Malignant Narcissism

"Seek first to understand"

It is important to understand that Donald Trump is a monster. The technical term for this is "[malignant narcissism]." This is described in detail in the movie "Unfit".

I like to explain this using an analogy. Suppose you come home to find a grizzly bear in your kitchen. You would not attempt to reason with the bear. Job #1 would be to understand that the bear is doing bear things, not 'human" things. If you try to explain what the bear is doing in human terms, you will be not just wrong but dangerously wrong.

Trump is a textbook example of malignant narcissism, which includes all the worst personality traits of the most dangerous criminals among us. Attempts to stop Trump's coup are like calling the cops on the bear.

Among other things, Trump is:

• A convicted criminal
• Famously unable to fake empathy
• Defiant of norms
• A self-view (very stable genius) that is at odds with reality (psychosis)
• Contemptuous of all rules and norms, even the rules of golf
• Vindictive, as a matter of policy, humiliates and retaliates against perceived enemies
• Living in his own fantasy world (paranoia)
• As part of paranoia, being convinced that he is the centre of the world
• As part of paranoia, seeing the opposition as an enemy attach

And so forth. To oppose Trump, one must understand who (or what) he is. We must get over endless evidence of his departure from "normal" human behaviour.  It's not news. Look for ways to get the bear out of the kitchen.

Trump Psychosis

I have refrained from writing about the perfect storm South of the Border since most people will not find anything new in what I have to say and others (American Republicans) will simply deny whatever I say for reasons that inspire this essay.

There are three mental health issues that center around Trump but cannot be "blamed" on him. Not entirely.

But let me start with Trump himself. He is plainly a malignant narcissist - a condition that has progressed into psychosis as he is backed into a corner by the self-evident gap between the world he lives in and the world the rest of us are stuck with. Building an alternate universe is the very definition of psychosis, but psychosis is a symptom not a "disease". It is linked to all kinds of underlying conditions. Nor is "psychosis" the end of the story with Trump. For example, he exhibits an astonishing willingness to sacrifice thousands of lives to serve his purpose (whatever that is). This puts him in the company of such twisted personalities as Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, and Pol Pot. You really need a new name for these guys. There is one aspect of Trump's personality that is particularly dangerous. For lack of a better term, we can call it "charisma". It's the showman - the P. T. Barnum. Trump has built his public persona as a show business personality - a "talking head" - and he's good at it. He is very good at attracting attention to himself and instinctively goes for "outrage". He knows that flat-out bullshit and outright denial of the facts will get him attention. He loves our outrage. We hate him but we still watch.

The second issue has to do with Trump supporters, who also exhibit an easily recognized psychosis, namely a persistent denial of reality along with a fierce defense of this delusional world. They talk in conspiracy theories, bumper stickers, and catchphrases, moving rapidly from one to another to avoid getting into specifics. There are too many to list but "the Russia Hoax" is one. This is a straightforward denial of widely known facts and a simple mouthing of what Trump claims. They feel that Trump was "framed", not impeached and he was proclaimed innocent, proving all the charges were a Democratic plot. What ties all this together is a shared "alternate fact" universe that is deeply held and aggressively defended. There is no way to talk to these people and that's the way they like it. It's the inappropriate emotional intensity that marks this as psychosis and not a "widely held opinion".

Of course, it is dangerous for the President of the United States to be clinically insane and even more dangerous that a significant portion of Americans shares a psychosis of their own. It's frightening to see followers of a political party swallow the whole package, for example, defending imprisonment of babies in diapers to prove the depth of their faith.

The third problem kept me awake the night Trump was declared President and it persists. That is the panic among sane Americans as Trump's invincibility and ever-expanding criminality grow. While perfectly justified, this tends to take the spotlight off of truly scary issues that are only indirectly connected with Trump, if at all. It is not all about Trump! Any of the following issues would be on the front page if not for Trump's daily clown show.

• Nuclear power plants and the nuclear arsenal are, like hospitals, understaffed as large numbers of irreplaceable people don't report to work or die. If we have learned anything from the past it is that nuclear power plants ride a razor's edge. Minute by minute expert attention is required.  Of course, Trump has torn up the "Open Sky" treaty to remove the best defense we have against accidental nuclear war.
• By muzzling the CDC, Trump has not only crippled Amerian response to the virus but crippled the ability of the world to fight catastrophe. The CDC has lead the fight against pandemic for decades. We know how to fight these things, but by pushing aside the CDC, Trump has guaranteed millions of needless deaths worldwide.
• For most of the population of Earth, starvation not the infection is the issue. By obsessing over state by state epicurves and lifting of restrictions, we ignore places that at completely defenseless against what amounts to a modern plague.
• Happy talk from politicians in general papers over the need to prepare for a world-wide depression while the virus becomes "endemic". There is no evidence that we will mount the kind of worldwide defense against the virus that will make it "go away". We are still fighting polio even though we have a vaccine.
• Obsolete monetary theories, especially among American conservatives and the European Union threaten to trap the economy in a depression for decades. We can't "borrow our way out of this". Worry about how we can "afford" to keep people from starving to death mirrors Canadian politics that literally starved people to death until we were "saved" by World War II.

I could list a dozen more. The key is to follow the news on the BBC rather than American outlets. Of course, BBC spends 3/4 of its time on British scandals and puff pieces, but it does make an attempt to cover worldwide news. 

-- Postscript January 2021 (Trump defeated)

The New York Times provided an overview of Q-Anon and the impact of Trump's loss. My reaction was to remark at how individual Q-Anon believers go through an experience that looks very similar to my own experience with mania shading into psychosis. Symptoms of this disorder include:

• Hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not there)
• Delusions (false beliefs)
• Incoherent or nonsense speech.
• Inappropriate behaviors for the situation.
• Depression.
• Anxiety.
• Sleep problems.
• Social withdrawal.

The interviews in the above piece provide insight into some of the less-obvious symptoms, including social withdrawal, evident in Trump supporters in general (the "skunk at the picnic" effect). We also see depression and anxiety in some of the Q's facing the total collapse of the Q view of history. The attack on the Capital on January 6 must certainly be classified as "inappropriate behaviors for the situation".

Whatever your definitions,  millions of Americans take Q-Anon seriously enough to engage in violent, illegal behavior believing in the righteousness of their cause. If we characterize this frame of mind as "crazy", even though millions suffer from it, we must think about what we mean by "crazy". Just exactly when do we become worried about bizarre beliefs when believers start to act like this, severing ties with friends and family who express concern about the mental health of believers?

P.S. Scientific American article on the subject

"Fear" A Review

This review may or may not be published by Amazon for an interesting reason:

The book is an instant best-seller. I don't think I'm the only one who read it straight through as soon as I could get my hands on it. Amazingly, it seems that Amazon is being swamped with reviews!

For what it's worth, here's my take ...

Portrait of a Malignant Narcissist

Woodwards's book comes as no surprise for those who have been watching this sick man spiral dangerously into a fantasy world as he violently casts off all who attempt to challenge his delusions.  Woodward provides dozens of examples of this, along with the assessment of those closest to Trump: that he his a professional liar and a moron. Nothing new here. What we need to notice is how crazy and detached from reality this man really is. He is perfectly willing to explicitly risk World War III because he is unhappy with the real estate South Korea has granted to the US MIlitary.  It's all about money and projection of strength. Of course, Trump is not strong. He is seriously disabled. What little strength he has comes from the bizarre circumstance of him holding a powerful office. Woodward endlessly documents how Trump is completely unaware of how that office works. Unwilling to be tutored on any subject, Trump's responses to those limitations are rants and personal attacks. He his happiest spending hours every day watching Fox News.

Trump's personality disorder has been in plain view for many years. "Dangerous Case" summarizes it as "Malignant Narcissism". Trump's behavior checks so many boxes for so many definitions of "crazy" that the only way to disagree is to offer some other equally damning pathology. 

As I write, the day after the publication of "Fear", Mr. Trump is on the air praising his actions in the Puerto Rico hurricane (in 2,975 American citizens died because of the incompetent response of the Trump Administration). It was a huge success. It would be hard to imagine clearer evidence that Trump has cast off any moorings he may have had to this world and set sail for the world in which he is, in his own words, the Greatest President in History. But if you want more examples, read Woodward's book.

While Woodward is terrified at the danger, it's plain that he bends over backward to present a balanced account of many of the issues. For example, we find reason to doubt that Mueller will ever come up with an Obstruction of Justice case, even though obstruction is taking place daily in plain view. We see the possibility that Trump's admiration for Putin is just another symptom of his admiration for raw, unchecked power. Trump's continued attempts to circumvent the law are presented as instances of his utter ignorance of the way government works, along with his refusal listen to anyone's advice that contradicts his narcissistic delusion that he his King of America.