Tuesday 31 January 2017

Explains a Lot

Off piste, but I think a number of us suspected this:-

One of the nation’s top psychologists just broke one of his profession’s ethics rules to give President Donald Trump a professional diagnosis.

John D. Gartner, a psychotherapist who teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, told US News that he believes Trump has “malignant narcissism,” which is incurable, and different from narcissistic personality disorder. Gartner violated the “Goldwater Rule” of the psychology profession, in which a diagnosis of a public figure without personally examining them, and without their consent, is considered unethical.

“Donald Trump is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president,” Gartner said, citing his movements and behavior, pointing out the president’s tendency for grandiosity, sadism, aggressiveness, paranoia, and anti-social behavioral patterns.

“We’ve seen enough public behavior by Donald Trump now that we can make this diagnosis indisputably,” Gartner added.

Indeed, the diagnosis fits the bill of Psychology Today’s definition of malignant narcissism, which, when described, sounds like Donald Trump almost to the letter. Carrie Barron, M.D., who wrote the magazine’s blog on Malignant Narcissism, says the disorder “renders these individuals scary, dangerous, and ruthless.”

Malignant Narcissists will go to great lengths to achieve their aim. They can be intelligent, high functioning (hold an important job for example) soft-spoken, charming, tearful/seemingly emotional, gracious, well mannered, kind and have the ability to form relationships. They may lie, falsely accuse, dramatize, smear, cheat, steal, manipulate, accuse, blame or twist to get what they want and feel justified in doing so. Because they are entitled, egocentric and desperate, they do not experience it as wrong. They are determined to gratify their wishes and furious if thwarted. Their desire can be so consuming that there is little comprehension of, respect for or ability to empathize with the other. They lack guilt or remorse and tend to feel or pronounce that it is they who have been mistreated.
President Trump’s aides previously reported that their boss watches an excessive amount of television, mostly out of obsession for how he is perceived by the media. Salon’s Matthew Rosza compared the timestamps of Trump’s tweets about topics in the news and found that they coincided with the airing of various network news programs talking about those same subjects.

Zach Cartwright is an activist and author from Richmond, Virginia. He enjoys writing about politics, government, and the media.

8 comments:

  1. Saw this on facebook - so accurate. The world is in a complete mess.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just another term for a politician

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heavier reading for those interested

    https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/36e8/738e03e7f88523b6c5338af8596572e91b95.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  4. From 'confidence in decision-making' :-

    "It's almost impossible for a person with a conscience to imagine what it would be like not to have a conscience, not to have the socializing emotions that direct our relationships with others.

    Narcissists can abuse others physically and mentally, lie to them, steal from them, take advantage of them, sexually abuse them, and generally walk all over them, without feeling the least bit sorry for their victims.

    In fact, it often gives them pleasure to dominate, control, manipulate and take from those around them. It's what drives them. It's what motivates them to do cruel and sadistic things to others to show their superiority.

    How do they get away with this?

    Malignant narcissists will often befriend their victim before starting to take advantage of them [are you reading this, Theresa?]....

    ... They then go on to use a variety of mind control methods and techniques to influence the decision making in order to keep their victims ensnared in a web of lies and deceit so that they can continue to take, take and take some more..."

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can see how Trump fits the diagnosis, though it would be interesting to see it lined up alongside diagnoses for Nixon, Reagan, Clinton et al– who all in their different ways found ways to subvert the constitution and twist human values to meet their own ends.

    As for Trump, a recent poll found that 48% of US voters support his ban on immigration. Trump has a big mandate for his America First ideology.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump supporter ? He is not double speak like all politicians so they don't like the reality. He is doing what he said he would America says great in the election so he is doing it.

      Delete
  6. Personality Disorder is very fashionable at the moment. NOMS is investing, in spite of having been headed by obvious sufferers (do they suffer?) in recent times. Ron Jonson in this book "The psychopath test" circa 1991 I thnk, identified that these very dodgy types are over-represented as public leaders, CEOs and the like. The conundrum is how to safely manage them in the interests of public safety

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Newcastle Probation

    @probationNPS

    Any service users currently out of contact with Newcastle Probation. It's never too late to reengage. Give us a call at SJB today. #whynot"

    https://twitter.com/probationNPS/status/826318050714648577

    ReplyDelete