I was prompted to write this after reading this story on HUFFPOST:
Thanks to Trump we all know what gaslighting means and most of us know that the term came from the play and movie Gaslight. We also know the Aesops fable about the scorpion and the frog. To refresh your memory:
A scorpion, which cannot swim, asks a frog to carry it across a river on the frog's back. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung by the scorpion, but the scorpion argues that if it did that, they would both drown. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung the frog despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: "I couldn't help it. It's in my nature." Wikipedia
On the simplest level Trump is nothing like the scorpion because while he is predatory and has a poisonous sting he lacks the self-awareness to utter the words of the scorpion “it’s in my nature.”
The fable fits what is happening to Trump however. Trump’s natural reaction to sting is, to use a metaphor, is finally coming back to bite him. He finds himself on the back of the frog in the coronavirus river, and his impulse could lead him to suffer the same ignominious fate of the scorpion.
A Psychological Parsing of the Fable As It Applies To Trump
Wikipedia’s examples of interpretations are interesting when applied to why Trump can’t resist gaslighting when in both the short and longer run it isn’t in his interest.
The fable does not explicitly state the moral it tries to teach, and thus it is left to interpretation. A common interpretation is that people with vicious personalities cannot resist hurting others, even when it is not in their interests.[3] Giancarlo Livraghi has commented that, while there are plenty of animal fables which warn against trusting vicious people, in none of these other fables is the villain suicidal. The Scorpion and the Frog is unique in that the scorpion is irrationally self-destructive and fully aware of it.[4]
Trump doesn’t fit this paradigm because while he is often irrational he lacks the self-awareness to admit it to himself.
For Freudian psychoanalysis, "it seems like a textbook illustration of the death drive — are we not all, on some level, self-sabotaging scorpions?"[5]
In a way the Freudian interoperation is kinder to Trump because it says that the impulse to sabotage oneself is a universal trait.
The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, by contrast, saw the scorpion not as a character structure but as a fictional character made a victim of circumstance: "his desire becomes fatal destiny owing to an unfortunate combination of contingent factors."[5]
This way of looking at it is far to forgiving of Trump. Trump is not and never has been a victim. He is the perpetrator.
To a social psychologist, the fable may present a dispositionist view of human nature because it seems to reject the idea that people behave rationally according to circumstances.[6]
This pessimistic view applies to many of the sycophantic Trump supporters who aren't bigots trying to keep America white who think he is their savior. He is anything but, so their behavior is irrational.
The French sociologist Jean-Claude Passeron saw the scorpion as a metaphor for Machiavellian politicians who delude themselves by their unconscious tendency to rationalize their ill-conceived plans, and thereby lead themselves and their followers to ruin.[7]
Finally we come to an interpretation that comes the closest to explaining Trump's pathological lying and his gaslighting. Machiavellianism is one of the traits in what is called the 'Dark Triad', the other two being narcissism and psychopathy. I wrote about this in June, 2019.
When I wrote this and put a poll on 1253 people responded on indicating as follows...
Update:
I am curious how you would answer this based on your understanding prior to reading this diary. Sorry for the misspelling in the poll question.
