosity, a desperate need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others.

People with the condition frequently overestimate their abilities and inflate their accomplishments. The bloated ego comes with a sense of entitlement, a need for praise and constant attention, and a feeling of alienation – in the narcissist’s view, it would be impossible for other mortals to recognise the problems that come with being so extraordinary.

Narcissists are also often preoccupied with envy, either being very envious of other people or convinced that other people are envious of them.

Finally – and perhaps most damagingly – many of them manipulate and exploit others, with little regard for the hurt they cause. The consequences can be emotional and physical abuse.

People with narcissism might be aware of others’ feelings – they just might use that information for their own self-serving ends, or they don’t care.

This lack of concern for other people’s emotions is in stark contrast to their preoccupation with their own feelings. Narcissists are often easily offended.

Grandiose, or overt, narcissistsseem more outwardly confident and are more likely to boast and brag. Vulnerable, or covert, narcissists appear more introverted. 

Christiane Büttner at the University of Basel, Switzerland, found that people scoring higher on a questionnaire measuring narcissism were significantly more likely to read situations as intentionally exclusionary, compared with participants with lower levels of the trait.

“Any perceived threat to their status or recognition is deeply aversive,” says Büttner.

You might think that being excluded would decrease someone’s delusions of grandeur, yet a further study suggested that the opposite is true. Büttner found that people’s sense of being ostracised could predict a rise in their narcissistic traits over the following 12 months.

She speculates that feeling socially excluded “triggers self-enhancing defences” to protect them from the pain.

“If exclusion is repeated or chronic, individuals might begin to compensate by inflating their self-image, becoming more self-focused, or engaging in more attention-seeking or antagonistic behaviours,” says Büttner.

SUMMARY

Donald Trump meets all the conditions. He is a psychopath and a narcissist. He has no concern for anyone but himself.

He requires constant reinforcement of his fragile ego, and he cannot be trusted ever to “do the right thing,” unless that coincides with his own egomaniacal needs.

He is the perfect cult leader, but he is the last human being on Earth who should be in charge of a powerful nation, because he always will use that nation’s power to further his own narcissistic ends.

In the next post, we will discuss the people who follow such a leader.  You can decide who you know who fits the profile.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

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