If I’ve been correct about Trump’s level of narcissism, then it may stand to reason that he is susceptible to outbursts of narcissistic rage so extreme, so obvious to politicians and the public, that his instability and unfitness to be president can no longer be rationalized away by normalizing words.
Even coming from Obama:
"Look, he's an unconventional candidate."
(Trump) "ran sort of a improvisational campaign.”
There’s been speculation about how long it will take for Trump to alienate enough Republicans in Congress to see an impeachment. There’s some consensus that, barring an obviously treasons act, as the midterm elections approach the more a liability to re-election. It becomes more likely that he’ll be impeached, if not for an outrageous act of treason, but for conflicts of interest. The emolument clause is not going way.
Trump has been frequently described as “thin skinned” as if this is just an extreme of normal. In fact his level of hypersensitivity to being criticized is off the charts beyond normal. From my clinical perspective, as an extreme narcissist he is keenly reactive to perceived attacks to his fragile ego. In psychology this is called “narcissistic insult.” A psychologist writing in the pre-Trump era (2012) has a title that sums it up: “The Revenge of the Insulted Narcissist: When the “Brilliant” Fail, Watch Out."
Following a narcissistic insult, the more extreme the person’s narcissism is, the more he has invested in being adored and worshipped as infallible and brilliant, the more likely it is they will succumb to a narcissistic rage they can’t mediate or control.
Narcissistic rage is quite simply what its name says it is. Most of those who are reading this are already lay experts in narcissistic personality disorder, and have read about narcissistic rage.
Here’s a good explanation:
“Narcissistic rage” is a term coined by Heinz Kohut in his book The Analysis of the Self when it was published in 1972. It occurs when the narcissist perceives he is being personally “attacked” by someone else. Grandiose self-worth, vanity and entitlement are basic characteristics of this disorder; when these are challenged it often leads to narcissistic rage. Narcissistic rage is a reaction to” narcissistic injury”- a perceived threat to their self-worth or self-esteem. Their rages can be of two types: explosive or passive-aggressive. The explosive rages are just as they sound- explosive, volatile outbursts which may be verbal, physical, or both. The passive-aggressive rages are exhibited as withdrawal into a sulky, silent treatment as the means to punish the offender.
Do not confuse anger with the narcissistic rage. Anger is a natural reaction when exposed to provocation. Anger occurs from a rational cause and dissipates when one is able to express it. The fuming rage the narcissist feels is different from the anger that people usually feel; it is either irrational or severely blown out of proportion from an insignificant remark or action.
Narcissists need constant admiration, attention and compliments. They live with the illusion that they are perfectionists and that people revere them. That makes them dependent on other people to keep their self-esteem high. Therefore, any challenge, mildly negative remark, or disagreement from another person is considered criticism, rejection and even mockery. They take these personally as an assault or betrayal and lash out at the person who provoked them. Narcissistic rage often results in physical and/or emotional abuse. From thenarcissisticlife.com/...
This brings me to just what it would lead Trump to outbursts of narcissistic rage of epic proportions.
Trump blasted the press so hard with his lies, with his outrageous attacks against them the gloves are finally off for the most part (hopefully Rubert Murdock will tell Fox News to start doing real journalism).
With Trump's egregiously unhinged spit in your face appointments...
With his being influenced by the paranoid duo of Flynn and Bannon...
With his absolute refusal to divest himself from business ethical conflicts...
The list goes on…
This is adding up to his popularity among the public continuing to slide.
Even if the sexual allegations go nowhere, his love affair with Putin has already put old cold warrior Republicans in a difficult position. More and more of them could come out against Trump, especially if he does things to favor Putin. He’s already expressed an openness to taking back our punitive sanctions for their hacking.
Trump go away once with impugning John McCain’s war record. Can he get away with it again?
All this can — let’s hope it will — lead to more and more attacks against him — and provoke him to reach the level of narcissistic insult enough to provoke the seismic narcissistic rage event.
When the presidency doesn’t bring him the adoration he craves, when he realizes he can’t have his employees attend press conference (if he even has any) to cheer him, it may gradually dawn on him that the presidency isn’t all he thought it would be.
He is likely to crave the cultish following and adoration from his rally crowds. He’ll probably want to continue to hold rallies, but will find there is a huge price to pay if he continues to have them. The public at large will see this as unpresidential, and the press will eviscerate him for standing behind the Seal of the President of the United State of American to give his usual carnival barker performance.
It seems to me as a psychotherapist “expert” in Trumpology, that it is as likely that Trump depart office (assuming he makes it until Nov. 20th) under the 25 Amendment because he becomes medically unfit to serve.
Technically, since he’ll be conscious (more or less), he’d have to be removed for psychiatric reasons. Thankfully psychiatry is still a part of medicine. His duties would have to be taken over by the Vice President, as it does when a President undergoes surgery. It would be left to doctors to determine if and when he was fit to resume his duties.
I think things will have to get worse before they get better.
The only example I lived through was when Nixon knew his days were over, but he was a different personality type, and he often drank himself into a stupor and he know now ended up on the floor crying with Alexander Haig comforting him and secretly assuming command of the nuclear codes. If things fall apart for Trump he is not about to become depressed. First he’d react in anger but a Tweet won’t be enough… he will end up on the BULLY pulpit and show himself to be a deranged BULLY.
That’s how I’d see it being played out.
Saturday, Jan 14, 2017 · 5:25:46 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
Needs no explanation:
Trump expresses his narcissistic reaction — not quite rage yet — in yet another way which will only escalate attacks on him. This is another version of his Tweets about Meryl Streep. He is like a child who doesn’t think of consequences when he tried to jump off the barn room using an umbrella for a parachute.
Saturday, Jan 14, 2017 · 11:03:37 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
This ties in with this story. It is the first thing I’ve written here (or anywhere) that didn’t need any words. www.dailykos.com/…
I’m pleased in the results of the poll, seeing how many readers are familiar with narcissistic personality disorder. I’ve noted before that before Trump came along, aside from therapists, it was mostly people who struggled with narcissists in their family who learned about it. They were the reason so many books about dealing with narcissists in your life are on Amazon. Now people who never heard of the DSM-5 know what it is.