Beyond narcissism
I recently spoke with former FBI agent Joe Navarro about Donald Trump. Navarro was one of the FBI’s top profilers, a founding member of their elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, and author of several books on human behavior, including Dangerous Personalities: An FBI Profiler Shows You How to Identify and Protect Yourself from Harmful People.
To be clear, at no time did Navarro diagnose Trump as having a narcissistic or predator personality. He says we should leave formal diagnoses to professionals …
Formal diagnoses, sure, but “narcissist” is also an ordinary vernacular descriptive word. Of course Trump is a narcissist in that sense.
Navarro’s book warns that if a “person has a preponderance of the major features of a narcissistic personality,” then he “is an emotional, psychological, financial, or physical danger to you or others.”
And if he’s the president of your country you’re in deep shit.
It’s even more important for journalists to decide if Trump behaves like a narcissist—as James Fallows explains in his must-read post at The Atlantic, “How to Deal With the Lies of Donald Trump: Guidelines for the Media.” Fallows cites a reader’s note to him “on how journalism should prepare for Trump, especially in thinking about his nonstop string of lies.”
“Nobody seems to realize that normal rules do not apply when you are interviewing a narcissist,” this behavior expert explains to Fallows. “You can’t go about this in the way you were trained, because he is an expert at manipulating the very rules you learned.” He criticizes the New York Times for believing what Trump said when they interviewed him (which is the same point I’ve made).
Again – it’s obvious that he lies constantly.
Interestingly, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote in August that Trump’s behavior “is beyond narcissism.” In mid-October, he listed “a dazzling array” of “reasons for disqualification: habitual mendacity, pathological narcissism, profound ignorance and an astonishing dearth of basic human empathy.” And so despite how much he despises Hillary Clinton, he could not bring himself to vote for Trump.
What I keep saying. It transcends politics – he’s a horrible human being.
Excellent, and alas, all too necessary.
It is quite possible that the Repugs in Congress will disagree with much DJT tries to do. Many are fiscal conservatives; he is the opposite. My biggest concern is the Supreme Court. My second biggest concern is something happening which puts Pence at the top. Theocracy and patriarchy are more dangerous than narcissism in my view.
Actually, narcissism combined with power seems to me to be the perfect recipe for tyranny.
The RePubs are covering their tail-sections and not studying how not to attract Trump’s ire. Trump has a carefully crafted plan to lop off heads and eliminate “with extreme vengeance” any member of the GOP who would stand up and dissent from their soon-to-be Reigning King. They are mere courtiers and serve at his sufferance. After seeing the 16 other primary candidates come to Trump and kiss his rump in submission, we realize anew that he’s a tyrant and vindictive against anyone who would dare stand in his way.
We see here in the USA the takeover by a classic authoritarian for whom dominating and controlling all others. Even this will not satisfy him. He’ll want more and more. For T. nothing is ever good enough to satisfy his overweening EGO. Right after the election we say Trump amazed and awed by his own win but soon enough he realized he could make even more billion by using the power of the presidency to serve him. He is not there to ‘serve’ the electorate or “the people”; he is there to serve himself.
We all really must understand that this is not “narcissism” in the cultural vernacular. This is a dangerous, clinical pathology. It exists prior to any political commitments. Steve, if you didn’t read the article referenced in the OP, please do. The difference is explained, and it’s startling. It’s so important to understand the unique danger of Cluster B personality disorders.
I know the clinical descriptions. I also know that a lunatic cannot solely override the checks and balances in the tri-partite system of US government. I already said that the Supreme Court is my main concern. Appointments are for *life.* Congress controls the pursestrings, and I doubt they (repugs & democraps)will sign off on his fantasies. We’ll see.
Somebody needs to forward this article–and Navarro’s books–to Nicholas Goldberg.