Trump Being Trump is Not the Explanation but the Disease

There has been a massive amount of head-scratching about how bewildering Trump's actions have been since taking office, most notably starting with being handed the best economy in the world blowing it up against all qualified, professional opinion.  Not to mention appointing inexperienced, unqualified people to head his national security offices -- as well as handing over authority to an unqualified donor to undermine jobs, wholescale departments, Social Security, Medicare and more.

People were expecting bad from Trump, and an attack on democracy -- but he's taken to levels he never addressed during the campaign that has surprised even many of his supporters, to the point that his poll numbers during his honeymoon period are the lowest in 80 years since such polling began.

And so the bewilderment has kicked in.

I don't have an answer, nor do I think most anyone does who tries to analyze Trump's "thinking."  Since I'm not sure Trump actually knows why he does what he does.  But I do have a thought on at least part of what is driving him.

It's something I've written about in the past -- first, back in 2020, and most recently a couple months before the election.  But since we're now seeing the results of Trump in action, I think it's worth repeating, since it does touch on at least part of why Trump does what he does.  In fact, I think it's something that bears regularly repeating.

As I wrote, there are a great many blunt, pointed, dark, critical words that have been used to describe Trump -- all accurate.  Except one:  narcissist.  While yes, on one level, it's absolutely correct it really isn't fully accurate.  That's because the proper description that has been dropped over time is "malignant narcissist."  And though it may seem nitpicking, just a harsh adjective added on, it's not nitpicking at all, because the two are very different things.  The first is descriptive.  The second, malignant narcissist, is an actual medical term and describes a serious condition that can be a danger to society.

A few years back, I came across an article on the Psychology Today website, written by Dr. Rhonda Freeman on the subject of malignant narcissism.  "A person with malignant narcissism has the potential to destroy families, communities, nations, and work environments," she wrote.  Later adding.  "However, they process information in ways that can hurt society in general, but also the people who love or depend on them."

Lest it get buried above in that string of nouns above, let me highlight it here:  "A person with malignant narcissism has the potential to destroy...nations."

And to be clear, that's from an article that was written in 2017.  This is not after-the-fact Monday Morning Quarterbacking.

As I mentioned, I wrote an article about this four years ago, and it occurred to me that seeing that description of "malignant narcissist" coming to light in full force, it's proper to repeat it and see how impactfully it all relates to Trump.  Not his mere narcissism, but his malignant narcissism.  

So much of what Dr. Freeman and others described about malignant narcissism in 2017 leaps out profoundly, almost shockingly accurate, in what we see from Trump today.  Which is why, if anyone needs even just a partial answer to "Why in the world is Trump doing what he's doing and seemingly trying to destroy the United States???", this is something to point to.

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                                Is There a Doctor in the White House

                                                      May 18, 2020

I'm not a doctor.  I'm not a psychiatrist.  I'm not a psychologist.  I have no medical training whatsoever.  My opinion is only that, and not worth a nickel more.

I am however able to read, and have read numerous articles by highly-trained, accomplished doctors and psychiatrists and see what they say -- admittedly from afar and only based on their knowledge of general symptoms that are basic to their fields.

Still, I don't think I'm going out very far on a limb to say that it's my amateur observation, based in part on what a great many experts write, that Trump has gone completely insane.  That he's every bit the sociopath, pathological liar and malignant narcissist as we've presumed for a long while -- but that it's gotten worse the past six months and is out of control.

And by the way, the expression "malignant narcissist" is not used as having just a sharp adjective in it, but rather it is a very specific medical term separate from someone being a mere narcissist.  In the simplest terms, it's like the difference between saying someone is "ill" and saying that they are "terminally ill."  Those are, of course, two critically different medical conditions. 

From a research paper  on The National Center for Biotechnology Information website, a research paper describes malignant narcissism as -- "a core Narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial behavior, ego-syntonic sadism, and a paranoid orientation."

On the Psychology Today website, an article by Rhonda Freeman, PhD, was posted in February, 2017 -- three years ago -- titled "How to Tell You're Dealing with a Malignant Narcissist" and subtitled -- "The intentional destruction of others while pathologically loving the self."  After discussing general narcissism, Dr. Freeman then writes –​

​A person with malignant narcissism has the potential to destroy families, communities, nations, and work environments. This condition reflects a hybrid or blending of narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders. Psychologist Eric Fromm termed the disorder in 1964. Psychoanalyst Otto Kernberg later delineated the symptoms of the condition and presented it as an intermediary between narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders. Why is the behavior of malignant narcissism often considered dangerous? Individuals with this profile can form connections with others. However, they process information in ways that can hurt society in general, but also the people who love or depend on them. Family, co-workers, employees, and others in their lives often have to walk on eggshells to appease a fragile ego and minimize the occurrence of their unstable, impulsive, or aggressive behaviors. They lash out or humiliate others for infractions of even the most frivolous nature (for example, you gave an opinion that differed from theirs; you demonstrated confidence, and it made them look bad; you told a joke that involved poking fun at them).

​​You can read the full article here.

I am not going to start listing all the examples we've witnessed in Trump that appear to fit this description perfectly.  This list would be overwhelmingly too long.  I'm not even going to list examples from this year even.  In fact, I think it's telling enough to just say I'm not going to even list examples from the past week because it would be too many.  Even the weekend would be too much, since Trump went on a rampage of attacks against President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and now Dr. Rick Bright, the whistleblower who testified before Congress last week and appeared on 60 Minutes last night.  It's not that he attacked them all, and so often, but so maniacally.  And no, that's hot hyperbole.  And most sane people know it's not.  Trump literally tweeting "Obama was always wrong" is maniacal.  And that's without even the standard that U.S. presidents not criticize their predecessors.  Just on general principle is a maniacal comment.

(Okay, sorry, I gave an example.)

And we've all seen this malignant narcissism play itself out exactly as Dr. Freeman says about how it can be considered dangerous.  Again, no hyperbole here.  After all, Trump has said that the coronavirus will go away like a "miracle" and that he thinks testing is overrated and not only are there (as of this writing) 90,972 Americans who have already been confirmed to have died of the coronavirus, but only last week Trump -- despite knowing that -- still said that that even without a vaccine it will go away

That's malignant narcissism, and when you have 90,972 people dead and continuing, it's clearly profoundly dangerous.

(Okay, sorry, I gave another example.  Some things just can't be helped.)

The thing is, this is just my unschooled opinion, and of course means nothing.  My opinion is not based on being a professional psychiatrist examining a patient.  It's just based on one person looking from afar at another person over a lengthy period of time, and reacting as a human being to what I see.  Others are free to make their own subjective observation.  Some may agree -- I suspect most would agree -- and some wouldn't.  Fine, fair enough.  They are free to write their own articles attempting to explain why Trump's endlessly repeated actions are normal and just grand.

I only suggest one really basic, straightforward situation for anyone to judge their opinion by -- if you were a parent with a four-year-old, would you feel comfortable leaving your child alone with Trump as a babysitter?

No additional, challenging conditions like that there's more than one child, or a medical condition involved, or that it's for a whole weekend, or a bottle of disinfectant is left out.  Just one child, a few hours, Trump alone in charge of your four-year-old.

If your answer is, "No, but that's unfair because there are a lot of adults I wouldn't want leave a four-year-old child with," keep in mind that Trump is the most powerful man in the world, entrusted with the security of the United States and the free world, and commander-in-chief of the America armed forces.

If  your answer is "Yes," please expect a visit from social services.

To be clear, the answer to this question does not remotely prove that Trump is a malignant narcissist.  He is, but the question isn't what proves that.  The question just suggests is that something is seriously, deeply, profoundly wrong with him.  And, if your answer was "Yes," with you.

This isn't about name-calling.  The point is about something much larger.  Rick Wilson, who used to be a Republican strategist, wrote a book, Everything Trump Touches Dies.  It was a funny, telling line when the book was published.  The point is that "Everything Trump Touches Dies" isn't a funny line -- it's the ultimate result taken to the final extreme of a malignant narcissist.

Trump is a malignant narcissist.  I don't say that as a doctor.  I say that because my eyes are not shut tight.

And the elected members of the Republican Party are know this because they are not insane.  And yet knowing this, they still enable him.  And are complicit -- with blood on their hands.