James Bond is one of the most iconic fictional figures of all time. A product of his time, Bond was a secret agent that was an overly aggressive sexist who smoked 60 cigarettes a day. These, along with his other personality traits, have inspired a new theory that he makes a perfect case for psychopathy.
To determine if someone’s a psychopath, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist is used. It requires a clinician to interview a potential psychopath/sociopath using 20 criteria in the form of questions, scoring them based on how closely their answers align. The criteria can range from “impulsivity” to “sexual promiscuity”, and is determined by a 3-point ranking scale. Any subject that merits a score of 30 or above is considered a psychopath. Using the criteria of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist and examples from his many films, here’s 10 reasons he’s definitely a psychopath.
HE’S EXCESSIVELY GLIB & CHARMING
One of Bond’s most salient traits is his dangerous charm. He projects the aura of a debonair gentleman who is rough-and-tumble on the inside. He uses his silver tongue to get out of all sorts of tight situations, and then his fists if that doesn’t work.
He’s also often known for his glibness, which implies that his words are really insincere and shallow. This is how he’s able to seduce women who tried to kill him, such as SPECTRE agents and Russian spies, and how he’s able to get megalomaniacs to reveal their secret plans.
HE’S AN EXTREME NARCISSIST
In most of his films, James Bond is incredibly full of himself. This is often conveyed in his dealings with Bond Villains and Bond Girls. He never believes that Bond Villains will get away with their schemes because he’s going to stop them, and he never has any doubt that a woman is going to refuse his advances.
When Bond locates something he wants, he takes it by force. He is so convinced of his entitlement to victory and to women that he gets them whatever the cost. This is seen as a boon as far as national security is considered, but as soon as his sense of self-worth jeopardizes a mission, he becomes a liability.
HE’S A PATHOLOGICAL LIAR
By the nature of his profession, being a pathological liar was hard-wired into the vocation. However, it seemed to come naturally to Bond, whose very security (if not the security of the UK) was dependent on his ability to lie well. It often involved lying to his superiors as much as it involved lying to his enemies.
For instance in The Living Daylights, after Bond has parachuted out of known danger, he gets on the satellite phone and says, “Exercise Control 007 here. I’ll report in an hour”. Except he has no intention of doing so, as he’s about to bed a Bond girl. And after a mission in Tomorrow Never Dies, in order to be with Wai Lin, he suggests they remain “undercover” so their bosses don’t know where they are when they become intimate. He was always lying to M to get a little more action.
HE’S MANIPULATIVE
Bond is a man who gets what he wants and doesn’t take no for an answer. His 00 status also gives him certain privileges outside of the law, which he uses to his advantage. There are situations where he’ll manipulate people or situations to his benefit.
For example in Thunderball, he doesn’t tell Domino about the fate of her brother on purpose, and only when its advantageous to him to share that he’s been killed. He’s also been known to manipulate women into intimacy, like in A View To Kill when he coerces the captain of his ship from Siberia to Alaska to sleep with him because they have nothing better to do and have a “five day” journey.
HE’S REMORSELESS
Daniel Craig’s take on Bond makes him seem very empathetic and even sympathetic. These are origin films, after all, and Bond must change into the cold-blooded killing machine that he was known to be in the Secret Service.
Kevin Dutton, one of the foremost psychopathologists at Oxford University explained that with his “license to kill” afforded by his 00 status, he could comfortably settle into what naturally suited him; having little remorse for his actions. Bond ceased to see killing as right or wrong, and simply did what was necessary, without guilt.
HE LEADS A “PARASITIC LIFESTYLE”
Most psychopaths lead what’s called a “parasitic lifestyle”, in that they can work but prefer to live off of the kindness and charity of others. Bond, of course, has a job as a professional spy, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t freeload in his own ways.
It’s been calculated by fans that Bond makes less than 60 British pounds a year, which is enough to afford his meager accommodations and the ascetic meals he enjoys when not on a mission. But that’s fine because when he’s on a mission, he gets access to extravagant meals, drives a Bentley or an Aston Martin, and has a limitless expense account.
HE HAS POOR BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS
Bond is extremely impulsive, which is a characteristic of most psychopaths. In The Man With The Golden Gun, he’s romantically entertaining a young woman named “Goodnight” when Scaramanga’s girlfriend decides to wander into his room. He literally switches tactics to pursue her, his enemy’s girlfriend, relegating Goodnight to the closet, where she spends the night listening to them.
Then there’s Live and Let Die, where a henchwoman of a former nemesis comes to him for help, and gladly accepts the sort of “help” that only Bond can provide at his apartment. In A View To Kill, even May Day (Zorin’s right-hand) is able to seduce Bond to gain valuable intelligence, meaning his impulsive behavior could jeopardize national security.
HE’S PROMISCUOUS
James Bond is known for his promiscuity - he sleeps with at least one woman in every film. In total, Bond slept with 55 different women over 23 films. During the late ’80s, ’90s’, and ’00s, that number lessened dramatically compared to the ’50s through the ’70s, but he was still known for being sexually promiscuous.
In From Russia With Love, when two women of a Gypsy encampment can’t settle a dispute, it’s left to Bond to settle it for them, resulting in a ménage à trois that isn’t seen on screen but open for your imagination. In Thunderball he seduces a spa worker, as well as a SPECTRE assassin. It doesn’t really matter who is love mate is, as long as she’s there (whether willing or not). In the words of Ian Fleming, “women were for recreation.”
ALL HIS RELATIONSHIPS ARE SHORT-TERM
Bond’s professional life prohibits long-term relationships. Even the Daniel Craig origin films depict him as a lone wolf in his personal life, with his introverted and somber nature as much a reason for his failure to commit as his duty to his country. Bond only has short-term relationships, such as Sylvia Trench, who was his first onscreen lover and appeared in both Dr. No and From Russia With Love, or Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale.
He does get married in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service to a woman named Tracy, who he elopes with, but on the day they’re to get married she’s conveniently assassinated. In Ian Fleming’s words, “It seemed fantastic to Bond that human relationships could collapse into dust overnight and he searched his mind again and again for a reason.”
HE EXERCISES CRIMINAL VERSATILITY
Similar to how a matter of morals is all that stands between Batman being a superhero and not a supervillain, James Bond could easily be an evil mastermind. Psychopaths often only differ from criminals in that they don’t particularly care the sort of laws they break.
James Bond will break any law he needs to, under the right circumstances. In some ways, laws are really more like guidelines, but by the very nature of his 00 status, they don’t apply to him. He’s permitted to step outside the law’s bounderies at any time because if he gets caught, MI6 pretends to have no knowledge of his existence.
