Two decades before John Gartner, writing about Trump, made us aware of what a malignant narcissist was the term was used on the TV show Luther

 By Hal Brown

Above: Episode One

I was a psychotherapist for 40 years but hadn't learned what a malignant narcissist was until John D. Gartner came along.

Click above to read USA Today article

I've been rewatching the TV series "Luther" and I was surprised that the term was used both in episode one and in episode two. This was aired in 2010, well before so many people learned what malignant narcissism was. Thanks to John Gartner, the founder of Duty to Warn, I learned about how Trump epitomized the syndrome. 

Alice Morgan is the genius killer who has become Luther's nemesis. Their relationship reminds me of the complex love/hate relationship between Eve and Villanelle in Killing Eve.

There's a new Luther movie out but I thought I'd watch the series again before watching it. I decided to look up "Luther Alice Malignant Narcissist" and came up with these:

Click above to enlarge

This is from Wikipedia (emphasis added):

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.

This is from the FanDom website:

Note the sentence I have highlighted:

Alice is equal parts genius, psychopath, and malignant narcissist.

Remove the word genius and it would apply to Donald Trump.

In fact the definition of malignant narcissism is that it combines psychopathy with extreme narcissism. I think Fromm should have called it psychopathic narcissism for clarity but this is just a quibble.

If you look up my name and malignant narcissism on DuckDuckGo this is the article on the top of the search page. 

This is just one of the many articles I wrote about Trump being a malignant narcissist and his other psychopathologies.

The word was never in common usage even though prominent social psychologist Erich Fromm coined it in 1964. Then Trump came along. John Gartner first, and then other mental health professionals writing about Trump, used it as did others describing Donald Trump's personality. George Conway is one example of someone who wasn't a psychotherapist who helped make the public aware of how Trump was the epitome of the syndrome:

Click above to read article

Alice Gordon, and Villanelle are malignant narcissists but they are charming and fascinating. If they were real people I can see being friends with them assuming I wasn't on their hit list. 

I'd sooner be friends with Beezlebub than with Donald Trump. At least Beelzebub might be able to teach me to fly and might be able to cook me a gourmet meal.

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Trump should have interpreter to tell us that what he says isn't what he means

 By Hal Brown

When someone posts on social medias in all caps it is considered to be the same thing as shouting. Trump's call to his followers to protest if he's arrested made the news and not, for him, in a good way. This was interpreted as his instructing his followers to engage in violent protests. 

Anyone with any common sense wanting to help Trump weather the coming storm of legal entanglements knows that violent protests on his behalf will turn at least some sentiment among his less zealous supporters against him.

Considering what occurred after his January 6th speech there's no way he couldn't have known the power he has to incite violence with his words.

Not long after the media pointed this out the walk-back from others in the GOP and ardent Trump supporters began. Pence told Jonathan Karl that the American people know they should protest in a peaceful and lawful manner. 

McCarthy echoed this. So did Alex Jones:

Ali Alexander, who as an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement staged rallies to promote Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats stole the 2020 election from him, warned Trump supporters that they would be "jailed or worse” if they protested in New York City.

“You have no liberty or rights there,” he tweeted.

One of Alexander’s allies in the “Stop the Steal” campaign was conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who amplified the election fraud claims on his Infowars show. Alexander posted that he had spoken to Jones and said that neither of them would be protesting this time around. Reference

None of these interpretations of what a call to protest means comes from Trump, the one person who could have influenced the very people who could assure that protests, if any, were peaceful. 

Here's one reply posted to Trump's Truth Social post (clicking below will enlarge but not go to Trump Social):

.

The simple fact, as shown in the post above, is that there are people who may want to express their support of him in a violent manner. These are a group of people who don't look at Jan. 6th as a total failure. Rather they look at it as a success even though it was a failed coup that they think but for the traitor Mike Pence almost succeeded. 

Trump never apologizes, never reverses a position that may disadvantage him, never admits he was wrong about anything. It's been pointed out the he could have urged supporters to peacefully protest in his posts, but really, can you see him even considering that? There no way he'd go back and post "ops, I really meant to use the word peacefully".

On MSNBC Ali Vitali said they are trying to put Trump's comments through a filter that doesn't actually exist. She made my point. I see the filter as really being an interpretation device. What comes out of Trump's screaming mouth (shown in DonkeyHotey's often reposted caricature) for his own sake should be filtered. 

Trump's worst enemy is his unfiltered brain. That brain is our friend. It's also a friend to Ron DeSantis who would be a more difficult candidate to defeat if he wins the GOP primary.

Update:

On the other hand you have stories like this:

Right-wing broadcaster calls for Barack Obama and others to be executed if Trump is arrested

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Predictions of Trump's legal downfall could be a big nothing burger, but what if it's the opposite?

 Predictions of Trump's legal downfall could be a big nothing burger, but what if it's the opposite? 

What if the Trump indictment proves to be a giant everything burger with all the fixings?

By Hal Brown

Trump not only has nicknames for just about everyone he wants to disparage. He also is referred to in numerous ways by his enemies when they post comments about him on progressive websites. Here's an exhaustive list of both, obviously out of date since it's from 2020.

The man with many names has apparently decided that all-caps is the way to go on his Truth Social posts, leaving no other way to scream his outrage unless the techies working there decide to add formatting so he can add bold or enlarge the font. Click below to enlarge without going to Truth Social:

If these posts are any indication, there's at least one person who doesn't think the legal machinations happening behind the scenes represent a big nothing burger. 

Progressive pundits are handling the prospect that the coming Stormy Daniels case ending up with an indictment gingerly with a lot of equivocation and the most common word you hear and read is "if".

Progressives and anti-Trumpers of any stripe by and large don't want to engage in wishful thinking by getting their hopes up in anticipation lest nothing come of this. After all, Trump has avoided serious consequences for his misdeeds so many times in the past that one runs out of metaphors and similes to describe what he's like in this regard. For example fill in the blank here: he's been as slippery and slimy as a __________.

To the vast majority of us, engaging in an illegal act involving $130,000 and an adult film star, and getting caught would scare the living crap out of us. Still, many pundits tending to writing this off  or minimizes this because ,not only of Trump's history of avoiding having his life seriously disrupted by his lawlessness, but because even though he lies about how much money he has, for a multi-millionaire $130,000 is chump change.

My own view is a bit more nuanced. I am a hard and fast disbeliever in karma, that is, as in Hinduism and Buddhism the belief that the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence is viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. 

If I did believe in karma I would be thinking how fitting it would be to see that the first domino to fall in Trump's delicious destruction would be something involving his behavior with a woman. Of all the women who could start this process I'll be happy if it is the one he once thought was gorgeous and now calls "horseface". 

I wrote Clinton: It depends on the meaning of 'is", while Trump's basic defense re. Stormy depends on the meaning of the word "affair" and see that Crooks and Liars also published the same thing in 'Sleazebag': Trump Reacts To Stormy Daniels Meeting With Prosecutors -Lumpy didn't get much sleep last night.

So, if the former President hadn't seen her in 18 years, what was the $130,000 payment in 2016 for? And he keeps using the word "affair" when it was allegedly a one-time sexual encounter. And the sexual (alleged!) encounter occurred in 2006. This feels like a badly scripted soap opera.

Stormy Daniels humorously noted that what happened could only be considered an affair in Trump's mind (click to see on Twitter or below to enlarge image without going to Twitter):

I will add, just because it bears repeating, is that Stormy called this the worst 90 seconds of her life.

I am always in quest of really good hamburgers. 

While I don't want to get my hopes up too high, there is mounting evidence that realistically one or another case against Trump will be the first rock to fall leading to a legal avalanche that will bury Trump.

I admire Stormy Daniels. She has astutely handled the fame that Donald Trump handed her on a golden platter. She avoided becoming a political pawn and made career moves which proved she was anything but a run-of-the-mill adult film performer.

Full disclosure: Stormy Daniels is one of the 123 people I follow on Twitter:

Perhaps she'll retweet this:

Addendum

Even if Trump is indicted and eventually this all turns out to be a plate of beans without a juicy burger underneath Trump will experience the following:

"Look, Jake (Tapper), he's very anxious about the prospect of being indicted for a couple of reasons," she began. "Yes, two things can be true at once: he is aware that there are reasons to believe this could help him politically, we have heard a lot about this morning already, but he does not want to face getting arrested, which is what happens when you get indicted."

"You get fingerprinted, you get brought in, you have to ask for bail," she elaborated. "None of that is something that he's excited about." on CNN's"State of the Union," the New York Times' Maggie Haberman (story).

This is what Chris Cristie said here:

"But the vision of a former president of the United States being processed, fingerprinted, mug shot," he added. "You know, what else do you expect Trump to say, as I said to [George Stephanopoulos] last week, than to say it helps his campaign? But being indicted, I don't think it ever helps anybody.

For a change, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a voice of restraint on her Twitter page (here):

Clicking above will enlarge image but not go to Twitter.

About the blog:

I am posting these essays on both Booksie and Medium. It is gratifying and motivating to know people read what I write. When I was banned from Daily Kos and switched only to posting my opinion writing on my online readership dropped significantly. Now it averages around 1500 a week at this address, but by posting the same story on two new platforms there are additional readers.

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