Nero, Caligula, Norman Bates
Here’s a funny little circle. The other day I found a book in a Little Free Library titled The Sociopath Next Door. When I see or hear the word “sociopath” I always wonder how it differs from psychopath, so I snapped it up. Reading it last night I naturally noticed that Trump meets every criterion for both, and that that doesn’t get said all that often. So this morning I googled, and turned up The White House has become the Bates Motel by Robert Kahn from last April.
As a student of Ancient Rome, I am disturbed that the reign of Donald Trump.2 so closely resembles the reigns of Nero and Caligula. By some measures, Trump.2’s is worse. After all, Nero and Caligula knew what they were doing, once in a while.
But why is it worse, and how is it worse? I find four major reasons. We shall attempt to discover which of his flaws is the worst: Is it that he’s a moron, a narcissist, a sociopath, or a psychopath?
In my view there is no one worst; they’re all worst. It’s futile trying to rank them, because they’re all as bad as they could possibly be. So anyway. He starts with stupidity and narcissism and concludes the narcissism is multiplied by the stupidity. Then:
As for Trump’s sociopathy: In an excellent 2005 book, “The Sociopath Next Door,” Martha Stout shows that the traits of a sociopath — lack of conscience, habitual lying, aggressive and manipulative behaviors, and absolute unconcern for people one has injured — are also, or could be, in many ways, the “attributes” of a “successful” businessman.
Which is funny because that’s the very book that prompted me to seek out more information on sociopathy and psychopathy.
I wonder why he doesn’t get called a psychopath more often. I suppose it’s that silly taboo on armchair diagnosing? But bloody hell, if ever anyone ticked the “could not possibly care less about other people” box it’s Donald Trump and it’s necessary to say so. Not that it will do us any good – we turn out to be the nation that loves having a psychopath in charge.
He’s unambiguously a psychopath, and I relish the opportunity to say so again, loud and clear. (Not that there’s anything that’s been stopping me saying it all the time, I suppose. So I guess what I mean is there’s context here that makes it extra special to say so this time!)
Also, whatever people oppose about armchair diagnoses, I’m happy to throw that right out the window in a case as blunt and obvious as Trump’s. And it’s all the more important given he’s the current “leader of the free world”…
Trump – psychopath, or malignant narcissist? I tend to think the latter, since the definitions of both deficiencies tend to favour the latter. Putin, it seems to me, fits the ‘psychopath’ or ‘antisocial personality disorder’ definition, whereas Trump, with his thirst for constant adulation and his rage if he doesn’t receive it, very much fits the definition of ‘malignant narcissism’. Among the people he chooses to surround himself with, there appear to be a number of psychopaths – e.g. Stephen Miller & Pam Bondi – along for the ride with Trump since they think they can profit from it.
The scoreboard as it looks to me: Donald Trump: 1. Founding Fathers: 0.
This is some of that New Math stuff, isn’t it?
And he is by his own account “a stable genius.” (On yer bike, Einstein.) Though just how many stables you would have to search through to prove otherwise is uncertain. And you would always be at risk of being kicked by one of the horses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57jRBt4h6ks
Columnist Gwynne Dyer has an interesting take on this: we should grit our teeth and put up with Trump for the rest of his term because Vance would be worse.
Source:
https://gwynnedyer.com/2025/trump-the-least-bad-outcome/
I ran across this book decades ago:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mask_of_Sanity
and it really opened my eyes – I personally knew someone who exactly fit the type Cleckley was describing. IIRC he invented the word ‘psychopath’ to indicate that there was nothing physically or chemically wrong with the person’s brain – that they were suffering from a character or personality disorder, not an actual ‘pathology’.
This bit from the Wikipedia article doesn’t fit Trump AT ALL.
Well, Trump isn’t just a psychopath. There’s the other stuff, too. You could say he’s a mimic of a normally functioning narcissistic moron.
That would be a great campaign slogan, if he could run again. “Not just a psychopath!”
You joke, but that slogan’s probably a winner.
There’s another factor we know but haven’t included here – mental decline/dementia. ‘Trump watchers’ have noticed a significant and continuing decline in his ability to just even string words together, something psychopaths don’t typically have a problem doing.
I’m on a personal mission to rid the world of the term “sociopath’. I see it as, at best, a pointless euphemism and I hate euphemism’. (Most are I think harmful because corrupting.
Tim Harris, why not both? Serious question. I know there are schemas* which oppose the two but schemas have limited utility when it comes to the human mind. Maybe I’d go with the simple ‘narcissistic psychopath’ since both those terms apply to Trump. Of course Trump is undeniably malignant but we can take that as read – we don’t need to diagnose that.
*No, spellchecker, I will not write “schemata.