Re: Is the new president mentally ill?

Posted by Frank Wimberly-2 on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Is-the-new-president-mentally-ill-tp7588635p7588657.html

What I am about to say may be controversial here.  I used to work in the Psychiatry Department at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and I spent a number of years collaborating with psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.

Everyone is narcissistic to some degree and that is healthy.  However, there are malignant forms of narcissism including Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  People with that serious diagnosis are, as a rule, incapable of caring about other people.  They feel an emptiness or loneliness that cannot be relieved and they are usually untreatable.   The closest they can come to caring is about their own children whom they perceive as appendages of themselves.  They feel that a spouse is an acquired possession, like a mansion or a Rolls-Royce.  This gives them little gratification however and they frequently marry several times.

I am not formally trained in this topic and I am not offering an (amateur) diagnosis of any particular person.

Frank

On Jan 11, 2017 6:07 PM, "glen ☣" <[hidden email]> wrote:

But the question is what actions are guided by remote diagnosis?  I admit that I hope high visibility shaming like that from Streep, when added to the rest of the stress he will be / has been under, will make him go away.  But it's not likely for the same reasons Steve cites that blame and stigma won't really work on him.

I suppose if we could really confirm that he's a particular type of narcissist, then we could build models of what he may or may not do and choose actions based on their expected efficacy.  But because, almost by definition, everyone who willingly runs for President is a narcissist of some sort or other and to differing extent, that diagnosis isn't helpful.

Listening to the confirmation hearings is more helpful, I think.  Take note of all the (many) issues where Trump and his appointees express diametrically opposite positions.  Focus on those fissures.  At best, his administration will shatter.  At worst, the more distance you can put between the incompetent Cheeto and the competent people surrounding him, the more likely we'll end up with a Bush2 or a late-stage-Reagan ... maybe not good, but not catastrophic.

On 01/11/2017 03:34 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> Eric I believe you are wrong if you believe you can have a narcissistic person on your site. A narcissist cares only for himself. The policy of Trump boils down to "I'm great and you're not unless you are like me, myself and I, you loser". There is no way how he can make the country great again. As Paul Krugman said America will turn into some form of authoritarianism, into a Trumpistan nightmare at best.
> Mr. Trump does not only have a brand, he *is* a brand, a brand that says "I'm great". If you stay in this Trump hotel you are great. If you play on this Trump golf course you are great, too. But it is just a facade. It is based on lies, and there is nothing behind the shiny facade except emptiness. Therefore he seems to hit back immediately if someone damages his image and his brand, because he ceases to exist if his image is destroyed. He and his brand have become undistinguishable.
> Marketing is no way to make America great again, Google has already an OS for ads, and the American corporations excel in marketing, especially the fast food chains. What will he do, build a Trump hotel in every city, a Trump golf course in every national park? This would be a total Trumpistan nightmare. Better than the nuclear apocalypse, but who would want such a future...


--
☣ glen

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