But we should all think about the pathological processes that led him to be lionized in the first place. A lefty friend told me once that he thought Democrats needed to treat Trump like a schoolyard bully, and that the remedy for bullying is to make the bully cry by bullying him right back, harder. (Don’t worry; my friend is childless.) Under that theory, Avenatti was the good narcissist, and the left needed someone with sociopathic self-regard to save the country from the malignant narcissist, Trump. It needed someone who can commune with the divine rhythms of the news cycle, like a master sailor who knows winds and tides and by instinct alone arrives in port faster than others.

The belief that such a person is the country’s political salvation has done incalculable damage, for the obvious reason that anyone so devoted to his own reflection in the media is likely not to have much time left to be devoted to much else. Trump himself is the most obvious example of this: a man preternaturally attuned to the vagaries of public opinion and media cycles, but faithless to all principle and guaranteed to disappoint, sell out, or denounce his most loyal supporters, as soon as it becomes convenient to do so.

Avenatti, of course, never came near the Democratic nomination. But he revealed how defenseless we all are against a certain species of grifter. The psychological vulnerability is universal and devastating: Before a certain kind of soulless charlatan, our brains surrender themselves, as long as he promises that he is fighting on our side.