So how would you define the man who is currently the front runner to be the Republican nominee for the Presidential race this year?
Is he a narcissist or does his pathology go deeper than that?
This piece explores the professional opinion that Donald Trump displays all the signs of being a charismatic psychopath, which would be a very bad thing if he managed to get elected to office in November. https://psychopathsdemystified.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/donald-trump-the-psychopath/
An expert in the narcissistic spectrum personality disorders, all along I’ve taken the position that Donald Trump is really a classic narcissist. When people have asked me, “So…whattaya think about Trump?," that’s been my take–utter, text-book narcissist.
But now I’m thinking Trump is more than a text-book narcissist. With every next reckless, audacious pronouncement tumbling from his provocative mouth, I’m thinking differently. With every next glib utterance meant simultaneously to exploit and stoke herd-like fears and anxieties, I’m thinking differently. With every next display of jaw-dropping contempt and the glib demonization of huge swatches of populations to whom he ascribes inherently frightful qualities, I’m thinking differently. With every next manifestation of his callousness and remorselessness, I’m thinking differently.
What I’m thinking is, Trump really is quite psychopathic, not just the “narcissistic carnival act" I thought he was. Trump meets the criteria of the “charismatic psychopath."
I’m no fan of throwing around “psychological” labels to define individuals. The guy who wrote the article is a social worker portraying himself as an expert. So take it for what it’s worth. (My take is that it is a well stated personal opinion, about Trump, couched in terms that this social worker thinks about a lot.)
But that being said, I will add my opinion. It seems to me that Trump, and the general mass who support him, manifest a flaw in the human condition. A flaw that we don’t always overcome in our societies.
I'm no fan of throwing around "psychological" labels to define individuals. The guy who wrote the article is a social worker portraying himself as an expert. So take it for what it's worth. (My take is that it is a well stated personal opinion, about Trump, couched in terms that this social worker thinks about a lot.)
But that being said, I will add my opinion. It seems to me that Trump, and the general mass who support him, manifest a flaw in the human condition. A flaw that we don't always overcome in our societies.
Are you saying that social workers aren't experts?
If he's been working in a clinical setting for years then as far as I'm concerned his views are just as valid as someone with a PhD in Psychiatry. He might even have a better functional understanding of the condition.
The thing I see with Trump is there seem to be no rules or boundaries he won't cross to get what he wants no matter who gets harmed. That would seem to fit in very well with the definition of psychopath. And there's no question he's charismatic.
Here's something else the author of the piece above has to say about psychopaths, how in some ways they are being glorified in current culture and how that is a problem.
http://www.powercommunicating.com/
Here’s my thesis–psychopaths aren’t “wise" individuals, and they have no “wisdom" to impart. It is true that psychopathic traits can support a “mover and shaker" mentality. This isn’t surprising–if you’re high in manipulativeness, fearlessness, callousness, low in empathy, low in anxiety, and weakly (or un) remorseful when running roughshod over others to achieve your ends, then you are likely to seek and/or handle positions of “power" more comfortably than others.
You are also more likely to feel more comfortable abusing your power than those lacking these traits, especially their combination.
Still, the “new perspective" suggests that it’s almost “cool to be psychopathic." Dutton, for instance, basically gushes about the psychopaths he meets and interviews, developing a virtual “man-crush" on them–if only they weren’t “psychopathic," he seems to suggest rather absurdly, they would be able to channel their “psychopathic traits" possibly in highly accomplished, beneficial ways.
Are you saying that social workers aren't experts?
If he's been working in a clinical setting for years then as far as I'm concerned his views are just as valid as someone with a PhD in Psychiatry. He might even have a better functional understanding of the condition...
I consider licensed Social Workers to be experts in their particular fields, if they have sufficient experience and base their work on their standards of best practice. But generally social workers are not who I would hold in highest regard in establishing diagnoses (psychiatrists either, for that matter.) If I were going to give full credence to an expert, in diagnosing an individual, it would generally be that of an experienced psychologist who has done a thorough individual work up. But, then, I also think that any ethical psychologist would not attempt to diagnose, nor would they publicly pronounce that diagnosis, on some public figure who they have never met and have not conducted clinical interviews and have not subjected to any necessary battery of testing.
I am not saying that the LCSW's viewpoint has no validity, whatsoever. I am saying, take it with a grain of salt.
And, hey, speculating that Trump may be a psychopath who is 10 months away from possibly becoming the most powerful individual in the world, sometimes, feels like it could be true.
As I said, he works with psychopaths - and those affected by them - in a clinical setting you’d expect him to be very well versed in what constitutes a psychopath in a functional sense.
There’s a reason there was a question mark on the title to this topic, diagnosing anyone is difficult. Given how easy it seems to be for Trump to “re-invent” the truth and how much violence he provokes while denying any responsibility, there’s more than a little evidence of a psychopathic mind at work in his campaign I think.
And those around him seem to reflect this, when was the last time that a presidential campaign manager was charged with assault for instance. Or that the candidate he’s working for lied about it which seems likely now that there is video evidence of the assault taking place. And of course the first thing that Trump does is attack the person filing the charges, he can never be wrong.
Trump is also someone who seems more than willing to dehumanize anyone who stands in his way. His “success” is leaving a path of destruction behind him, if he wins the nomination this year, it’s likely it will tear the GOP apart.
I am not saying that the LCSW's viewpoint has no validity, whatsoever. I am saying, take it with a grain of salt.
I'm not ging to bother searching for it, but I read something a few weeks ago by a psychiatrist who concluded Trump is a sociopath with narcissistic personality disorder.
Trump is concerned only with himself. I'm worried that so many people are ignorant enough to think he is qualified to be president.
Still, the “new perspective" suggests that it’s almost “cool to be psychopathic." Dutton, for instance, basically gushes about the psychopaths he meets and interviews, developing a virtual “man-crush" on them–if only they weren’t “psychopathic," he seems to suggest rather absurdly, they would be able to channel their “psychopathic traits" possibly in highly accomplished, beneficial ways.
I think he hit the nail there.
Takes me back to my low estimation of Hollywood and the physic landscape its created.
The glorification of crazy and over the top violence.
I'm reminded about stuff like the critically acclaimed BreakingBad - and listening to no less a public observer than Terry Gross gushing about what a great series it was - when it nothing less than a sociopath getting away with one atrocity after another.
Yeah, I know you were talking about Trump...
And so it goes.
I think he hit the nail there.
Takes me back to my low estimation of Hollywood and the physic landscape its created.
The glorification of crazy and over the top violence.
I'm reminded about stuff like the critically acclaimed BreakingBad - and listening to no less a public observer than Terry Gross gushing about what a great series it was - when it nothing less than a sociopath getting away with one atrocity after another.
Yeah, I know you were talking about Trump...
And so it goes.
I agree.
I watched one episode of Breaking Bad and had the same reaction, this is about a sociopath. When presented with difficult choices there are other options than taking actions that will destroy other lives. Then we move on to series like Dexter which present being a psychopathic serial killer as somehow a positive thing and much of what comes out of mainstream culture now seems to at least downplay and in some cases glorifies the socio or outright psychopathic.
Most people aren't like that, but the new - and I think largely fabricated - normal has being much further out on the sociopathic side of the spectrum as being somehow positive. It allows the kind of behavior of someone like Martin Shkreli who makes it clear that his getting rich is more important than the health of people he and his companies are supposedly supporting with life saving products. What else can you say about a man that jacks the price of a life saving drug that has been around for 60 years from $13 a pill to $750.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34331761
Not long before that this drug was selling for $1 a pill.
Trump is built on the same model, in his world he's the only one that matters. That seems to be the definition of a sociopath or psychopath, someone that is unable to understand that others even exist let alone matter.
Trump is built on the same model, in his world he's the only one that matters. That seems to be the definition of a sociopath or psychopath, someone that is unable to understand that others even exist let alone matter.
Except he's self-financing his campaign without outside influences.
He now knows completely how deep up to his neck he is with the resistance to his campaign by internal party forces.
With ya'lls witting or unwitting resistance to Trump you are emboldening the very rotten core some of you profess to hate.
No, Trump is not in this for himself. He really believes he can fix America. Whether he can or can't, whether his idea of fixing is what you want, he definitely
has the nation's interests at heart.
All this talk about Trump is silly. He’s a business person who will do anything, say anything to please people and make the deal. That’s what Carter meant when he said he was malleable. He’s no different than half the greed-driven CEO scumbags in the US. So all this talk about comparisons to Hitler are ludicrous. Now Cruz, there’s the one we should be afraid of. He’s the real Hitler of the bunch. Trump throws out redmeat that I doubt he evens believes in or wouldn’t ditch in a heartbeat if it’d benefit himself. Cruz on the other hand actually holds the racist, bigotted beliefs and believes in them. He’s the worst type of hardcore Christian and if he’s elected, downfall is imminent.
...
No, Trump is not in this for himself. He really believes he can fix America. Whether he can or can't, whether his idea of fixing is what you want, he definitely
has the nation's interests at heart.
Except he's self-financing his campaign without outside influences.
He now knows completely how deep up to his neck he is with the resistance to his campaign by internal party forces.
With ya'lls witting or unwitting resistance to Trump you are emboldening the very rotten core some of you profess to hate.
No, Trump is not in this for himself. He really believes he can fix America. Whether he can or can't, whether his idea of fixing is what you want, he definitely
has the nation's interests at heart.
He's put some of his own money in but he's not completely self-financing his campaign.
https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2016/02/24/is-donald-trump-really-self-financing-his-presidential-campaign/
And with what it costs to run for President there's no way he can do it on his own. The same major backers who've been buying the Oval Office for people for years will be lining up to fund him...then asking for favours in return.
And I think claiming that having someone like Trump as President is a cure to the current political and social ills of America is like saying that congestive heart disease is a cure for cancer.
There's no question in my mind that there are some very serious problems within not just America but the world as a whole with the entitled few writing the rules and enforcing policies that enrich them even further at everyone else's expense. Trump as a billionaire with a fairly sketchy reputation is part of that problem not the cure. What does he know about average Americans besides how to take advantage of them, the same as almost everyone else in his class.
I don't see any evidence of any kind of altruism on Donald Trump's part, he seems to hate anyone who isn't feeding his massive ego. As for fixing America how is he going to do that by creating even greater divides. This piece by SNL may be in jest but it reveals a very unpleasant core to Trump's support.
https://www.facebook.com/snl/videos/10153955723081303/
His wall to seal off the Mexican border isn't just impractical, it's openly racist.
All this talk about Trump is silly. He's a business person who will do anything, say anything to please people and make the deal. That's what Carter meant when he said he was malleable. He's no different than half the greed-driven CEO scumbags in the US. So all this talk about comparisons to Hitler are ludicrous. Now Cruz, there's the one we should be afraid of. He's the real Hitler of the bunch. Trump throws out redmeat that I doubt he evens believes in or wouldn't ditch in a heartbeat if it'd benefit himself. Cruz on the other hand actually holds the racist, bigotted beliefs and believes in them. He's the worst type of hardcore Christian and if he's elected, downfall is imminent.
The entire Republican party has painted themselves into this corner by pretending for years that "liberals" are an evil that must be eliminated to make America great again. I think any of the current holdovers still in the race to be the GOP candidate are very dangerous should they get elected to office. They've whipped up such hatred for a huge segment of the American populace that it's hard to see any peaceful outcome in having them in office.
Trump is no different, he openly encourages his supporters to attack people opposed to him, what would he be like if he was in charge of the executive branch of the US government, with little real checks and balances left in the system after years of steady erosion?
And with what it costs to run for President there's no way he can do it on his own. The same major backers who've been buying the Oval Office for people for years will be lining up to fund him...then asking for favours in return.
So far..no. There's no evidence of anything like that.
And I think claiming that having someone like Trump as President is a cure to the current political and social ills of America is like saying that congestive heart disease is a cure for cancer.
Uhhh..ok.
I don't see any evidence of any kind of altruism on Donald Trump's part, he seems to hate anyone who isn't feeding his massive ego. As for fixing America how is he going to do that by creating even greater divides. This piece by SNL may be in jest but it reveals a very unpleasant core to Trump's support.
Oh! A SNL piece.
His wall to seal off the Mexican border isn't just impractical, it's openly racist.
There are already tons of walls down there. Are those racist too?
All this talk about Trump is silly. He's a business person who will do anything, say anything to please people and make the deal. That's what Carter meant when he said he was malleable. He's no different than half the greed-driven CEO scumbags in the US. So all this talk about comparisons to Hitler are ludicrous. Now Cruz, there's the one we should be afraid of. He's the real Hitler of the bunch. Trump throws out redmeat that I doubt he evens believes in or wouldn't ditch in a heartbeat if it'd benefit himself. Cruz on the other hand actually holds the racist, bigotted beliefs and believes in them. He's the worst type of hardcore Christian and if he's elected, downfall is imminent.
The entire Republican party has painted themselves into this corner by pretending for years that "liberals" are an evil that must be eliminated to make America great again. I think any of the current holdovers still in the race to be the GOP candidate are very dangerous should they get elected to office. They've whipped up such hatred for a huge segment of the American populace that it's hard to see any peaceful outcome in having them in office.
Trump is no different, he openly encourages his supporters to attack people opposed to him, what would he be like if he was in charge of the executive branch of the US government, with little real checks and balances left in the system after years of steady erosion?Exactly. Remember Palin and the crosshairs thing? No different. I just object to everyone, Liberal and Con alike, of treating Trump as some special case.
So far..no. There's no evidence of anything like that.
Except there is. Obama raised over $600 million in 2012 and spent over $500, Mitt Romney raised close to $400 million and spent about $340. Maybe you think that Donald Trump has some sort of miraculous powers, he's certainly charismatic and knows how to whip up people based on what they hate. Like women, Mexican illegal immigrants and Muslims. Keep in mind that most of Trumps wealth is in his brand, he's going to have to sell himself to someone if he wants to raise the required amount to get elected to the Oval Office. Especially since he's turned off an overwhelming majority of women voters by treating them like crap.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/to-donald-trump-women-have-always-been-objects-hello-misogyny-2016_us_56f3f66ae4b02c402f66908a
http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2016/03/30/trumps-unhinged-attacks-megyn-kelly-continue/
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/donald-trumps-shifting-story-on-his-campaign-managers-grab-of-breitbart-reporter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/08/so-which-women-has-donald-trump-called-dogs-and-fat-pigs/
What kind of president would a man who seems to hate a majority of Americans make?
Uhhh..ok.
Believing someone who displays psychopathic tendencies is somehow going to fix a socio-economic system that seems to be more and more based on abuse of power at the very top seem like a pretty forlorn hope to me. Especially when that psychopath is right near the top of that abusive system.
Oh! A SNL piece.
Based on the fact that Trump doesn't seem to have any problem at all with violent racists being part of his "movement".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-david-duke_us_56d31097e4b0871f60ebbd35
Three times on Sunday morning, Donald Trump was given the chance to disavow the support his campaign is getting from white supremacist groups. And three times, he balked.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union," Trump was pressed by host Jake Tapper to distance himself from David Duke, a former KKK leader who has supported Trump’s campaign and gone so far as to say that a vote against the businessman would be a “treason to your heritage."
Actions speak louder than words and Trump's actions aren't those of a responsible leader or rational person. They're the actions of a racist, maybe that's not a problem if he was just a private citizen but he's trying to become the President of the United States of America.
There are already tons of walls down there. Are those racist too?
There are fences that are more about giving some Americans the illusion of safety, Trump is talking about trying to turn the southern border of the US into a fortress to protect his supporters from people they don't like. If they were smart the Mexicans would enact much stricter control of what comes south into their country from the US, the brutal drug wars are only being made possible there by the mass importation of weapons from America.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-20825061
Last year a US Senate report, submitted by the Democratic senator leading the push for greater gun control, Dianne Feinstein, said as many as 70% of the guns in the hands of the Mexican drug cartels came from the US.
And let's not forget that California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, about half of New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Wyoming used to be part of Mexico.
Trump's positions show no subtly that reflects the reality of the situation, he just has a psychopaths ability to detect and exploit those negative emotions that many have but some hold central to their identity to manipulate large numbers of people in his own interests.
The wall he wants to build isn't practical or rational on any level. It's intended to inflame xenophobia and hatred of those who's anger he intends to ride to the highest levels of power he can. Anyone who thinks that once he gets there he's going to be a rational or even moderately sane leader hasn't paid the slightest attention to history.
...
No, Trump is not in this for himself. He really believes he can fix America. Whether he can or can't, whether his idea of fixing is what you want, he definitely
has the nation's interests at heart.
How do you know this?
Hello?... How do you know this?
All this talk about Trump is silly. He's a business person who will do anything, say anything to please people and make the deal. That's what Carter meant when he said he was malleable. He's no different than half the greed-driven CEO scumbags in the US. So all this talk about comparisons to Hitler are ludicrous. Now Cruz, there's the one we should be afraid of. He's the real Hitler of the bunch. Trump throws out redmeat that I doubt he evens believes in or wouldn't ditch in a heartbeat if it'd benefit himself. Cruz on the other hand actually holds the racist, bigotted beliefs and believes in them. He's the worst type of hardcore Christian and if he's elected, downfall is imminent.
Cuthbert, nice to see some clarity and common sense.
All this talk about Trump is silly. He's a business person who will do anything, say anything to please people and make the deal. That's what Carter meant when he said he was malleable. He's no different than half the greed-driven CEO scumbags in the US. So all this talk about comparisons to Hitler are ludicrous. Now Cruz, there's the one we should be afraid of. He's the real Hitler of the bunch. Trump throws out redmeat that I doubt he evens believes in or wouldn't ditch in a heartbeat if it'd benefit himself. Cruz on the other hand actually holds the racist, bigotted beliefs and believes in them. He's the worst type of hardcore Christian and if he's elected, downfall is imminent.
Cuthbert, nice to see some clarity and common sense.It was nice to see a pundit on MSNBC call out something similar, regarding Trumps latest gaff on abortion and punishing women. The pundit made the good point that it's ridiculous that no ones sees that both Cruz and Kasich hold the same basic beliefs. They want to outlaw abortion. And what happens when someone breaks the law? They get punished, including the woman. It's just that no one seems to go after Cruz and Kasich like they do Trump OR C and K are just more savvy having been pols for awhile.
Exactly. Remember Palin and the crosshairs thing? No different. I just object to everyone, Liberal and Con alike, of treating Trump as some special case.
What Sarah Palin did wasn't normal or acceptable in democratic or social terms. It was dangerous and irresponsible as a Congresswoman on the crosshairs list discussed shortly before being shot in the head at her office in Arizona.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7046bo92a4
The fact that someone so extreme has jumped on board with Trump is just one more indication of how far out there he really is.