30) Trump is NOT STABLE: He Most Likely Has Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)

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My Introduction to This Topic

In the summer of 2021 (on Zoom, in mid-pandemic), I happened to participate in a group discussion of the book Stop Walking on Eggshells which discusses personality disorders. One chapter describes the characteristics of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). As I read it, my reaction was: this chapter describes Donald Trump! Now I understand him!

pages 60-61, Stop Walking on Eggshells. There is more before and after these pages!

That book chapter is actually an elaboration on the criteria for a Narcissistic Personality Disorder listed in the American Psychological Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), 5th Edition 2022. “Narcissistic personality disorder involves a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy.”

According to the DSM, those with narcissistic personality disorder may exhibit some or all of the following criteria. Five out of nine of the following behaviors need to be present to meet the diagnosis of NPD:

• Have a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents).
• Be preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.
• Believe that they are “special” and can only be understood by other special or high-status people.
• Require excessive admiration.
• Have a sense of entitlement (i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment).
• Take advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends.
• Lack empathy: or is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.
• Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of them.
• Show arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.

One small example of the role these traits played during his first year in office was the public portion of his first full Cabinet meeting on June 12, 2017. You can see it during the first 12 minutes when Trump uses grandiose language touting his accomplishments. That is followed by the individual cabinet members heaping “excessive admiration” upon President Trump in what multiple news sources called “an awkward meeting.”

Incidentally, there is no easy cure or therapy for personality disorders. It is one of the most difficult of mental illnesses to treat.

My recent research confirms that many professionals agree with me about Trump’s Narcissistic Personality Disorder. See the following examples:

Mary Trump agrees.

She is, of course, Donald Trump’s niece; she is also a clinical psychologist who teaches grad school courses in psychology. I have referred to her previously under Reason #20, “Trump is a Bully.” Being a bully can actually be related to the criteria mentioned above for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Mary Trump says that, “based on her lifetime observations of him from both near and far, President Trump meets all nine of the DSM-V characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In addition,” she writes. “Donald Trump may also have antisocial and dependent personality disorder traits along with possible learning disorders that can affect mood, behavior, and cognition.“

Dr. Dan Neuharth, who reviewed Mary Trump’s book for Psychology Today, wrote: “As therapists, we know that hiding and denying deep feelings of early abandonment and shame can exact a terrible toll.

“Rage can seethe. Fear and sadness are denied. Other people may be viewed as disposable. A ravenous hunger for approval, to compensate for the emptiness within, may gnaw, unquenchably, 24/7.

“Mary Trump seeks to connect Trump’s upbringing to his playbook in his public life.

“[Specifically,] having a depleted, absent mom and a sociopathic father [Fred, Sr.] left Donald lacking any model for empathy, vulnerability, and reciprocity. In fact, such qualities were dangerous in the Trump family. Empathy had no value or upside.

“Humiliating his children, sowing divisiveness, and bestowing money were Fred Trump’s love languages. Mary Trump describes Fred as a ‘high-functioning sociopath’ who ‘seemed to have no emotional needs at all.’

” ‘I never saw any man in my family cry or express affection for one another in any way other than the handshake that opened and closed any encounter; … My uncle does not understand that he or anybody else has intrinsic worth,’ she writes.

“What mattered in the Trump family was wielding power and making money. Of utmost importance was gaining Fred’s approval, which was capriciously given and unevenly applied.

“The president needs affirmation. If it is not forthcoming, heads will roll and tactics will escalate. Any feelings of powerlessness are displaced, with the weak and vulnerable becoming targets. When humiliated, Trump may move into alternative realities, like drawing a fanciful projected path of a hurricane with a sharpie.”

Dr. John D. Gartner agrees.

He taught psychotherapy and treatment of borderline personality disorder at Johns Hopkins University Medical School for 28 years. He wrote one of the articles in the 2019 book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, edited by Brandy Lee.

In a 90 minute documentary film called #Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump, Dr Gartner explained how Trump reflects “malignant narcissism”:

“Donald Trump shows clear signs of the most severe personality disorder. It’s called malignant narcissism and it was first introduced by Eric Fromm who escaped the Nazis and spent a lot of his life trying to understand the psychology of evil. He formulated this diagnosis of malignant narcissism which has four components: narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality disorder, and sadism.

“I think everybody now knows that Donald Trump is a narcissist.

“It’s the other three components that make him truly dangerous, because many politicians are narcissistic. But he is also paranoid. So all of his crazy conspiracy theories, and his sense of being a victim, and his demonization of anyone who disagrees with him – these are all signs of a paranoid process.

“Then there is his antisocial personality disorder – or what used to be called psychopathy or sociopathy. Consider his constant lying, well, he’s the most documented liar in human history at this point. It’s violating the rights of other people and exploiting other people. So, sexual assault would be violating the rights of other people. Not paying your bills, or defrauding people through Trump University would be an example of exploiting other people. And it’s breaking laws and breaking norms; well, he has broken every norm of the presidency; that’s one of the reasons he’s so out of control. There’s certain norms we thought no one would ever break, but it is part of his personality disorder to break norms, and to break laws, and to have no remorse. He has no guilt or anxiety about the destructive things that he does.

“And the fourth component that Erich Fromm identified is sadism. This is about truly taking pleasure in harming, humiliating, and degrading other human beings. If you read his tweets, … they are just one vicious attack and humiliating insult after another. How can anyone even come up with thousands of vicious things to say about so many people? But he enjoys degrading and humiliating and insulting other people.

Below Gartner repeats some of the above and expands on it in an interview:

NOTE: “malignant narcissism” is not a recognized term in the DSM. As Dr Gartner mentioned, the term originated from the famous German-American social psychologist and psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm (1900-1980). Today, many in the mental health field use the term “malignant narcissist” to describe a form of narcissistic personality disorder that is highly abusive. People with this personality get a sense of satisfaction from hurting others and may manipulate people or lie to gain money, acclaim, and other things they desire.

70,000+ Mental Health Professionals agree.

More than 70,000 mental health professionals including psychologists from all ideological camps signed a petition warning of Trump’s potential dangerousness. Most agreed that NPD “explains” Trump’s behavior.

Dr. John Zinner agrees.

Dr. John Zinner is clinical professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and the former head of the Unit on Family Therapy Studies at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Seelected quotes:

“Donald Trump has failed us because he is, as he has always been, incompetent, and he suffers from extremely severe mental disorders, which render him incapable of attending to any issue beyond his own personal need for adulation.”

“The mental condition he suffers most from is formally known as a severe instance of narcissistic personality disorder.”

“What makes Donald Trump so dangerous is the brittleness of his sense of worth. Any slight or criticism is experienced as humiliation and degradation.  To cope with the resultant hollow and empty feelings, he reacts with what is referred to as narcissistic rage.  Donald Trump is unable to take responsibility for any error, mistake or failing.  His default in that situation is to blame others and to attack the perceived source of his humiliation.”

SUMMARY: I happen to believe that this is a major reason for NOT voting for Trump. I admit that this is unlike most of my other reasons that are based on specific indisputable facts. In contrast, there is a lot of interpretation involved in something like this. This why I have included a large number of of professionals that largely agree with this interpretation of Trump.

There is more in the next installment.

Resources:

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