Psychopathic & Malignant Narcissist Disorder

There is no provision in the Constitution to prevent a psychologically disturbed person from becoming president.

During the 1964 presidential campaign between Goldwater and Lyndon Johnson the editors of Fact magazine asked 12,356 psychiatrists "Is Goldwater psychologically fit to serve as President of the United States?" In 1973 this led to the creation of American Psychiatric Association's "Goldwater Rule" that restrains psychiatrists' comments on political candidates which is still in effect.¹

Despite this rule "An anti-Trump political group organized a letter signed by more than 200 mental health professionals, warning that Donald Trump is dangerous because of 'his symptoms of severe, untreatable personality disorder - malignant narcissism', which makes him 'grossly unfit for leadership' ".²

From the FBI's Law Enforcement Bulletin: "...the need to understand psychopathy cannot be overstated. This includes knowing how to identify psychopaths, the damage they can cause, and how to deal with them more effectively." ³

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist is a psychological assessment tool that is commonly used to assess the presence and extent of psychopathy in individuals. It is a 20-item inventory of perceived personality traits.⁴

Item 1: Glibness/superficial charm

Item 2: Grandiose sense of self-worth

Item 3: Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom

Item 4: Pathological lying

Item 5: Conning/manipulative

Item 6: Lack of remorse or guilt

Item 7: Shallow affect

Item 8: Callous/lack of empathy

Item 9: Parasitic lifestyle

Item 10: Poor behavioral controls

Item 11: Promiscuous sexual behavior

Item 12: Early behavior problems

Item 13: Lack of realistic, long-term goals

Item 14: Impulsivity

Item 15: Irresponsibility

Item 16: Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Item 17: Many short-term marital relationships

Item 18: Juvenile delinquency

Item 19: Revocation of conditional release

Item 20: Criminal versatility

Sheila Markin is a clinical psychologist and director of a mental health practice in Washington, D.C. who has conducted a few thousand psychological evaluations over the course of her career.

She observed "Trump is a psychopath based on a 20 point rating scale called the Hare scale which is used to assess people for that specific psychopathology. Just as he is referred to as a twice impeached, criminally indicted and now convicted former president, he should also be identified as a psychopath with a rating of 33 on a 40 point scale. Most normal people score around 4. Most convicted criminals score around 22." ⁵

Footnotes