My buddy, Perry Cooper, sent me the following in response to my most recent musings on the prospects of Trump (“Donald as the Princess and the Pea”). It was so apt that I thought I’d share it with GMD readers as a stand alone blogpost:

The June issue of Discover Magazine, discover.com, has an article titled “The Psychopath & The Hare.” The hare is Robert Hare, a Vancouver forensic psychologist who created a ‘Psychopathy Check List,’ PCL, and a revised PCL-R.

“It’s now the top violence risk assessment tool used by forensic psychologists in North America, the significant majority in post-sentencing and parole hearings of the most dangerous, high-risk prisoners.

The checklist’s 20 items include:

            glibness/superficial charm,
            grandiose sense of self-worth,
            need for stimulation/proneness to boredom,
            pathological lying,
            conning/manipulation,
            lack of remorse/guilt,
            shallow affect,
            callousness/lack of empathy,
            parasitic lifestyle,
            promiscuous sexual behavior,
            early behavior problems,
            lack of realistic, long-term goals,
            impulsivity,
            failure to accept responsibility,
            many short-term marital relationships,
            juvenile delinquency
            and criminal versatility.”
 
“The clinician scores each item with 0 (no presence), 1 (uncertain) or 2 (definitely present). Psychopaths score 30 to 40 points. The general population typically scores less than 5, while the average score for prisoners is 23.”

Using the seventeen items in the list from the article, I scale Trump at 32. The three missing items could only increase the score. Trump is a psychopath.

Read the article at http://discovermagazine.com/2016/june/12-psychopath-and-the-hare.

Perry Cooper