Authoritarian, narcissist or both, Trump is dangerous
I forced myself to watch Donald Trump’s triumphant acceptance speech on the lawn outside the White House. I’d managed to avoid most of the RNC convention. But I’ve studied and written about his mental health since the summer of 2016, even before he was nominated, and I felt a duty to watch.
His speech was ghastly. He stoked division, invoked law and order, praised the police, warned of disaster should Joe Biden be elected, and managed to avoid or sugarcoat the urgent crises facing our nation. He stuck to his teleprompter, so there was nothing new or particularly shocking. But what truly terrified me was his utter disregard of scientists’ recommendations for masks and social distancing and his deliberate staging of a superspreading event.
Over 1,500 invitees were crammed together on spindly white chairs, and practically no one wore a mask. Many of the mostly white guests were middle aged or older, and thus at greater risk of disease or death from COVID-19. Trump touted the great progress the U.S. has made in conquering the virus, under the leadership of Vice President Mike Pence and his team. No mention of any scientists or health organizations, of course.
No, the virus was a bad dream from which America is miraculously awakening.
Trump’s niece, psychologist Mary Trump, says that he’s “always been institutionalized, shielded from his limitations or his need to succeed on his own in the world.” She hopes “Too Much and Never Enough,”
her best seller, “will end the practice of referring to Donald’s ‘strategies’ or ‘agendas,’ as if he operates according to any organizing principles. He doesn’t.” She concurs with the mental health experts who have described him as a malignant narcissist, but adds that he may have other comorbidities, including a “learning disability that for decades has interfered with his ability to process information.” He’ll never consent to a full battery of psychological tests, so the inner workings of his mind remain a mystery while his cognitive functioning declines. (It’s worth noting that his father died of Alzheimer’s.)
He presents himself as a “very stable genius” and the ultimate authority on COVID-19 and virtually everything else. Does he believe his own hype? In the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” mental health experts speculate that his grandiose and paranoid delusions are disconnected from reality. His malignant narcissism has four components: narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial behavior, paranoid traits and sadism — the same constellation of traits found in Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
His flagrant disregard of scientific evidence in exposing his followers to a superspreader event may stem from delusional thinking, sadism, or a blatant disregard for human life. We may never know. What we do know is that his peculiar brand of insanity has already cost tens of thousands of lives, and now he seems hell bent on inciting a new civil war, tweeting praise and support to his far-right supporters who patrol the streets with their semi-automatic weapons. He openly admires dictators. Yet his adoring followers seem eager to slug down the Kool-aid and follow him, lemming-like, over the cliff or into the flames.
Psychologists have studied the authoritarian personality since Erich Fromm, a Holocaust survivor, introduced the term in regard to Hitler. Trump’s base has a strong authoritarian bent — obedient, attracted to strong leaders, fearful of change and of outsiders. Are there enough of them to win him four more years? Quite possibly, if the rest of us don’t vote.