I'll start this off by making clear I am not a psychiatric professional and I'm not qualified to diagnose anyone. I'm writing this only because I stumbled on a few articles that may explain a great deal about the front-running candidate in the GOP presidential race.
The first article comes out of Psychology Today. The author is quick to say that there's a rule among psychiatric professionals that they should not diagnose a person without personally meeting and evaluating them. But he goes on to point out that a number of professionals broke that rule last November in an issue of Vanity Fair. He goes so far as to quote a clinician who uses video clips of Trump to illustrate hallmarks of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).
The article piqued my curiosity, so I looked up NPD. According to the DSM-IV-TR (an acronym for the lengthy title of a diagnostic manual), a person with this disorder:
- Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).
- Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.
- Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions).
- Requires excessive admiration.
- Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations.
- Is inter-personally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends.
- Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.
- Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.
- Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
Does any of this ring a bell? Let's just take the first item. If you've been paying attention, you will have noticed that with Trump, everything is an exaggerated superlative. He is the best at xyz, nobody can abc like he can, he knows the best people to do lmn, and he will pqr so fast it will make your head spin. That he thinks he's special, requires admiration, and has a sense of entitlement are equally manifest.
Exploitive? Two words: Trump University.
As for lack of empathy, can anyone forget his mockery of a disabled reporter earlier this cycle?
Another hallmark characteristic of NPD is hypersensitivity to perceived insult. Think about his recent dust-up with Marco Rubio, over a juvenile snark about the size of his hands. This led to Trump declaring, on national TV, that the size of his hands, and his penis, were no problem (and to most Americans wondering what the ever loving hell has happened to the dignity of the highest office in the land). Rubio's jibe was no doubt calculated; I'm sure someone in the Rubio camp discovered that Trump has been feuding with Graydon Carter for decades over an article that appeared in Spy Magazine in which he was described as a "short-fingered vulgarian." To this day, Carter says Trump occasionally sends him photos of his hands, his fingers circled with a gold Sharpie.
At times, NPD can take a darker turn, which some describe as malignant because it adds elements of sadism and aggression to the mix. A malignant narcissist enjoys harming others, particularly if the victim has delivered a perceived insult or threat. According to the Wikipedia entry for Malignant Narcissism, "Often grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate." Are these qualities any sane person wants to send to the Oval Office?
As far as I know, Trump has never physically hurt anyone (except possibly his first wife), but his lawsuits and business practices have definitely caused financial pain. Add to that his almost daily remarks at rallies, which appear to be encouraging the growing trend of violence towards journalists and protesters, which he has described as "amazing to watch."
Nor has he limited his vindictive attacks to strangers. When his own nephew disputed the details of a will, Trump spitefully "cut off benefits from the family's health plan that were paying for his nephew's seriously ill young son."
Oh, and going back to his mockery of the reporter, that episode becomes even more despicable when you learn that the nephew's son has Cerebral Palsy, a disorder that can cause movements very similar to those he used to mimic the reporter.
Another frequent element of malignant narcissism is the absence of conscience. I think Trump's calls for torture of prisoners and killing the children of terrorists speaks for itself. (Note: since Thursday night's debate, Trump initially appeared to walk back these ideas by releasing a statement that he would not order our troops to violate the law. But he later clarified to Fox News and Face the Nation that he intends to change the law to permit our troops to commit these atrocities. Evidently, to him, the only problem with crimes against humanity is that they violate the law. Fix the law, it's all good.)
Is Trump diagnostically a malignant narcissist? I'll leave that question to the professionals. But if you line his behavior up against a checklist of the traits of NPD and its malignant strain, he certainly checks off a lot of boxes. Why does it matter? Because if you look back through history, other leaders have exhibited these traits, and each one brought their nations, if not the world, to the brink of destruction.
(By the way, just after I finished off a draft of this post, this article showed up in my Twitter feed. You can write off everything I say as amateur speculation, because it is just that. But Sam Vaknin is actually an expert, and he's saying pretty much the same thing.)