No. The heart of his personality is shame. If you're curious, Otto Kernberg is a classic source on malignant narcissism and narcissistic personality disorders. Heinz Kohut, too.
Trump is an *astonishing* textbook case.
He will be taught as a textbook case for years, if we survive him.
Watching his behavior over the past five years has resolved, in my mind, all debate about the real existence of Axis II personality disorders and most of my questions about their origin.
These aren't pop-psychology or empty theories, as they're too often dismissed. They're powerful and useful.
Essential, in fact. Without these ideas, you can't make sense of someone like him.
The psychoanalytic view of narcissistic disorders deserves vastly renewed public attention.
And urgent attention, too. No one this stuff anymore; it's no longer fashionable. But it's all there.
euronews.com/2020/04/22/joi…
It's in Freud, Kernberg, Kohut, Reich. Start with Kernberg. Or actually, you know, start with Sam Vaknin. He's not writing as a clinician, but he's accessible, he's clear, and he's put everything online.
heraldopenaccess.us/openaccess/dis…
Trump's is a shame-based psychopathology.
His entire personality structure is organized to defend against shame. All politicians at that level are narcissistic, but there's a big difference between "narcissistic" and having a full-blown personality disorder.
People need to grasp that he doesn't feel or think the same things normal people do. He doesn't have a complex character. His personality is primitive and utterly disorganized, and he has a narrow, stereotyped range of behaviors.
He can't and won't change; he can't learn or adapt. These aren't neurotic traits; they are his *whole personality.*
We have to confront this. He's a monster and a freak.
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