[This complete version of the article was written in October 2020. A severely edited version was published in early 2021 as a one page “On the Couch” column in USA Today (the magazine). .

Like a number of the blogs appearing on this website, this post explores a particular nuance of the psychopathology underreported by the national media, and that has contributed to the dysfunctionality of American politics.

What to do when a federal official exhibits all the diagnostic traits of a psychopath? (While the official manual of that society’s mental health providers lacks a coherent list of these traits—making psychopaths harder to recognize).