The world around us has changed dramatically in just 30 days. I’m arguing that the last 30 days created more turmoil than any other event since 9/11.
And it just one man who created all this turmoil. Therefore, I find it interesting to look at this from a psychological view.
Donald trump is diagnosed with malignant narcissism represented the severest of pathologies, the cause of the most vicious destructiveness and inhumanity.
Let’s start 2017 with the “Duty to Warn” event. Despite professional rule barring psychologist from doing so, a group of psychologists gathered at Yale University to warn the public about Donald Trump. They argued that “too much is at stake to be silent any longer”.
They stated “We do believe that Donald Trump’s mental illness is putting the entire country,
And indeed, the entire world, is in danger… being a liar and narcissist, in addition he is paranoid, delusional”.
The group used Erich Fromm’s term malignant narcissism to describe Trumps behavior. Fromm said malignant narcissism represented the severest of pathologies, the cause of the most vicious destructiveness and inhumanity.
So, what is narcissism and why can it be so dangerous?
Let’s start with some of the typical characteristics of narcissism, such as;
- Believing one is superior to others
- Exaggerating talents and achievements
- Taking advantage of others
- Having a fragile self-esteem, a thin skin
- Expecting constant admiration and praise
So how common is narcissism? Narcissism exists on a spectrum from self-confides to full-blown narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
In a normal population 0.5 – 5% of the population can be defined as narcissists.
But, if we look at managers, we find that 6 – 20% displaying narcissistic traits. Most of them exhibits a “healthy narcissism” such as self-confidence, but extreme cases show the full blow NPD, and that’s where we find Donald Trump according to many psychologists.
A narcissist can often:
- Show charisma and confidence
- And be manipulative
- Use empathy as a tool
- Be a risk taker
And in an unhealthy organization, this can be a strength. An unhealthy organization is where we find;
- A toxic culture with high turnover and low psychological safety
- Short term decision making, focusing on looking good than creating value
- And a lack of accountability, everything is Bidens fault
- A leader who use the organization as a mirror, reflecting his own importance
What we´ve seen the last 30 days is a narcissist who;
- Starts trade war, stops trade war and then starts it again, with US best neighbors and largest trading partner, creating inflation and market volatility
- Threatens to leave NATO and creating the largest geopolitical changes since 2nd World War
- Befriends Russia, the most aggressive state the world seen since 2nd WW
- Lies about Ukraine starting the war and calls Ukraine’s president for dictator
- Stops military and intelligence service to Ukraine, causing more death and suffering
- Threatens Denmark over Greenland “I will not exclude military actions…”
- Threatens Panama over the Panama Canal
Maybe US should have listened to “Duty to Warn”. Or what do you think?
