This image was posted on the private Duty 2 Warn Facebook page. It was started on Feb. 1, 2017 by Dr. John D. Gartner.
I gave my own check to a less obvious characteristic Trump exhibits. I don't think Trump confides his true deeper feelings to others because he represses them. Trump is a shallow and superficial person who never looks inward and has no insight, let alone curiosity, about what makes him tick. This may seem less noxious, but people like Trump rarely if ever want to delve into their innermost feelings because if they did they might understand the reasons for their behaviors and begin to change those that hurt other people
I give Dr. John D Gartner the credit he is due for enlightening me and thousands of others to the combinations of severe psychopathologies which combine to give us what (as we all by now probably know) was coined by the esteemed psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. Fromm was a Holocaust survivor. He said it is a severe and destructive pathology that is at the heart of the inhumane acts exhibited by people such as Hitler and Stalin.
Gartner was the first mental health expert to describe Trump as a malignant narcissist. This was in a May, 2017 USA Today article.
I think it is worth posting the link to Gartner's opinion essay (here) as I have done in previous blogs. This is because if I use the staging categories of cancer as a metaphor the Trump of 2017 had a stage 2 malignancy in 2017. Now is well into stage 4. It has not only spread in him, but unlike cancer, it is contagious and has spread and become more dangerous because a large percentage of the population has been infected.
The cancer of Trump's malignant narcissism won't kill him, but will result in the death of democracy if he is elected president again.
Sinclair Lewis (in his dystoican 1935 novel "It Can't Happen Here" predicted the Nazis, and of course Orwell wrote about authoritarian dictatorship in "1984." I hate to think that a year or two from now people like me will be writing about how John Gartner predicted a Trump second term dictatorship in 2017.
Excerpt from Gartner's USA Today article:Much has been written about Trump having narcissistic personality disorder. As critics have pointed out, merely saying a leader is narcissistic is hardly disqualifying. But malignant narcissism is like a malignant tumor: toxic.
Psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor Erich Fromm, who invented the diagnosis of malignant narcissism, argues that it “lies on the borderline between sanity and insanity.” Otto Kernberg, a psychoanalyst specializing in borderline personalities, defined malignant narcissism as having four components: narcissism, paranoia, antisocial personality and sadism. Trump exhibits all four.
I wish I could go back to 2017 and do a Google search for Trump and malignant narcissism. I doubt it would come up with more than links to the Gartner article. Here's what comes up with the Google search today.
Gartner makes the progressive media on a regular basis, for example in "Perfectly predictable": Dr. John Gartner on why "a malignant narcissist like Trump" sells Bibles in Salon for example and so do many other mental health professionals including myself. I'm the clincial social worker in this title: Clinical social worker: "With the Trump Bible, one must consider dementia" in a Chauncey DeVega Salon column.
It isn't just mental health professionals who have learned about maligant narcissism. Back in 2019 it wasn't a surprise that George Conway realized that Trump had the disorder: "George Conway Says Trump Is a 'Malignant Narcissist': He's 'Both Mentally Disordered and Evil' "- Newsweek.
John Gartner and his colleague Dr. Harry Segal has done podcasts with George Conway (here's one of them).
It is perhaps surprising one of Trump's lawyers recognized this in him: "Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis turns on ‘malignant narcissist’ ex-president" from The Guardian.
Trump is very different from Hitler and Stalin who were psychopaths, but not particularly flamboyant grandiose narcissists. It is very significant that this characteristic of Trump has served him well. This is because his most psychopathic tendencies and aspirations as shown by his cruel and vengeful statements can be written off as simply Trump the unhinged braggart being Trump the unhinged braggart. Trump hides his evil behind his bloviating narcissitic persona.
Addendum:
In searching the web for articles about Trump and malignant narcissim I came across this piece which I forgot about writing. I'd posted it on Medium in March of 2023:
Alice Morgan, played by Ruth Wilson,is a research scientist with a genius-level IQ. When we first meet her, Alice has murdered her parents — and their dog — in such a calculated fashion, that not even Luther is able to prove her guilt, of which he is absolutely certain. Alice’s core belief, that nothing in life ultimately matters, comes into direct conflict with Luther’s own beliefs. She frequently insinuates herself into Luther’s professional and personal life, both as an enemy and ally, with behaviours ranging from stalking him and those close to him, to helping him avoid criminal prosecution. She also provides Luther with a unique insight into the criminal mind. Luther describes Alice as a malignant narcissist.
Will the drip-drip-drip of Trump being Trump overflow his bucket and ruin his chance of winning?
It can’t happen here. Some people “get it” and want it. Some people don’t “get it”, don’t want it, and may vote for it.
“On the initiative of the vice president” should be on the top of the page story today.
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