Trump and His Supporters

A diagnostic assessment includes a mental status exam, a psychological, neuropsych, employment, and family history etc. Instead, I gathered behavioral descriptions from a number of sources in order to present a working hypothesis for incorporating sadism and narcissism. This essay deals with the pathology of sadism, individual and group narcissism.

Infants are born with anxiety, helplessness and dependence and require comfort, security and protection for survival. This fragile state is imprinted throughout the lifecycle. For survival, we developed needs and engaged in other behaviors to deal with anxiety, insecurity for “mastering the world.”  Initially, that protector was the mother caretaker. Her role, the father’s role, the sibling’s role, other adults and peers, educational process etc. all factor in, and depending upon circumstances, start in motion the development of a sadistic and narcissistic character. Character develops and drives behavior.

The following is a limited overview regarding parent-child relationship styles: 1. An Authoritative parent has been described as being highly controlling; using power freely and not encouraging the child to express himself during disagreements. 2. A Permissive parent has been described as not well-organized or  effective in running their households, lax both in disciplining and in rewarding the child, making relatively few and  weak demands for mature behavior, and paying little attention to training for independence and self-reliance. Their children appeared immature, lacking in independence and self-reliance 3. A Hostile-Neglectful parent has been described as lacking warmth, rejecting the child, failing to use reasonable and consistent controls appropriate to the child’s stage of development and likely to maximize aggressive poorly controlled behavior. 4. A Warm- Restrictive parent has been described as intrusive, in which the mother attempted to force a child through punishment or threat to adhere to her standards, and the degree to which deviations from those standards were punished.

 Additionally, inconsistent discipline appeared to be as harmful as too little or too much discipline and was another important variable in character development. The inconsistency can stem from parental hostility; indifference; parental certainty; lack of confidence; or from mood swings. However, whatever its source, inconsistency in parental discipline, tended to contribute to maladjustment, conflict and aggression in the child. The purpose of this small sample was to highlight the difficulty for the parent in child rearing.

 Depending upon a number of factors contributing to the development of secondary narcissism, the child could develop tendencies to withdraw from people in its life space.  In this case, child history suggested an inordinate degree of punishment or absence, inconsistent reinforcement resulting in anxiety while being with people. Included In the development of malignant narcissism was being a sadist, a racist with an intense desire to control, hurt, or humiliate another person. Once again, consistency, type and manner of punishment, credible reinforcements and degrees of frustration are key parental variables in developing character -negative interactive aggressive behaviors against others.

Racism, hate, narcissism and sadism have been present since beginning of recorded time. In fact, it may be increasing? This malignant narcissistic character development was based on conscious and/or unconscious feelings of significant anxiety, insecurity, helplessness, powerlessness, impotency, lack of protection and feelings of inadequacy. These hateful individuals are attracted to power, wealth, control, domination, exploitation, and contempt for others as result of their extreme anxiety, maladjustment, and shallowness .They too were recipients of severe, nonexistent and inconsistent punishment.

 The drive or move against another, as in sadistic behavior, was based on the person’s inability or impotence in being able to be effective in making productive change and creativity. As a result, the violent behavior was a substitute and a compensation for feelings of powerlessness. More often than not, these individuals submitted to and identified with a person, a family, a clan, a tribe, a religion, a nation, a flag, being of the same blood, born on the same soil, a political party, a race or racist organization, being a Nationalist or associating with some others in a magical attempt to regain the power that they are lacking. If impoverished in wealth, status or job security, they can feel privileged belonging to a superior group like the white race. In this case, individual narcissism was transformed into group narcissism. When this happened, the group becomes cult like, with the belief in their superiority. Because of their allegiance, they are willing to give their life. However, others not in the same group, are seen as inferior, not worthy, low life, bad, wrong, and evil etc. Being united with the group in question means that all worship the same idol or leader, and have the same mindset. A leader who’s convinced of his own greatness and has no doubts attracted narcissism of those that submit to him. Once identified with the leader, he magically projects his narcissism on them. In other words, the individual characteristics of narcissism are applied to the group.

Applying individual and group narcissism , we have the  following : white nationalist racist dog whistles propaganda included but not limited to make America great; build a wall to keep out the illegals and rapists; withdrawing from the Paris climate accord; withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, renegotiating so-called disastrous trade agreements; taking away funding to the United Nations, WHO and NATO; blaming China for the virus; falsely focusing on Kaepernick’s kneeling on the flag; protecting the Confederate statues; and tweeting various hateful ,lies ,negative and unflattering comments about the protesters by the incompetent, authoritarian leader.

 Healthy narcissism can be thought as the ability to have positive self-esteem and a well-defined “I” as well as the emotional capacity to have in-depth personal relationships with another. That means having the ability to care, to like and attend to another and their feelings; to respect as to highly admire and regard another; and to empathize which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another cognitively, emotionally and compassionately. Further, the capacity to use intelligence appropriately.

Often, one mistakes overinflated language with a large ego. Actually, it’s a fragile, damaged and a weakened ego. An ego was very important in the development of narcissism. The function of an ego was to determine appropriately personal and universal reality. This means the optimum use of perception, and the intellectual capacity to employ science, wisdom and reason objectively. Keyword is objectively. The ego also has to gather facts, assimilate, accommodate, use recall and debate other viewpoints. An inflated ego is vulnerable to narcissistic injuries or wounds that penetrate the nonrealistic sense of self.

With defective or malignant narcissism, there’s a major failure in navigating the reality with others and with the world. Trump, was not able to establish warm, emotionally driven interpersonal relationships. Others, different viewpoints, are seen as threats. This individual was unable to admit an error, a wrong or mistake. He, under no conditions, can admit because that’s failure. As a result, he was unable to apologize or even acknowledge the wrong. This individual was easily threatened and had to increase his narcissistic stance as a protective device. When that happens he became angry, irritated and defensive. Attacking, discrediting and humiliating another was a common response. He also falsely bragged about being the smartest in the room. To seriously listen to others or gather up information, was felt as a weakness and not to be established under any circumstance. To compensate for impaired intellectual functioning and impaired memory, he employed self-glorifications, propagates erroneous information and lied to cover the gaps. This man stops at nothing and even engaged in criminal activities and self-defeating behaviors to further his narcissistic goals.

It’s important for a malignant narcissistic leader to have a consensus, a transformation of reality that fits his narcissism, believe his ideas, and even give up their life for him. The Covid -19 was another perfect example of demonstrating the transformation of narcissism into group narcissism. In the early part of the year, Trump downplayed and distorted the seriousness of this pandemic. Numerous doctors talked about the seriousness and recommended testing, social distancing, washing hands, and wearing a facemask.  No one had seen Trump wearing a facemask. He focused on opening up the economy and bragged about how well he’s doing. Followers, like the governors in Florida, Texas and Arizona downplayed the seriousness of the virus and followed his lead. In fact, at one government meeting in West Palm Beach Florida, video showed a few individuals yelling and screaming about not wanting to wear a facemask. Loyalists shouted a number of idiotic and irrational slogans for not wearing a facemask. For example:  it takes away freedom; I don’t wear a mask because I don’t even wear underwear, I have to breathe; I would die for the flag. I would die for the Constitution. Trump was willing to sadistically let many, especially older African Americans die, and had his followers doing likewise. Just recently, with record cases for the pandemic transmission, these same three governors are implementing a different policy than prior. Yes, Trump could shoot a person in New York, get away with it and some might cheer for him.

Sadism is about controlling or dominating another. The officer that pinned a handcuffed George Floyd face down on the ground, with a knee on his neck, was modeling sadism. That officer was in complete control and could do whatever he wanted to the powerlessness, dependent and insecure George Floyd. The officer derived pleasure by making a vulnerable George Floyd suffer. Sadism was also about humiliating another, especially in front of others. Having a bully pulpit and twitter account facilitated cruel, disrespectful, hateful and sadistic verbal garbage. Lynching, waterboarding, calling another a Niger, putting children in cages, not engaging in social distancing and not wearing a mask, and lying about the Covid -19 virus are a few illustrations of sadistic behaviors.

Sadism was about inflicting psychological and physical pain on another. The person likely enjoyed that sense of power. The exploitation and contempt for another was often racist but not limited to racism. Furthermore, within this personality structure are behaviors related to parsimony, stinginess, withholding, meanness and miserliness. A few examples from Trump include attempting to abolish The Affordable Care Act; overturning Roe versus Wade; limiting government resources for Covid 19; attempting to kick out children born in this country or DACA; attempting to punish protesters; tax cuts primarily for the wealthy; not paying or stiffing various employees; going bankrupt numerous times; not able to acknowledge Dr. Anthony Fauci and discriminating regarding housing since 1973.

A few US facts employing narcissism, racism and sadism in our toxic society: 1.in 2018, we had over 16,000 murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases. Adjusted for population, our murder rate is 4.2 compared to 0. 8 for Germany.   2. We have more guns than people. 3. Our suicide rate in 2018 was 14.2 per 100,000 individuals or 132 suicides per day.  4. There were 1003 police shootings in 2019. 5. There are more than 10 million men and women physically abused by an intimate partner every year 6.  We have 940 hate groups, 7,120 hate crime incidents and 60% of these are related to race, ethnicity, and ancestry bias in 2018. 8. We are closer to nuclear oblivion now than at any other time in our history per our Doomsday Clock. 9.  We are rapidly heading toward destroying our planet with climate warming; increase in hurricanes, floods, fires etc. 10.  20% of the highest earnings families made more than 50% of the rest in 2018 11. We have the highest income inequality of all the G-7 nations 12. The black-white income gap has become greater 13. Gov. Ronald Reagan ended free tuition at the University of California and cut higher education funding by 20%. Reagan continued this national policy as president. From 1982 to 2014 tuition increased nationally by 260%. Germany, Ireland, France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have no tuition for college students.  14. The Covid 19 pandemic has disrupted the supply side and has metastasized into a collapse of demand. The number of layoffs is in the millions and the number of business collapses are increasing. 15. We’ve been at war in the Middle East for over 20 years; while the CIA has been at war in Central and South America forever. 16. We rank fifth worldwide in drug use while the Republican Party legally tries to repeal The Affordable Care Act 17. We have racist and discriminatory laws that interfere with housing, healthcare, education, criminal conviction, lynching, marriage etc.18. We just witnessed the sadistic police killing of George Floyd. 19. Jefferson wrote, God created men equal while he had slaves working his plantation.

Seems to me that man has made numerous, stupid policies and decisions. The consequences are not pretty. With anxiety, uncertainty, helplessness, powerlessness, the security for many have been compromised especially those white folks with a high school education.

Inadequate parenting styles has contributed to the development of a malignant narcissistic, sadistic, hateful and racist character structure. Character has been significantly influenced by our toxic society as well. The election of Pres. Obama resulted in a reaction by electing an incompetent, white, racist, narcissistic, Nationalist and sadistic WASP for president. Hopefully, the 2020 election will result in a more inclusive reaction by electing Biden.

References

Fromm, E. The Heart of Man Its Genius for Good and Evil. Harper and Row.

Mussen, P. Conger, J. and Kagan J. Child Development and Personality. Harper & Row.