Anyone who reads Salon knows what malignant narcissism is thanks to columnist Chauncey DeVega. He has interviewed many mental health experts on the subject. Readers of Salon know that the diagnosis fits Trump like a custom made glove. Unfortunately the general public doesn't know that Trump has this dangerous psychopatholgy. That needs to change.
Here's how:
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, or whoever ends up running for president and vice president, should call Trump a malignant naricssist whenever possible. They should read the definition off of a card (not a teleprompter). This would give a dramatic flair and nobody expects someone to memorize this portion of the Wikipedia definition word for word:
Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising a mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, sadism, and a paranoid outlook on life.t is a subcategory of narcissistic personality disorder which could also include traits of antisocial personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder and sadistic personality disorder.
Malignant narcissists are grandiose and always ready to raise hostility levels, which undermines the families and organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate.
Then they should say something which urges people to look it up. Biden, in his style, could say "I'm serious, folks, look it up.? This is important. Ask yourself if you want a malignant narcissist implementing Project 2025?"
Hopefully, before too long this internet search will rank near the top of the list of of the most frequently searched terms on Google the way Project 2025 has. As you probably know Project 2025 knocked Taylor Swift off the top of the list. We'll know how well this is working by checking the Google metrics.
This is the result of a Google search of malignant narcissist.
Psychologist Dr. Johh Gartner, the founder of Duty to Warn (@DutytoWarn) was the frist to explain in the media how Trump was a malignant narcissist in "Donald Trump's malignant narcissism is toxic" which was published on May 4, 2017.
Since then numerous mental health professionals and others have written about Trump and malignant narcissism.
John Gartner has been in forefront among mental health professionals who sounded the alarm about Trump being a malignant narcissist. He appeared on "Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" (here). In that interview he said:
If we could construct a psychiatric Frankenstein monster, we could not create a leader more dangerously mentally ill than Donald Trump. He`s a paranoid, psychopathic narcissistic who`s divorced from reality and lashes out impulsively at his imagined enemies. And this is someone as you mentioned who`s handling the nuclear codes.
He and others produced the documentary #UNFIT: The Pyschology of Donald Trump. Here's the trailer.
At present Gartner and another clincial psychologist, Harry Segal, have a weekly podcast here called Shrinking Trump.
If you add Trump to your internet search of malignant narcissist this is the result.
Here is a 2019 Psychology Today article: "Malignant Narcissism: Does the President Really Have It?" The author, Bill Eddy, a clincial social worker and a lawyer used quotes from John Gartner's arguement saying he did and another therapist's argument saying he didn't. Then in May of 2020 Eddy published an update based on how Trump was handling the Covid crisis and he seemed to be leaning towards saying that Trump was a malignant narcissist. His conclusion was:
Overall, the president’s overconfidence, self-absorption, and disrespect for science and scientists appear to have rendered him unprepared and ineffective, as well as dangerous. He appears to have become more aggressive, more reckless, more fearful, more stressed, and more isolated. These recent patterns of behavior appear to be increasing over the past year.
Some people will say that his words and deeds simply demonstrate harmless hyperbole. Others will focus on the events of the day, viewing each event in isolation as a political issue to argue about, perhaps with name-calling and extreme emotions. But those who recognize personality patterns and use personality awareness to predict future behavior may see this update as a cause for grave concern, whether or not this meets the criteria of a mental disorder.
In August of 2019 Newsweek published "George Conway Says Trump Is a 'Malignant Narcissist': He's 'Both Mentally Disordered and Evil'. Conway wasn't the only laweyer saying this: Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis said she wouldn't vote for Trump in 2024 because he is a 'malignant narcissist'.
In January 2024 Who What Why published Trump’s Mental Illness Needs to Be Part of the Conversation in 2024. In view of the current questions about Biden's cognition the first paragraphs are especially relevant:
We periodically point out that Donald Trump is seriously mentally ill. From being a pathological liar to a textbook example of malignant narcissism, the former president displays a cluster of disorders that, in other circumstances, might not get him institutionalized, but would definitely justify some form of treatment.
So why aren’t we talking about that?
The GOP seems intent on making President Joe Biden’s age an issue in the upcoming election (although Trump is only four years younger), and that is perfectly appropriate in light of the fact that the incumbent would be 86 at the end of a second term.
It is important that experts — rather than Fox News pundits, who interpret every one of Biden’s verbal slips as a sign of advanced dementia — weigh in on this topic. After all, being president is a stressful and highly demanding job, so is it possible for an octogenarian to do it well? That is a valid question, and it seems as though voters deserve an answer.
But they should also know whether one of the candidates is very likely completely nuts.
John Gartner was interviewed about this by Chauncey DeVega in Salon on April 2, 2024:
After Biden's debate I was among those writing about their concern that he might be in the early stages of dementia. The day before Salon published the Gartner interview above I was quoted at length speculating as to whether Trump had dementia in another Chauncey DeVega Salon column: Clinical social worker: "With the Trump Bible, one must consider dementia."
Malignant narcissism is a psychological term the meaning of which isn't widely known the way the meaning of dementia and Alzheimer's is. Whoever runs for president can help change that.
It is fair to question whether Biden is showing signs of early dementia now or will end up succumbing to this terrible disease during his presidency. We know that Donald Trump meets every criteria for being diagnosed as a malignant narcissist now.
You can read this and previous blogs on two websites and on Substack. One may look better than the other because of how the platforms present the page.
Read on the WordPress Stressline.org (you can subscrbe to this on the upper left)
or….
Read on the Google Blogger platform HalBrown.org This version has a Disquis comment section which makes it easy to post links and images.
or… Hal’s Substack where you can sing up to get an email when I post a new blog.
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