Putin VS Trump: Who is more Psychopathic?
Cold, ruthless, and calculating, psychopaths are colloquially thought to be cunning, tactical leaders. On the internet, people demarcate psychopathy and pathological narcissism by the technical, unemotional prowess of the psychopath. People admire the psychopath, whether they realize it consciously or not, because of the list of traits that they attribute to the personality disorder. Let’s see what traits people like to attribute to the psychopath, point by point.
Lone wolf
Magnetic
Fearless
Strategic
Logical
Stoic
Thorough
Examining this list of traits, we can clearly see why people idolize The Psychopath. People love to think of highly psychopathic individuals as merely self-centered, as opposed to pathologically narcissistic, fearless people who are not swayed by their emotions, the higher the psychopathy = the more logical the person. This list of traits is somewhat based in reality, though overly exaggerated. We can see why Trump is designated to “narcissist” while Putin is designated to “psychopath”, these two terms are meant to reflect the power dynamic to the general public, as narcissists are seen as weak, cowardly bullies while psychopaths are thought of scarily calculating, their perceived ruthlessness is respected as a show of strength.
This stigmatization/idealization of personality disorders is pointless, I personally enjoy these activities because they do reveal a lot about the individual and they give us an insight into their behavior.
Let’s drop all of the presuppositions and examine who is more psychopathic, Vladmir Putin or Donald Trump, and what this means.
Sources: Admittedly, I have done immensely more research on Trump’s life, his childhood/adolescence in particular, and several interviews/Cohen’s memoir. On Putin, I read the Substack - Dictator Book Club: Putin - by Scott Alexander which is a commentary/summary of Natalia Gevorkyan’s biography, I’ll be pulling information from this article in order to make my conclusions. I have read a few other substacks on Putin which dissect his biography. Is this enough information to assess somebody’s score on the Hare Psychopathy checklist, maybe not, so I may revisit this in the future with more supplementary evidence from more valuable sources.
I will be analyzing Putin for this article, if you’d like to see how I ended up with Trump’s PCL score of 35 visit my previous articles: I have written a lot on the subject. I reduced Trump’s score to 35 in my most recent article after I reexamined him in accordance with what I now know about psychopathy, I am comfortable with this score.
Let’s Score Putin!
Glib and Superficial Charm: 0
Putin has been described as devoid of personality, boring. “At each step in his career, he was promoted for no particular reason, or because he seemed so devoid of personality that nobody could imagine him causing trouble.”
“Putin moved to Moscow and got various mid-level positions on the strength of being boring, loyal, and not having enough personality to offend anybody - others say the KGB was involved in some way.”
“Putin’s own descriptions of his relationships paint him as a strikingly inept communicator. He had one significant relationship with a woman before meeting his future wife; he left her at the altar. “That’s how it happened,” he told his biographers, explaining nothing. “It was really hard.”
He was no more articulate on the subject of the woman he actually married - nor, it seems, was he successful at communicating his feelings to her during their courtship. They dated for more than three years - an extraordinarily long time by Soviet or Russia standards, and at a very advanced age: Putin was almost thirty-one when they married which made him a member of a tiny minority - less than ten percent - of Russians who remained unmarried past the age of thirty.
Grandiose estimation of self: 0
I have found no evidence of Putin having a particular grandiosity, similar to what we see in Trump or other highly psychopathic individuals. Putin seems to be self-confident without the overt grandiosity.
Need for stimulation: 0
Putin does not seem to possess the same need for stimulation that highly psychopathic individuals do. He does not seem to need a rush like highly psychopathic individuals do, this is why highly psychopathic individuals take many risks, gamble, do drugs, etc. “Observers commonly describe Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a reckless gamble. But the Putin I came to know in St. Petersburg during the early 1990s was not a gambler in the classic sense, much less a reckless one”
Pathological lying: 1
Putin has been described as a “serial liar”. Boris Nemtsov called Putin a pathological liar. Putin’s lies seem to be more strategic, necessary for placating the Russian public or in attempt to consolidate more power. Compare it to Trump, who has lied about necessary and unnecessary things since childhood.
SPY MAGAZINE 1991: “A mobster who knew Trump socially said of him once, ‘He’d lie to you about what time of day it is -- just for the practice.’”
Cunning and Manipulativeness: 2
Putin has been rightly described as cunning; he has enacted highly unethical schemes to consolidate immense power and wealth.
“The standard position in the West is now that Putin orchestrated the apartment bombings himself - killing 300 Russians - as a justification for escalating the war on Chechnya and to make himself look good after he framed some perpetrators.
The plan worked. Putin won re-election handily. By the time people started questioning the official story, his power was already secure.”
Lack of remorse or guilt: 1
Putin seems to have orchestrated apartment bombings which killed 300 Russians, he has assassinated and threatened journalists and politicians, he is truly ruthless.
There does seem to be evidence of Putin genuinely crying at the funeral of his old friend, who seems to have been murdered, some suspect that it may have been evidence of guilt.
“Maybe. And if so, did the old KGB officer realise his old friend died in the furtherance of Project Putin”
Shallow affect: 2
Putin has been known to have a diminished sense of fear
“This argument is based on the alleged fact that Putin’s KGB trainers deemed that he suffered from a “diminished sense of danger” (ponizhennoye chuvstvo opasnosti).”
We do not know whether the rest of his emotional range is limited, but we may assume so given no evidence to the contrary.
Callousness and lack of empathy: 2
He is willing to do anything to anybody who opposes him. This is evident by his treatment of journalists, political rivals, and even Russian citizenry.
Parasitic lifestyle: 0
There is no evidence of Putin living a parasitic lifestyle.
Poor behavioral controls: 0
There is no evidence of Putin having poor behavioral control.
Sexual promiscuity: 0
There is no evidence of Putin being sexually promiscuous.
Early behavior problems: 2
“Putin was a mediocre student; schoolmates who remember him at all recall that he was easily offended, often got in physical fights, and always won.”
Putin seems to have been an aggressive child.
Lack of realistic long-term goals: 0
This is untrue prima facie; Putin has been driven by his goals—he is a very goal-oriented person.
Impulsivity: 0
“Observers commonly describe Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a reckless gamble. But the Putin I came to know in St. Petersburg during the early 1990s was not a gambler in the classic sense, much less a reckless one. Gambling by definition involves the risk of losing. My interactions with and observations of Putin showed that he did not like taking such risks. Rather, he carefully planned his moves, combining intimidation, violence, and legal maneuvers in a systematic way to achieve his ends. Putin only acted once he thought that the outcome was almost certain to be a success and he persisted, using additional resources as necessary, until he achieved his goal.”
The description provided above is only psychopathic in that unethical, violent means are used to attain said goal. Putin does not seem to be impulsive at all.
Irresponsibility: 0
This is irrevocably linked to low conscientiousness, this manifests in not paying bills on time, not getting work done, etc. Putin does not seem to be irresponsible.
Failure to accept responsibility for one’s own actions: 1
Putin blames Ukraine for his invasion though this is mostly to maneuver public Russian opinion to his favor. It’s unknown whether he refuses to accept responsibility for his own actions in the same fashion that true psychopaths do.
Many short-term marital relationships: 0
Putin has had long marital relationships, spanning decades.
Juvenile delinquency: 0
Putin’s prepubescent aggression seems to have wizened through his adolescence.
Revocation of conditional release: 0
Criminal Versatility: 1
Tallying everything up, we end up at a PCL score of 11, 24 points below my assessment of Trump at 35.
What’s the deal?
Putin seems to have developed a form of Machiavellianism that is distinct from pure psychopathy, this seems to resemble the typical tropes which are ascribed to clinical psychopathy: the ruthless long-term planner, the self-centered, as opposed to pathologically narcissistic, fearless people who are not swayed by their emotions. Maybe. In any case, Trump seems to be more psychopathic than Putin, landing comfortably in the highly psychopathic range. Putin’s public persona could also just be heavily scrubbed by the Western media, as it is in Russia, in an attempt to craft a formidable villain, I don’t know.