Psychiatrist Dr. Gail Saltz sat down with CNN to give her views about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Here are some excerpts:
“Let me first say, I cannot diagnose Donald Trump. I don’t know Donald Trump. But I would say that someone who spends time creating a very grandiose view of themselves, you know… ‘I’m best in this.’ ‘I’m sexually the best.’ ‘All the women want me’ … and will break the rules, lie, do something unethical for the purpose of that, it certainly makes you think about intense narcissism.
CNN asked Saltz how she feels those characteristics would affect a Commander and Chief should Trump win in November. Saltz remarks that when we look at past presidents/leaders:
“Being grandious, self-confident, and believing in your skills — it acutely correlates with greatness. However, when it also moves into being incredibly self-centered, in other words, no empathy, ‘everything has to refer to me, I always have to be at the center and about me...’ — that does not correlate with greatness.”
Saltz goes on to say her concern would be with Trump’s lack of flexibility to new ideas and/or information by other people and says the American people are very conflicted when it comes to what they want in a leader.
When CNN asks if Trump’s core constituency will even “give a damn” about this information, Saltz replies:
“People take in information through the prism of thought that they already have. So if you’re vastly conservative, you hear everything through that prism. If you’re vastly liberal, you hear everything through that prism. And very few people are open to hearing new information and having an actual change of mind.:
“That is the human brain.”
Here is the CNN Video with Dr. Saltz:
So Saltz, without giving a professional diagnosis, seems to think Trump is more self-centered than self-confident. Lisa Firestone, Ph.D, is a clinical psychologist and contributor with Psychology Today. In one of her pieces, Firestone writes about the differences between self-esteem and narcissism.
“Narcissism encourages envy and hostile rivalries, where self-esteem supports compassion and cooperation. Narcissism favors dominance, where self-esteem acknowledges equality. Narcissism involves arrogance, where self-esteem reflects humility. Narcissism is affronted by criticism, where self-esteem is enhanced by feedback. Narcissism makes it necessary to pull down others in order to stand above them. Self-esteem leads to perceiving every human being as a person of value in a world of meaning.”
So, it looks like Trump fits the narcissist label among other labels. Most of us probably figured out the same long ago. But how dangerous would he be as a United States president? Let’s hope that question will never be answered.