"I ate one of their famous secret agents for breakfast": Psychopathy in Ian Fleming's James Bond Villains

The psychological construct of psychopathy describes individuals without a conscience who, like Bond villains, knowingly harm others via manipulation, intimidation, and violence, but feel no remorse. The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) assesses the clinical picture of psychopathy along two factors: Emotional Detachment (e.g., superficial charm, manipulativeness, shallow affectivity, absence of guilt or empathy) and Antisocial Behavior (e.g., deviance from an early age, aggression, impulsivity, irresponsibility, proneness to boredom). There is ample evidence of psychopathic traits in the characters of the villains, as portrayed in Ian Fleming’s Bond novels. The villains’ psychopathic traits cut across both PCL-R factors and the Bond-villain (Good-Evil) dichotomy, in all its declinations, could be functional to Fleming’s narrative scheme. According to Umberto Eco’s classic structuralist approach to Fleming’s novels, the oppositional relationship between Bond and the villain is one of the key dimensions that shape the narrative plot. A revised interpretation of Eco’s analysis according to the juxtaposition of psychological and psychopathic traits helps explain Bond’s character more fully. In the light of these considerations, literary portrayals such as Fleming’s vivid depictions of Bond villains could complement clinical evaluations of psychopathy.