WHAT IF WE HAD A SOCIOPATHIC NARCISSISTIC AS PRESIDENT IN A TIME OF CRISIS?

If, God forbid, we had a sociopathic narcissist as President of the United States in a time of grave crisis, we might get a tweet like this:

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

The LameStream Media is the dominant force in trying to get me to keep our Country closed as long as possible in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success. The real people want to get back to work ASAP. We will be stronger than ever before!

As usual with Trump's tweets, there's a huge amount of nastiness, divisiveness, us-vs-them-ism, and a whopper or two to unpack. However, let's just focus on ". . . in the hope that it will be detrimental to my election success."

In other words, what we do about the coronavirus pandemic should be determined by how it might impact him. That is pure narcissism.

Epidemiologists--experts who devote their lives to studying, understanding and modeling epidemics and pandemics--tell us that stringent steps now can beat this virus down to a manageable level in a month or two--as the Chinese and a few other countries have managed to do. That would allow our health system to continue to function, and researchers to develop treatments or a vaccine. This difficult-but-necessary choice might mean thousands of deaths in the US.

They also tell us that getting everyone back to work or "back to church" prematurely will let the virus expand exponentially. This is a concept Trump doesn't and probably can't understand, but maybe some of his followers can. Exponential means that today's 75,000 cases and 1000 deaths in a few months could be multiplied not by 10 or 100 or 1000, but possibly by 10,000. That's right, unleashed to rage unchecked through the US population, this coronavirus could kill 10,000,000 people.

You don't have to believe me. You can research this for yourself in these two crystal-clear articles:

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56

Any normal person faced with the choice between his own needs and the potential death of millions of people would put all those lives first. But a sociopath wouldn't. Much less a sociopathic narcissist.

But we'd never elect someone like that as President. And even if we did, sensible people, the "adults in the room," would step in to protect us. After all, we have the Constitution, Congress and the  Courts--all those carefully crafted checks and balances--to save us. Right?

Right?

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REA

BEWARE A WOUNDED NARCISSIST

Back in May, 2017, I posted an essay entitled "L'etat c'est moi--Trump's identity problem." In it I pointed out that, as a narcissist, Trump would be unable to distinguish between himself and the nation.

I wrote, "It's safe to assume that to a narcissistic ruler, there are no boundaries between himself and his realm. The poster child for this, at least until now, has been Louis XIV of France. He's famous for proclaiming, 'L'etat? L'etat c'est moi,'--The State? I am the State.'"

Beware a wounded narcissist

Credit: Flickr

Under the stress of impeachment, this enormous flaw in Trump's character could not have been clearer. Here's what he said at the National Prayer Breakfast just after the Senate found him not guilty: "As everybody knows, my family, our great country, and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people. They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation."

In his mind, to criticize him is to criticize the nation. And of course, anyone who dares to criticize him is necessarily dishonest and corrupt. I suspect that it will not be long before he labels his critics as traitors. And, among his millions of devoted followers, there will be many who will take this not just as permission, but as a call to action.

As I wrote in that essay, the safest way to deal with a wounded and enraged narcissist is to walk away, get as far away as possible from their black-hole-like sphere of influence. Unfortunately, with Trump as president and with a Senate that has now told him that he can do no wrong, that's no longer an option for any of us.

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REA

IS IT NARCISSIISM, CORRUPTION, OR BOTH?

In my post of May 19, 2017 entitled "L'etat c'est moi--Trump's identity problem," I argued that given Trump's blatant narcissim, he would inevitably come to see the presidency and the government as extensions of himself, with which he could do as he wished:

"It's no secret that our current president has the same proclivity [narcissim]. From his point of view, it's his country, his military, his secrets to share or withhold as he wishes, his realm to do with as he pleases. The Constitution, the rule of law, checks and balances, Congress and the courts are irrelevancies that had best get out of his way."

 Donald Trump

Nothing could illustrate this more clearly than the unfolding whistleblower scandal involving Ukraine. If what's being reported turns out to be true, Trump used the office of President and the coercive power of the United States to attempt to strong-arm a foreign government into an investigation to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son.

Joe Biden, of course, is Trump's most likely opponent in the 2020 elections, an opponent who, even according to polling by Fox News, leads Trump 52 to 38.

The fate of Ukraine is of importance to the United States. It would be totally appropriate for the President to negotiate forcefully with it, for example, to get it to reduce corruption and strengthen it's democratic institutions. However, using it as a cat's paw to dredge up dirt on a political opponent is not just inappropriate and possibly illegal, it is, or should be, an impeachable offense.

It's also worth noting, that Trump appears to be a repeat offender in such matters, having just dodged a bullet by Attorney General Barr's mealy-mouthed interpretation of the Mueller Report, which was  the result of a multi-year investigation into Trump's use of political ammunition provided by, and possibly coordinated with Russia, targeting Trump's previous opponent, Hillary Clinton.

What isn't clear is whether this pattern represents pure corruption--the conscious, willful breaking of laws and norms for his own political gain--or pathological narcissim, a narcissism so profound as to blind Trump even to the possibility of separating his own needs from our nation's priorities. It would still be corrupt, but might represent the kind of distinction that criminal law makes between, for example, premeditated murder and vehicular manslaughter.

My bet is that Trump, in his narcissism, feels 100 percent justified in using the Presidency and the powers of the United States any way he pleases.

Unfortunately, that doesn't make what he has done or is likely to do any less dangerous to all of us.

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Robert Adler

L'ETAT C'EST MOI--TRUMP'S IDENTITY PROBLEM

“I believe it hurts our country terribly, because it shows we’re a divided, mixed-up, not-unified country. And we have very important things to be doing right now, whether it’s trade deals, whether it’s military, whether it’s stopping nuclear – all of the things that we discussed today. And I think this shows a very divided country."

-----President Trump, commenting on the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. elections

"I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department."

-----From Trump's interview with the New York Times, 12/28/17 

If someone is a narcissist, it's all about him or her. Narcissists are notorious for having no boundaries--you're cast for a role in their drama whether you want to be or not.

One corollary is that if you've done something that reflects well on them, for the moment you're their best friend; but if you've done something that fails to feed their ego, or worse yet, threatens it, you're instantly their enemy.*

Another corollary is that they can't ever be wrong; so if something goes wrong, it's always someone else's fault.

It's safe to assume that to a narcissistic ruler, there are no boundaries between himself and his realm. The poster child for this, at least until now, has been Louis XIV of France. He's famous for proclaiming, "L'etat? L'etat c'est moi,"--"The State? I am the State."

Louis XIV of France--The Sun King in full regalia
Author: Hyacinth Rigaud
Musee du Louvre

It's no secret that our current president has the same proclivity. From his point of view, it's his country, his military, his secrets to share or withhold as he wishes, his realm to do with as he pleases. The Constitution, the rule of law, checks and balances, Congress and the courts are irrelevancies that had best get out of his way.

There's no doubt that the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel is bad news for Donald Trump, and as Mueller's investigation develops, it may well hurt Trump terribly.

However, given his narcissism, it's not surprising that he experiences this threat to himself and his presidency as a threat to the nation. It's also predictable that as he experiences further ego-threatening narcissistic injuries, he will be driven to strike out in narcissistic rage at his enemies, actual and perceived.

Angry Trump caricature
adapted from Gage Skidmore's Flickr photosteam
by DonkeyHotey

In relationships, the targets of narcissistic rage are often advised to walk away, then later try to define and defend the boundaries of what they will or will not take. Unfortunately, none of us here in the U.S. or the rest of the world can just walk away from a wounded and enraged President with the ability to lash out within the country or abroad with the full power of the state.

Still, even if Trump can't tell the difference between himself and "our country," we can. Because it truly is our country, not his.

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For an analysis of the implication ofTrump's narcissism from the point of view of a neurolinguist, you can navigate to an excellent post by George Lakoff at this URL.

*Click here for a Yale psychiatrist's discussion of this pattern, and its impact on Trump's followers and on the nation as a whole.

And here for a more detailed disucussion of this problem as of 9/15/19 by professor Steve Hochstadt.

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