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“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."
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.
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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If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for email alerts and let friends know about zerospinzone.blogspot.com.
-----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 |
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 |
Still, even if Trump can't tell the difference between himself and "our country," we can. Because it truly is our country, not his.
-----
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.
-----
If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for email alerts and let friends know about zerospinzone.blogspot.com.
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