wrestling / Columns
The Wrestling Sandwich 05.26.12
Greetings pilgrims and welcome once again to The Wrestling Sandwich.
For the past couple of weeks I have been talking about Vince McMahon and his erratic behavior. Some have agreed, some haven’t but it seems most people have a firm opinion but that’s exactly the issue…it’s all opinion. Is there a way to see if Vince is batshit insane or is it a figment of my imagination?
This past week I received an email from reader Edward Weech who was intrigued by my notion and directed me to a very interesting post in a forum that asked one simple question…Is Vince McMahon a psychopath? A very intriguing question indeed and the beauty of this post was that it was accompanied by a the standard observation test used to diagnose a psychopath.
So no dicking around with a long winded intro…let’s settle this argument once and for all.
The following is directly quested from the LurkerFAQS forum post…
Psychopathy (not to be confused with psychotic or psychosis), AKA “antisocial personality disorder” is a term which refers to a mental disorder characterized by the inability to form human attachment and an abnormal lack of empathy, masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal.
NOTE: CEOs are four times more likely to be psychopaths than the rest of the population
Many of psychopaths’ defining characteristics—their polish, charm, cool decisiveness, and fondness for the fast lane—are easily, and often mistaken for leadership qualities That’s why they may be singled out for promotion. But along with their charisma come the traits that make psychopaths so destructive: They’re cunning, manipulative, untrustworthy, unethical, parasitic, and utterly remorseless. There’s nothing they won’t do, and no one they won’t exploit, to get what they want. A psychopathic manager, with his eye on a colleague’s job, for instance, will doctor financial results, plant rumors, turn coworkers against each other, and shift his persona as needed to destroy his target. He’ll do it, and his bosses will never know.
Reading this the big line that stuck out was…
A psychopathic…will doctor financial results, plant rumors, turn coworkers against each other, and shift his persona as needed to destroy his target
Now who does that sound like? No prizes for those those that said Vincent K. McMahon.
I should probably preface something here. I don’t hate VKM. I really don’t. My main issue is that he created something that was a massive part of my childhood and then re-invented it for a large part of my adult life as well and now he seems to hellbent on destroying it, whether by design or by accident.
I’m well aware that Vince in the 1980’s was a ruthless and cutthroat businessman that did whatever he could to gain dominance. He recognized wrestling as a tired old staid sport while seeing the encroaching modern age of media with instant national/global reach. He sensed none of the existing promoters shared his vision and moved in and took what he wanted and be damned of the consequences. To this day there are men that would gladly stab Vince for what he did to wrestling without realizing that it was going to happen with or with McMahon. The only difference would have been how long it was going to take to reach that place.
I’ve written pieces in the past that have defended Vince and even with some things like the Montreal Screwjob my instant gut reaction was to take Vince’s side, a position I still maintain in light of the fact that all of the craziness and backstabbing that Bret claimed for years actually has been verified by Shawn Michaels. I have also taken Vince’s side when it comes to drugs in wrestling based on the fact that grown men who take steroid and other illicit drugs whatever their purpose should be held accountable more than the guy that they work for.
However the question of this article still exits, is Vince a psychopath?
Let’s look a little further.
The most commonly used test used to diagnose a psychopath is the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. I’m just going to quote direct from Wiki about what this test is and means. I have cross referenced the info provided by Wiki and it checks out.
In contemporary research and clinical practice, Robert D. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R) is the psycho-diagnostic tool most commonly used to assess psychopathy. Because an individual’s score may have important consequences for his or her future, and because the potential for harm if the test is used or administered incorrectly is considerable, Hare argues that the test should only be considered valid if administered by a suitably qualified and experienced clinician under controlled and licensed conditions.
The PCL-R is a clinical rating scale (rated by a psychologist or other professional) of 20 items. Each of the items in the PCL-R is scored on a three-point scale according to specific criteria through file information and a semi-structured interview. A value of 0 is assigned if the item does not apply, 1 if it applies somewhat, and 2 if it fully applies. In addition to lifestyle and criminal behavior the checklist assesses glib and superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, conning and manipulating, lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavioral controls, impulsivity, irresponsibility, failure to accept responsibility for one’s own actions and so forth. The scores are used to predict risk for criminal re-offence and probability of rehabilitation.
PCL-R Factors 1a and 1b are correlated with narcissistic personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder. They are associated with extraversion and positive affect. Factor 1, the so-called core personality traits of psychopathy, may even be beneficial for the psychopath (in terms of nondeviant social functioning).
PCL-R Factors 2a and 2b are particularly strongly correlated to antisocial personality disorder and criminality and are associated with reactive anger, criminality, and impulsive violence. The target group for the PCL-R is convicted criminals. The quality of ratings may depend on how much background information is available and whether the person rated is honest and forthright.
The following information about the effectiveness and accuracy of the PCL-R was obtained at the prs.org webpage…
For about five years, Hare’s test did exactly what he wanted it to do: make the science of psychopathy better. Psychopathy researchers from around the world bombarded Hare’s lab with requests to use the PCL-R. They published study after study on their findings.
Then, in the mid-’80s, one of Hare’s students, an undergraduate named Randy Kropp, decided to conduct a different kind of study using the PCL-R.
Kropp selected a group of prisoners with high, low and moderate scores on the PCL-R, then followed them after their release from prison. He wanted to see whether prisoners with high scores were more likely to commit crimes than those with low scores once they were out on parole. About a year later, he published his findings.
“Those who had low scores on the PCL-R, about 20 to 25 percent would be re-convicted within four or five years,” says Hare. “In the high group, it was about 80 percent.”
So a parolee who scored high had an 80 percent chance of committing another offense within the next five years. Low scorers had just a 20 percent chance of recidivism.
So are we all square here? Hopefully any concerns about this test is being legit is gone thanks to the above info.
But what about the test itself…
This is the test itself…
Factor 1: Personality “Aggressive narcissism”
Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric)
Callousness; lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Factor 2: Case history “Socially deviant lifestyle”.
Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
Parasitic lifestyle
Poor behavioral control
Lack of realistic long-term goals
Impulsivity
Irresponsibility
Juvenile delinquency
Early behavior problems
Revocation of conditional release
Traits not correlated with either factor
Promiscuous sexual behavior
Many short-term marital relationships
Criminal versatility
Acquired behavioral sociopathy/sociological conditioning
As was stated above each category needs to be scored either 0,1 or 2. Any score of 30-40 would make the subject diagnostically a psychopath.
I’m also no qualified doctor and as the info above states this test should be given by a qualified doctor under the correct conditions. Since there is ZERO chance I could ever get Vince to sit down and talk to me about this all I have to go on is his own public behavior and actions. Any opinions and scores given are solely based on my own assessment of the information we have about Vince.
Let’s dig deeper….
Factor 1: Personality “Aggressive narcissism”
To be fair, we very rarely see the “real” Vince and most that do known him state he’s more than an intimidating presence. We also have a huge pile of anecdotal evidence that he can lay the charm on think and disarmingly so. This is likely due to his reputation being what it is. We also know that he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants.
SCORE:2
Off the fucking Richter! If you need me to tell you why then you really haven’t been paying attention for the last 30 years.
SCORE: 2
As above. The amount of documented accounts of Vince and his habitual lying is just to big and complete to dismiss. Never mind that “Wrestling With Shadows” captures this on tape.
SCORE: 2
Absolutely. Do I think of these as a negative? Maybe a little but you will never build a successful business like WWE without both of these. Without them you will be part of the pack. Vince for his part has them in spades and as I just said, needs/needed them to be so successful.
SCORE: 2
This is a tricky one. I do think Vince feels these emotions but he doesn’t let them dictate how he lives his life and operates as a businessman. Like the question above I also think these are key elements in all successful big business, as you have to push aside these feelings to do what’s best for you. You are after all in business to make money and you will do that if you are concerned about the people that have fallen along the way. I however have seen him get genuinely upset when speaking about his father and the regrets about not having him around more when Vince Jr was young.
However the key question here is whether he has a lack of it, not none at all and the simple fact is, by all appearances he does not have much.
SCORE:2
This supports the question above. While I don’t think Vince is completely devoid of emotion I do think he doesn’t let it fester or sit for long periods. He swallows it down, ignores it or just plain doesn’t care past a certain point.
SCORE: 2
I’m fence sitting on this. As my synopsis of what this test means and the statement in the in the bread section of the Sandwich; CEO’s are four times more likely to be a psychopath. It stands to reason that any taste for these behaviors be directly linked to common traits they show. In my mind you have to be this way because few businesses succeed without some form of cut throat attitude.
SCORE: 1
Vince is forever finding way to cast blame situation turning out poorly on everything but his own actions. This has already been stated by many.
SCORE: 2
Factor 2: Case history “Socially deviant lifestyle”.
Juts in general you have to know this is true. A mind like Vince’s would be turning continually and he wouldn’t be able to relax for more than 2 minutes at a time. Without stimulation he would likely go mad.
SCORE: 2
I’m wasn’t 100% sure what context they meant “parasitic lifestyle” so I dug around a little and I found this meaning in relation to profiling psychopaths…
Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future, poor work ethic but exploits others effectively.
Vince has always made promises for the future, that’s just the nature of the business he’s in. Fuck, any business that doesn’t have future goals are not worthwhile to begin with. Everything else in the definition is a huge “no way”
SCORE: 0
Vince and his tantrums are legendary and the ones over the oddest and weirdest things even more so. About life in general I do think while he can be disciplined, what he’s disciplined about is not that great. He just can’t help himself. In fairness, I don’t think he’s completely without control when he needs to be.
SCORE: 1
Jesus! This about sums up Vince and the WWE for the last 15 years. Right now he’s trying to start a WWE network against all sane advice that it’s a bad deal. Vince doesn’t care.
SCORE: 2
Yes. Not completely so but Vince will change his mind at the drop of the hat and his decision on how talent is presented on camera would never have been done if it wasn’t for some sort of impulsive bent to his behavior. To be diplomatic I will go halfway.
SCORE: 1
This is a hard one for me to rate without sitting down and listening to him describe situations and his reactions in more detail. Has Vince acted irresponsibly in the past? Oh heck yeah. Does he all the time? Not really. When he does go off the rails does he do full steam ahead consequences be damn? Yup. Another case of calling it down the middle.
SCORE: 1
I’ve never heard any stories about Vince being out of control in his younger days. You would think this sort of dirt would have come up years ago if he did. He’s always been about business.
SCORE: 0
There is no way for my to answer this question in even the tiniest way. Since there’s is no way a real test of the man is gonna happen I’m going to ignore this question and it’s result. The scoring is based on getting 75% or higher as a total score and we’ll use the same benchmark but out of 38 for this test overall.
SCORE:N/A
As far as I know this is another big no. Should Vince have served time for some of his actions? Maybe but he’s never been released and then had it revoked.
SCORE:0
Traits not correlated with either factor
It’s been widely reported Vince likes to fuck around. Of course rumor are always bound to follow a personality like Vince where ever he goes and he would attract nut balls looking to embarrass him but at one time it was well known that Vince liked to play the field and may even still to this day.
SCORE: 2
None. Dudes only been married once. Very simple answer to a very simple question.
SCORE: 0
Now this is a loaded question. We all know Vince has broken the law, in different ways. Is he a violent criminal? No way. Does he break or bend laws when need arises? Absolutely. The mid-90’s steroid scandal more than proved he will do whatever he needs to get ahead or what he wants. This is a hard one to rate because Vince is not a criminal but we know he does illegal things a fair amount of the time. I will focus on the word “versatility” in the type of infringements he would do and believe it would be many and varied.
SCORE: 2
While Vince’s core personality would have always been there, how to act this way must have been informed from somewhere in his life. I think the fair answer here is right down the middle because we have no idea just how much of this behavior was just there or developed over time.
SCORE: 1
Alright! That’s the test done. So what about the results?
Out of a potential score of 38 Vincent K. McMahon scored…27! The adjusted benchmark score of 75% to be classed as a psychopath was 28.5.
Man, that’s cutting it fine and the only reason I couldn’t score higher on some was purely based on any real hard evidence.
So diagnosis? Vince is a borderline psychopath and it would depend on how well you knew the man to where you would call him one. It certainly goes a long way to explaining the way he is in any event.
Full disclosure, I scored a 22/40 for this one. So I’m like two-thirds of the way there myself .
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