In the movie Toy Story 1, Buzz Lightyear learns that he’s a toy. Everything he thought he know about himself, his world, who he was, how others see him and even his very reason for existing shatter. He doesn’t take it so well. That’s a narcissistic injury. You don’t have to be a narcissist to have a narcissistic injury; it just means that all the lies you have told yourself about yourself have been exposed. It’s painful. Very painful.
Donald Trump hasn’t had a narcissistic injury, but he’s being threatened by one. When he entered this race he assumed that most people saw him as he saw himself: exceptional. He is a narcissist (and cows go moo), which means he sees himself as special and entitled. When others don’t accommodate this view he lashes out...they’re losers or pigs, etc.
Now, under the glare of electoral scrutiny – there is nothing more scrutinous – he is learning that a great many people don’t share his view, a majority even, maybe even a supermajority. His ego is threatened. He is facing a narcissistic injury of biblical proportions. He is terrified. His very existence depends on this world view. He is no longer fighting for the election, he’s fighting for survival.
It’s possible to survive a narcissistic injury: Buzz Lightyear did it. It requires the development of a new, acceptable ego. A new way to relate to the self and to the world. “That wasn’t flying, that was falling with style.”
I don’t think Trump is capable of that. He’ll dig in, lash out, and lay waste all around him. That is what we are seeing. An animal whose life is threatened, with no avenue of retreat, whose only option is attack or die. Buckle up, and crack open your psychology textbook, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Note: some people have compared him to Captain Queeg of the Caine Mutiny. That’s not a bad comparison, but Queeg had a paranoid personality disorder; Trump has a narcissistic personality disorder.
Note 2: I had wanted to include a couple of clips of Jude Law’s narcissistic injury from I Heart Huckabees but couldn’t find a good clip on youtube. It’s not as popular a move as Toy Story. It’s a good movie with some flaws.