Yes, Trump is a narcissist. But it's literally millions of times worse than that.

[niyad]

3. and then we have the dark triad:

Shedding Light on Psychology’s Dark Triad
A dirty dozen test to detect narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy



Lurking beneath the surface of people who use others to their own advantage is psychology’s “Dark Triad.” Defined as a set of traits that include the tendency to seek admiration and special treatment (otherwise known as narcissism), to be callous and insensitive (psychopathy) and to manipulate others (Machiavellianism), the Dark Triad is rapidly becoming a new focus of personality psychology. Researchers are finding that the Dark Triad underlies a host of undesirable behaviors including aggressiveness, sexual opportunism, and impulsivity. Until recently, the only way to capture the Dark Triad in the lab was to administer lengthy tests measuring each personality trait separately. With the development of the “Dirty Dozen” scale, however, psychologists Peter Jonason and Gregory Webster (2010) are now making it possible to spot these potentially troublesome traits with a simple 12-item rating scale.

The technical definition of the Dark Triad, as stated in Jonason and Webster’s article, is rather daunting: “the Dark Triad as a whole can be thought of as a short-term, agentic, exploitative social strategy...” (p. 420). This means, in simpler terms, that people who show these qualities are trying to get away with acting out against others in order to achieve their own ends. Each of the individual qualities alone can make life difficult for those who know people like this. Combined, the Dark Triad traits in another person close to you can be detrimental to your mental health.

People who score high on the traditional Dark Triad measures that test each of the three qualities separately show a pattern of behavior that in fact combines the worst of all worlds. They seek out multiple, casual sex partners. When someone gets in their way, they act out aggressively to take what they want. Oddly enough, although their self-esteem doesn’t seem to be either higher or lower than others, people who score high on the Dark Triad qualities have an unstable view of themselves. Perhaps reflecting the aggressiveness inherent in the Dark Triad, these tendencies are more likely to be shown by men, particularly those who are high on psychopathy and Machiavellianism.

Psychologists are just beginning to discover the darkest sides of the Dark Triad, and there will certainly be more that we learn about the problems they create for others (and themselves) in the very near future. In the meantime, Jonason and Webster’s Dirty Dozen scale can give you a quick way to spot the Dark Triad individual in your midst. Rate each item on a 7-point scale as you think it applies to this person. Of course, you can also rate yourself on these qualities to see how you measure up:

I tend to manipulate others to get my way.
I tend to lack remorse.
I tend to want others to admire me.
I tend to be unconcerned with the morality of my actions.
I have used deceit or lied to get my way.
I tend to be callous or insensitive.
I have used flattery to get my way.
I tend to seek prestige or status.
I tend to be cynical.
I tend to exploit others toward my own end.
I tend to expect special favors from others.
I want others to pay attention to me.

. . . .

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201301/shedding-light-psychology-s-dark-triad




Verified by Psychology Today
Glenn Geher Ph.D.

Darwin's Subterranean World
Donald Trump as High in the Dark Triad
Trump as narcissistic, Machiavellian, and high in psychopathy




The current political season is unique in many ways. We are seeing a historically unprecedented race for the president of the United States - with the first-ever female candidate nominated by a major party, in Hillary Clinton, and with a highly unique, somewhat-unorthodox Republican candidate in former-reality-TV star and renowned businessman Donald Trump. I have never in my life seen so much passion and dialog regarding a presidential election. As is often the case in an election, much attention is being paid to the personality traits of the candidates. Is Hillary honest? Is she empathetic? And what about Donald? Is he intelligent? (no) Is he altruistic and community-oriented? )Oh bloody hell no) Is he kind? (and what planet are you on????) (hmmm, do we notice how the questions are framed? how about, is donnie honet (HELL NO!!!!) On this point, some recent analysts, including the Washington Post’s Robert Kagan and Vanity Fair’s (didn't KO work for GQ?) Keith Olbermann, have questioned whether Donald Trump is sane - which, of course, is a pretty important consideration in determining the president of the United States.

As someone trained as a quantitatively oriented personality and social psychologist, I thought it’d be useful for me to chime in on this point. Kagan and Olbermann are both very bright thinkers and writers, to be sure. But perhaps I could, from my perspective as a professional psychological researcher, help shed light on the nature of Donald Trump’s character.

Is Donald Trump Insane?

Keith Olbermann’s recent analysis of Trump’s personality is well-researched, thoughtful, and entertaining. However, as a professional psychological researcher, I need to clarify a major conceptual point in his analysis. Olbermann essentially asks if Trump is sane by determining how Trump would (or should) score on a measure of “psychopathy.” The assumption here is that being “high on psychopathy” (which, perhaps not surprisingly, is where Olbermann’s analysis of Trump lands) is equivalent to meaning “is insane.” In fact, in the parlance of modern empirical psychology, this is not exactly the case. Psychopathy (see Jonason, Kaufman, Webster, & Geher, 2013) is a personality trait dimension that revolves around the tendency to genuinely not care about others. Someone who scores high in psychopathy reports feeling little to no empathy for others along with demonstrating little to no care for what happens to folks other than themselves. While this is not a fully flattering portrait of a person, to be sure, it’s not the same as being diagnosable via the DSM.

This said, in listening to Olbermann’s analysis of Trump in terms of the trait dimension of psychopathy, I got to wondering. In the current landscape of research in personality psychology, psychopathy is famous as an element of a broader cluster of personality traits known as the Dark Triad (see Jonason, Kaufman, Webster, & Geher, 2013). Olbermann makes a very strong case that Trump fits the psychopathic element of the Dark Triad. The question here is this: Does Trump fit the full suite of characteristics that underlie the Dark Triad?

. . . .




https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201608/donald-trump-high-in-the-dark-triad