Jim Jones: Analysis of a Potential Psychopath

While several theoretical models of psychopathy have been offered over time and across academic disciplines, the most popular today is Hare’s (1980, 1991, 2003) Psychopathy Checklist. It provides a list of behaviors commonly seen in psychopaths, clustered into four groups of traits: antisocial (e.g., juvenile delinquency, poor behavioral control), lifestyle (e.g., impulsiveness, lack of realistic goals), interpersonal (e.g., grandiose self-worth, conning manipulation), and affective (emotional issues, e.g., lack of remorse and empathy for others). We used the checklist as a guide to analyze whether Jim Jones, leader of Peoples Temple, would qualify as a psychopath under this model. Our comparison included both archival evidence from memoirs and biographies and a brief email interview with Jones’s surviving biological son, Stephan Jones. We conclude that Jim Jones does qualify as a psychopath according to the Hare model. While this label is cautious given concerns such as hindsight and confirmation bias, the model may be useful for analysis of leaders of other, more contemporary, coercive groups or cults.