This essay has to do with Trump's behavior. Insights and descriptions from Jung, Freud ,Fromm, Leon Festinger and research by Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo utilizing concepts from Analytic Theory, Psychoanalytic Theory, Neo-Freudian Theory, Field Theory and Social Psychology are pertinent . These concepts include Persona ,Identification, Exploitative and Marketing Character, obedience to authority and cognitive dissonance. Utilizing these few concepts describes part of Trump's story .
In Carl Jung' s Analytic Theory, this man wrote about many aspects of man's motivations. One idea was related to archetypes which are significant behavior patterns that characterize man. One of his archetypes that he Identified was called the Persona. Briefly , this archetype is a” mask” that represents behavior patterns of man's ego needs. The purpose of the persona is to make a definite impression on others. Man utilizes many masks . For example, there could be one mask pertaining to the seduction of Malinia and another mask related to Authoritarianism like lying about the 2020 election In other words, when relating ,one’s behavior is based on ego needs. Jung went on to explain that a mask often conceals man’s real nature.
Briefly, Fromm viewed man's motivation in terms of character or character traits that differs from Jung's concept of persona. According to Fromm, " The process of living man relates himself to the world (1) by acquiring and simulating things and (2) by relating himself to people and himself. Simply put, man's character orientations are relatively permanent as he relates himself to the world and they constitute the core of his character in forms of energy that are channeled during the assimilation and socialization process. A simplified description of the Exploitative and Marketing orientations follow.
In the Exploitative orientation, the source of good is whatever the individual wants to get must be acquired as in Trump’s quest to retain the power of the presidency. He takes from others,by force, as in the January 6 attack on the capital by the mob ; by cunning fake elector schemes; calling the election fraudulent ; phoning the Georgia official for more votes etc. Trump is attracted to people whom he can exploit ,trick , or fool as in his group of loyalists that buy his products and contribute money. In his campaigns, he tells the crowd that he loves them, knowing he can exploit them. Trump also makes biting remarks on others, which is a mixture of hostility and manipulation . Everyone is judged according to their usefulness to him . He refers to them as being loyal. He is suspicious, cynical, envious and jealous per conspiracy theories and refers to news that he does not like as fake..He follows conspiratory ideas and is jealous when others have larger crowd sizes .
In the Marketing orientation, Fromm suggested that the individual is essentially selling himself as a commodity of value on exchange and that he is basically selling his personality . He hopes his personality will be accepted by those that meet his ego needs .The overriding concern is how well is the individual able to sell himself ,create a demand and that this aspect does not necessarily have to pertain to his intelligence, but to being liked and admired..
Additionally, related to persona and character formation is identification . Freud's concept of identification comes into play as the youngster incorporates personality, moral, ethical and behavior traits from his parents -more specifically in Trump's case, his father Fred. Fred was dominant, prejudicial , oppressive in his hatred of Blacks, Jews and others. He was ruthless and built his real estate fortune with manipulation, deceit and disregarding legality of rules. Fred was a financial genius that adapted with the times and built his fortune through Authoritarian means. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Essentially, the persona is actually an image of the self. It's what we show to the world that's formed from our interests ,goals as well as identifying with persons of importance. Its purpose is an adaptation to living in this world or in Trump's case , the world of corruption . Moreover, being an extrovert Trump changes his persona into a charming, seductive, pleasant individual and/or his other mask can be a verbal attack as being in charge like the president, head of the business, and political rivals and so forth. In other words, he’s adaptable and his persona takes on different forms depending upon his ego needs . It's been reported that Trump kept a copy of Mein Kampf on the nightstand, which suggests that Trump has identified with Hitler.It’s like an exploitative and marketing character orientation.
A few words about the marketing persona of Trump. Early on, Trump's marketing mask was reinforced and furthered by making anonymous reports to The New York Times in order to perpetuate something positive about him such as his business acumen , brand or wealth. He also appeared many times with Howard Stern and presented a Don Juan mask of his sexual prowess. In business, he presented to the banks and the inflation of his assets to receive beneficial loans; he also tricked and deceived developers and other financiers regarding his abilities . He created an illusion of being highly successful in the development of his casinos and other properties.
Trump utilized television as his greatest asset and projected his personality , wealth, power and status. The Apprentice ran from 200 4-2217 and was created by Mark Burnett.. A slum-like portion of Trump Tower was remade, transformed into a luxurious TV set run by a” billionaire.” Trump was projected as a powerful entrepreneur and head of the gigantic real estate empire. He was presented as the most powerful person who had ultimate control. His personality was attractive to many, and he sold himself and his items through the power of television. Books like The Art of the Deal also presented the mask of a highly successful and skilled negotiator. Later on, the co-author Tony Schwartz revealed an unflattering view of Trump. Trump has been most highly successful in marketing himself to the public.
Turning to the loyalists, Stanley Milgram's experiments pertained to obedience to authority dressed in a white lab coat Briefly, Milgram subjects believed they were providing electrical stimulation to an individual for incorrect responses,in a separate room. Despite screams of being hurt, these people in control of presenting electoral stimulation proceeded.regardless of the “ pain” they believed to be causing Obedience to an authority was demonstrated in a number of other of Milgram's research as a social psychologist at Yale University.These subjects wore the mask of obedience . We do not know if they had exploitive character orientations. On the other hand, many members of the Supreme Court covered their exploitative character orientations with a mask of congeniality.
On the West Coast, at Stanford, Phillip Zimbardo, in his classic prison study ,separated students into categories. There were the "prison" guards and the inmates. These bright, educated students played their parts well. In fact, there was abuse, physical and emotional perpetuated on the inmates. The inmates experienced stress and had difficulty being a prisoner in his experiment. In other words, the mask of being an authority with power allowed them to subjugate the powerlessness .Again, we do not know how many of these students had exploitative character orientations or , for that matter, the number of Trump’s tribe. .
Leon Festinger employed the Lewinian term of tension as a motivational force as it upsets the homeostasis' position of balance. Tension carries a negative valence and therefore the goal is to reduce that irritation, or unpleasantness. Therefore ,avoiding dissonant information and reduction of tension is reinforcing. The arousal of tension occurs and is related to one's self-concept, self consistency and identification. Once again, the goal is to reduce the tension or dissonance for emotional balance or to reach homeostasis. An example follows. Take the Trump sycophants that have an inflated image, belief , expectation and attitude pertaining to the positiveness and worship of Trump. If that someone hears or reads on TV, cable, social media, that Trump's been bankrupt 6 times, criminally assaulted E .Jean Carol, lied about the 2020 election results ; instigated the January Capitol attack and so forth, that information creates arousal of tension or cognitive dissonance The motivational goal is to reduce that arousal of tension or dissonance by turning off the TV, changing the channel, rationalizing the information and/or searching for something positive regarding Trump in order to reduce and eliminate the tension or dissonance.
With cognitive dissonance, Trump's sycophants do not seek factual information but continue their quest for the irrational. They maximize their behavior with information that's consistent or consonant with their self-concept, attitude and belief system for their idol. It's fruitless, unreasonable, and wasted energy to attempt to convince the Trump sycophant of the realities, and so they go on believing fiction like “building a wall “that Mexicos paid for ; throwing out millions of immigrants ; packing the Supreme and Federal courts and tax cuts for the 1%. Trump is not only inept but is also a severely disturbed individual. Festinger’s research and others have demonstrated the significance of tension as a motivational concept.
In summation, theoretical and research findings have contributed to a fuller understanding of man’s “craziness “. Historically, forces of nature; mortality, disease , culture ,society and government have exposed man’s insecurity, helplessness , suggestibility and fickleness both in coping and surviving with all life’s challenges. As a result , man continues to look to a “father figure “ in religion, government , social , anti social groups fiction or false messiahs in an attempt to mitigate the delimias, contradictions ,and irrationalities occurring during one’s life span.
Reference
Fromm, Erich . Man for Himself An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics
