PROFILE OF A PSYCHOPATH

 

PROFILE OF A PSYCHOPATH

HOW TRUMP TICKS ALL THE BOXES

A psychopathic personality is defined in the dictionary as an emotionally disordered state characterized by clear perception of reality except for the individual’s social and moral obligations and often by the pursuit of immediate gratification in criminal acts, drug addiction or sexual perversion.  This is just a broad overview of the general perception of a person with a psychotic personality.  What the dictionary leaves out is a description of the worst possible psychopath and that is a person who craves absolute power and control.  And it always a male!  Power and control are typical male aphrodisiacs.  And absolute power is the hardest to resist.  Why am I concerned, as a writer, a student of philosophy, history and the humanities; not a single psychopath is capable of running a democracy.  As Trump reminds all those around him again and again: “I decide.”  In this article I will make references and comparisons to Trump and Hitler as both share uncanny similarities.  In every psychopath there are triggers that are like markers outlining the path they eventually embark on.  The biggest ones are timing and opportunity.    

The difference between a sociopath and a psychopath is the level of self-control.  A sociopath may find it increasingly difficult to contain and restrain whatever urges take possession of them, mostly violent, aggressive and directed at any person or persons they come in contact with.  A psychopath on the other hand fears retribution, whether it is being fired, humiliated or punished.  They will only reveal their true personality when they perceive themselves as being untouchable by either the law or society.  The more they are able to get away with, the bolder and nastier it gets.  Their mindset is extremely bizarre as they literally come to believe that they are above the law, that all of their actions are justified.  Most of them crave recognition and love to be adored and they will instill terror into anyone who dares crossing them.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, wrote about Trump that you never knew where you stood with him.  Praise one day and chewed out the next in front of all his lackeys.  He always made sure that he had an audience, to instill fear in all those gathered around him in his office and everybody knew that they could be next.  Divide and conquer.  Towards the end he admitted that all of them had willingly sold their soul to the devil.  You were either in his orbit of power or you were out.

Trump ticks all the boxes when it comes to the profile of a psychopath and the scary part lies in the fact that although he heads up the psychopath squad in the White House as the biggest and the boldest, just like Adolf Hitler he has surrounded himself with a small army of eager sycophants willing to do his bidding; execute the dirty work; firings, coercion, intimidation, perverting the justice system and using ICE and the National Guard to exercise control and suppress opposition.  None of these people would ever be elevated to these positions of power if a “normal” president occupied the Oval Office.

All these second rate actors are drunk on their new-found power, strutting, puffed up and delighting in the fact that all around them people cower in fear; assumed enemies and potential enemies.  They are so blinded by greed and stupidity that none of them realize that for the psychopath president they serve nothing will ever be enough.  Psychopaths have to burn themselves out.  They will never leave office willingly or on good terms.  Look at Trump’s behavior upon leaving his first term in office: he incited the October 6^th riot on Capitol Hill, accused the electoral offices of stealing his election; claimed that he never lost.  He snubbed Biden’s inauguration by not attending and rather than fading into the background he started an immediate re-election bid when Biden had barely started his 4 year term in office.      

Trump’s re-election is a sure sign that the balance that most people crave; law and order, health and safety, comfort and respect, can easily be upended by a determined psychopath.  He had a taste of power and he came back with an even bolder plan.  Who does he openly admire?  Putin, Ki Jinping and the North Korean madman, Kim Jong-un.  He even referenced Hitler as a great leader and a man of vision.  What he craves above all, is a similar level of power.  A clear indication of Trump’s increasingly irrational and bizarre mindset is his habit of referring to himself in the third person.  Trump decides.  It is Trump who calls the shots.

Once in power most psychopaths have a difficult time hiding their true personality.  Reports of Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior have some suggest that he is suffering from a form of dementia, a rather broad term for describing someone as going off the rails; periods of lucidity interspersed by totally irresponsible behaviors.  We can place Trump firmly in the camp of psychotic world leaders, past and present.  His irrationality comes shining through on a near daily basis; his obsessions, narcissism, persecution syndrome, vindictiveness, his incessant stream of commentaries on subjects and persons totally unrelated to the business of governance.  The vainglorious, attention seeking behavior, delighting in being front and center of every broadcast, the incessant boasting and false claims.  The exaggeration of his role on the world stage and how he is right about everything.  How did it come to this?  How can a single person be this disruptive and destructive?

To repeat the heading from a previous article: Absolute power attracts the worst.

Dictators know: The truly ignorant amongst us (and there are many) relish the opportunity to act out and destroy, especially when their actions are encouraged by the leadership at the top.

Intimidation.

Even kind and good people can be coerced, or rather forced, to believe the lies told by people like Trump because the group behavior around them is so intimidating and powerful that they go along with it.  They are afraid to speak out.  The atmosphere created is so poisonous and filled with hate, fear and paranoia that standing up against it and speaking out is viewed by the masses that support Trump as traitorous and in this case; an un-American thing to do, the worst sin you can commit at this point in time.  Thank goodness I am a Canadian, for now that is, unless things spin really out of control in a takeover move that will be described as a friendly merger by the president or purely in the interest of American safety.  It may even include Europe as he jokingly refers to himself as their president, not once, but several times.  When Hitler wrote his infamous diatribe, “Mein Kampf” he made his intentions quite clear.  World domination and supremacy, kill all Jews and undesirables and get rid of the Slavs.  Trump tweets instead, replete with bad spelling and poor phrasing, but he makes his intentions quite clear. 

Hitler had a large entourage of eager bootlickers falling over themselves to further his nefarious agenda and once again we are witnessing the unfolding of a similar scenario, this time it is taking place in America. 

I am not an expert on psychopaths and on the triggers that set them off.  My analysis comes from testimony provided by historians and psychiatrists who have studied psychopaths extensively and who provide insight in their lives and obsessions.  Many psychopaths share similar backgrounds of growing up in dysfunctional families, overbearing parents, sibling rivalry or abandonment; often the subject of mental and physical abuse, neglect and ridicule.  Feeling overlooked, underrated, resentful and desperately trying to fit in and belonging.  The fact that most psychopaths are unable to develop deep and meaningful relationships, as in true and enduring friendships or a marriage/relationship based on love and respect, has to have an impact on how they relate to the world and probably explains that most, as they grow older, demonstrate the lack of a moral compass or the ability to express genuine empathy.  Psychopaths are almost two people; one for public appearances and how they want to be perceived by the outside world; and the other barely being able to contain the anger and resentment they feel, an anger fueled by perceived slights and feelings of how the world conspires against them.  Nothing is ever their fault.  A true psychopath is completely incapable of self-criticism, of feeling shame or guilt.

Hitler was raised by an overbearing father, Alois, a womanizer and philanderer who expected to be obeyed.  A rather large man who never provided Hitler or his mother with any kind of true love, nurturing and security.  Hitler was rather diminutive in stature, definitely not an impressive male specimen, and being born with only one testicle, or at least one that never properly descended, may have provided a basis for sexual insecurity.  Although little is known about Hitler’s proclivities, there are many suggestions and stories that his sex life was rather bizarre.  Attracted to a rather Bohemian lifestyle in his adolescent years he sought out a career as a painter and he blamed the refusal to be admitted to a Vienna art academy on the “Jews” that ran it.  They said that he lacked talent!

Psychopaths have a tendency to view the world along black and white lines.  Rather simplistic and narrow minded.  Once they get a whiff of power it turns into a relentless pursuit and woebegone those who dare oppose them or stand in their way.

Trump was a poor student and never excelled at anything, other than bullying.  He was eager to follow in his father’s footsteps, a developer and property owner who bullied and litigated his way to the top.  A racist and a bigot.  Trump was a son who wanted to emulate his father and prove that he was a worthy son.  Worthy of what?  Love, respect, acceptance?  Did he ever get it?  Did he ever feel comfortable in his father’s company?  Throughout Trump’s life he must have been shaken by his many business failures and brushes with bankruptcy.  It only sharpened his psychotic behaviors and how he treated those around him.  He has an insane need to prove himself, that he is the best and the smartest, urbane and sophisticated, desperate to prove something that he will never achieve.  Because . . . he will never be accepted as a real man, a true friend and a person that can be trusted and relied upon.  He has painted himself into an awkward corner that won’t allow him to deviate from what he has set in motion.  There is no going back for Trump.

Tell him what he wants to hear.

Trump has surrounded himself with a coterie of sycophants that go out of their way to elevate their president into a global role of importance, feeding into Trump’s line of being the greatest and smartest president ever.  It has become a daily routine.  It is rather sickening to see this totally dystopian nightmare unfold, with characters falling over themselves to give Trump what he desires most: ultimate, autocratic power and not having to answer to anyone.  Trump and company have given gullible Americans the impression that America has fallen victim to decades of degenerates in power who have victimized America and Americans in the process.  America’s presence on the world stage, politically, financially and militarily has been costly and unsustainable.  Not a single nation has been able to sustain the cost of empire.  Some lasted longer than others, but not a single one is still around and they can only boast of past glories.

The world today expresses itself in GDP numbers, in growth projections and wealth accumulation.  Globalization has generated a huge amount of new wealth in record time, but it has concentrated that wealth into the pockets of a few at the expense of the many.  The discrepancies in wealth distribution has reached obscene proportions, coupled to a world population of over 8 billion that is clamoring to get a piece of the pie.  The world is literally on the move and it is no longer an inconsequential ripple but a floodtide.  The dispossessed are crossing borders and oceans in huge numbers and they keep coming.  Not a single nation is adequately equipped to handle this deluge of newcomers and the baggage that accompanies them:  Many are ill-educated, poor and share a different language, culture and customs.  They are not welcome anywhere.  And as far as sending them back?  Nobody wants them, not even their own nation.  Failure has come knocking on the doors of every nation on the planet.  Huge deficits and government debts, a lack of jobs and opportunity and an increase in the cost of living that is pushing a huge number of families to the brink of insolvency; losing homes and livelihoods, not being able to raise their families and provide them with what everybody craves; health and safety and being able to afford to provide for your family and with a solid roof over your head.

A simplistic, autocratic approach will not address any of these issues, it will only worsen the discrepancies that currently exist.  The problems we face are greater than any fix available.  Collectively we are sapping the energy and strength from this planet, draining it of opportunity with unsustainable human numbers.  Putting a psychopath in charge of your nation is the last thing you want to do, yet viewed from within the behavior of energy and momentum it is unavoidable.  We are once more reacting according to well established patterns.  Autocrats are a manifestation of failure and we’re all distracted by the antics, the lies and the bombastic actions and rhetoric.  Because . . . we want to be!  We absolutely suck at self-assessment and accepting responsibility for our actions . . . and a lack of taking action!

Autocrats do not go quietly.  They know what their fate will be and so do the people who support them.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  They know that their behavior and activities are wrong and even criminal.  While in power they pretend that they are the law, but in reality they fear the law and what it could do to them.  Hitler, towards the end, knew damned well that he had lost the war, but he had no choice but to “save his brand”, his role and keep up the pretense.  A delusional psychopath drunk on his own power.  There was nobody able and capable of putting him in his place—some tried and paid for it with their lives—and it took over 50 million lives and trillions of dollars of devastation to put an end to his reign of terror and death.

Luckily for us Trump is old, psychotic and in a hurry.  It would be awfully nice if the demise of Trump would spell an end to the nightmare he has set in motion, but what could emerge is yet another demented psychopath, one younger and a lot smarter and more determined.  Why?  Well, the same problems are still there, stubborn and refusing a fix.  We are the problem, not the answer!