Trump as Injured, Enraged Narcissist
The Fiery Fury of the Narcissist Scorned (Vol. 4; Issue 32)
If the terms “convicted felon,” “fraudster,” “sexist,” and “racist” fail to arouse, let’s appreciate Donald Trump’s educational contributions to the global audience: Trump immeasurably increased the world’s understanding of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)*. Singlehandedly, Trump illustrates how individuals with NPD are:
Grandiose.
Preoccupied with success and power.
Entitled to special privileges (in their opinion).
Exploitative of others.
Incapable of empathy.
Arrogant (as evident in their treating others in disdainful, condescending ways).
Envious (especially when others are successful).
Having raised the issue of Trump’s narcissism, not to mention likely psychopathy (criminal mind) in prior issues, I focus today on the malignant narcissist’s (Kernberg, 1984) intense sensitivity to slights, derision, upbraiding, or other ways he feels pushed around.
Mature adults take criticism in stride, evaluate its validity, and accept legitimate, constructive feedback. They use it for personal growth. Narcissistic individuals, in contrast, react negatively to even reasonable criticism. They take things personally, entertaining thoughts like “that’s completely unfair” and “how dare they do this to me!” It is impossible to for them to “let go.”
Additionally, narcissists-under-threat brood, feel simmering hostility, and otherwise display what is known as narcissistic rage. They cannot cope when confronted with the fact that they are not the center of the world, and that they’re not always going to get their way.
Described in more detail in prior newsletter issues, narcissists have highly fragile self-images enshrouded in defensive grandiosity. Outwardly, they behave as entitled, arrogant, and insensitive. Their belief in themselves as outstanding, special, and unique protects their inner vulnerability. Inwardly, and usually outside their conscious awareness, they feel insecure and afraid.
Put simply, narcissistic individuals resemble spoiled, elementary school-aged children on whom few limits were ever set.
They are remarkably immature.
Trump’s sensitivity to slights floridly materialized in his 62-minute-long, ranting August 8th news conference. It offers clear examples of how narcissists respond when marginalized. For the prior three weeks, Trump’s usual media dominance disappeared. It was overshadowed by Kamala Harris’ nomination, and her choice of Tim Walz as VP.
In these excerpts from the transcript, you’ll see the typical over-reaction just described. No psychoanalyst believes in the idea of penis envy anymore. Nonetheless, and speaking of such envy, Trump felt belittled by how the Harris-Walz team are, so far at least, attracting much larger crowds than him. Trump returned to his false claim that his inauguration drew more crowds than Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington. King’s march drew an estimated 200,000 people—according to the US Census.
Trump bragged in direct reaction to the Harris-Walz’ packed venues:
The biggest crowd I’ve ever spoken — I’ve spoken to the biggest crowds. Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not we had more … Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me.
At the time of the inauguration, Trump proclaimed:
I’m like, wait a minute. I made a speech. I looked out, the field was, it looked like a million, million and a half people.
In truth, approximately 150,000 people attended his January 2017 inauguration, according to the Washington-area transit authority (WMATA)—significantly fewer than the prior two inaugurations and slightly fewer than President George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2005.
Oh, man, are you saying my penis is small?
Trump’s narcissistic rage next took aim at Harris herself. A reporter asked him why she was rising in the polls, and Trump replied:
She’s a woman.
Here you find the sexism Trump repeatedly and openly displays. He added:
She represents certain groups of people.
Hmmm… People of color? Women? He was unclear, but the inferences are obvious. Trump repeated the statement, digging himself into a deeper hole:
Well ... uh, she’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people.
Illustrative of his lies, exaggerations, and externalization of blame, Trump predicted voters would change their mind when learning that:
She [Harris] destroyed San Francisco, she destroyed the state of California, along with Governor Gavin Newsom — he’s been a terrible governor, terrible — but they did it together.
Trump continued to accuse Harris of wanting to:
Defund the police. She wants to take away your guns. Anybody that thinks they’re not going to come after your guns — you know, when I was President, I totally protected the guns.
These are inaccurate statements, further illustrations of how injured narcissists rant. Seeking to engage Jewish voters, he lied further about Harris when saying:
She’s been very, very bad to Israel, and she’s been very bad and disrespectful to Jewish people.
Not true.
When angry over time, narcissists lose their grip on reality. Their cognitive coherence lapses, as evident when Trump said:
Now you have millions and millions of dead people, and you have people dying financially because they can’t buy bacon, they can’t buy food, they can’t buy groceries … They can’t do anything. They’re living horribly in our country.
Just who are the dead people to whom Trump refers? And are we, in fact, “living horribly?”
America faces an unprecedented crisis. The Republican party managed (or mismanaged) to nominate a convicted felon, sexist, and racist. Moreover, as hundreds of presidential historians and many of his former aides have publicly stated, Trump is unfit to serve as president of the United States.
Hardly bright enough to lighten our dark times, Trump ironically, and bizarrely, enhances global citizens’ understanding of how individuals with malignant narcissism behave. In the coming weeks, more educational opportunities await. A few weeks ago, I described how many persons dissociate from Trump’s dangerous qualities. More recently, I noted how our human tendencies to believe in complex stories—even if fabricated—also contributes to Trump’s following.
As noted in the above paragraphs, if narcissists perceive persistent critiques, or are sidelined, they become impulsive, level withering attacks against their perceived persecutors, and display declining cognitive capacities. Trump, a true threat to American democracy, its constitution, and the safety of its people—can be expected to display more examples of how triggered, injured narcissists behave. Consider it a free public service, akin to mental health documentaries offered by the Public Broadcasting Service or National Public Radio.
Stay tuned.
______________________________
*My friend Charles expresses concern regarding my potential violation of the “Goldwater Rule.” When Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964, many psychiatrists considered him mentally unfit. (Clinical psychologists only entered the scene in the 1950s). They published opinion pieces; they wrote letters by the hundreds. Goldwater supporters protested, questioning the veracity of psychiatrically assessing public figures.
In reaction, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) adopted Section 7.3 in the Principles of Medical Ethics—applicable specifically to psychiatry. It restrains them from rendering diagnoses without examining patients, an ethic since known as the “Goldwater Rule.”
In my view, the United Nations Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, published in 1948, overshadows the Goldwater Rule. Article 18, for example, reads:
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom.
Article 19 reads:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 29 reads:
In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
Innumerable public statements by Trump, not to mention the insurrection he fomented on January 6, 2021, reveal him to be a true and present threat to democracy. Responding to Sean Hannity’s December 2023 efforts to reassure the public that Trump would operate democratically if re-elected, Trump said:
No, no, no, other than day one [he would he not be a dictator]. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.
Such statements offer no reassurance. Also, Trump’s oft-repeated promise to “drill, drill, drill” represents another distinct threat to humanity. He’s swayed by the petrochemical lobby and ignorant of empirical data substantiating the threat to humanity posed by global warming (Stocker et al, 2023).
Referring to the just-noted universal human rights, I simply exercise my “right to freedom of thought,” to “receive and impart information and ideas through any media,” and to enhance “respect for the rights and freedoms of others and [… promoting…] morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.” For these reasons, the Goldwater Rule does not apply to any newsletters offering opinions regarding Trump’s mental status.
Enjoying this newsletter?
And check out my book, Lover, Exorcist, Critic: Understanding Depth Psychotherapy, available on Amazon.
References
Kernberg, O.F. (1984). Severe personality disorders: psychotherapeutic strategies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Stocker, T.F., Qin, D., Plattner, G.K., Tignor, S.K, Allen, J., Boschung, A., Nauels Y., Xia, Y. Bex, V. and Midgley, P.M. (Eds.). (2023). IPCC Climate Change Report: The Physical Science Basis; A Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Thank you for that glorious validation, Jeff, and I also greatly appreciate your close attention to my posts. Hope all is well with you. Alan
As a co-signer of Bandi Lee's original letter of concern, duty to warn, etc. , I must heartily comment you, Dr. K, for this line of principled thought. There is a duty, even if it will infuriate his slavish base looking for a messiah-god-annointed, to call out Psychopathology in candidates for national office and responsibility.