The image of Boris Badenov from Wikipedia went through several versions until I made the one above.
I wrote two diaries this week about how the new insider revelations from books and articles about Trump keep proving that he’s a malignant narcissist. (See below)
Here’s another example which was revealed in an Atlantic article by Jonathan Karl and described in RawStory (my emphasis added):
On a separate call, McConnell once again asked for help, telling Barr he needed to step up and shoot down talk of election fraud, saying, "Bill, I look around, and you are the only person who can do it."
According to the report, Barr later had a memorable exchange with the president who made a point of noting he was ignoring him and pinned it on an Associated Press report that Barr was not backing his claims.
"Did you say that?" Trump pressed, to which Barr replied, "Yes."
"How the f*ck could you do this to me? Why did you say it?" Trump demanded.
After answering, "Because it's true," a "livid' Trump shot back,
"You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump."
from “REVEALED: Mitch McConnell begged William Barr to 'inject some reality' into 'livid' Trump's election fraud claims,” RawStory
Trump often refers to himself using his own name. In the example above he could have said “you must hate me” which would, dare I say, be “normal” for someone who felt betrayed, or said “you must hate the president” which would have been bad, but not quite as bad as using his own name. It would mean he was saying that William Barr hated the office of the presidency. To Trump the presidency was himself, not an office he held.
Talking about yourself in the third person is called Illeism. Many people do this for various reasons, some benign. For example a parent may say to a child “Mommy wants you to have a happy birthday” or in an ironic way “John Smith says it’s true because John Smith is never wrong.”
You can go back to a study from 1982 to find a reference to how pathologically narcissistic people sometimes do this. From “On speaking of oneself by name” published in The International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy:
Excerpt from Abstract with emphasis added:
Speaking of oneself by name is studied. Such behavior occurred with unusual frequency in the case of a patient with predominantly narcissistic character pathology who underwent brief psychotherapy for a stress response syndrome following his wife's suicide. A content and context analysis of this phenomenon showed that the patient would refer to himself by name as a characteristic defense in response to severe threats to his self-esteem.
Everyone who refers to themselves by their own name isn’t a pathological narcissist (someone with narcissistic personality disorder), let alone a malignant narcissist (adding on sociopathic disorder). This is explained in this article: “Illeism and Narcissism” by psychologist George Simon.
Excerpt:
Contrary to what you might read in political blogs, it isn’t a sure sign of narcissism when people talk about themselves in the third person. The truth is that much clearer clues about someone’s narcissism can be found in how they regard you and the other people in their lives.
Have you ever heard someone talk about themselves in the third person? That’s something called illeism, and while it’s probably a fair bet that not too many are familiar with this term, most of us have probably heard someone talk this way at one time or another. But what do you make of a person who references herself in this unusual manner? Is illeism a sure sign of narcissism? Lately, according to many political blogs, some folks seem to think so. But the truth is more complicated than that. The fact is, folks talk about themselves in this manner for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it can indeed be reflective of an inflated ego. But much of the time, it indicates something else entirely. So how can you tell what’s really going on with someone who references themselves in the third person? Fortunately, there are other, more reliable signs you might be dealing with a narcissist, and given how prevalent narcissists are these days and how problematic they can be in relationships, it’s a good idea to know those signs as well.
When it comes to Trump we can just add his illeism to all the other behaviors that have led numerous mental health professionals to describe him as a malignant narcissist. For those who haven’t kept up with this, not that there are any Kossacks who haven’t, here’s a web search for Trump malignant narcissist.
My related diaries from earlier this week:
Scroll down for a repeat of this poll from the other day. It’s too late to correct my typo, I meant talking (not taking) in gibberish. The psychiatric terms for this are word salad or schizophasia. If you took the poll before please respond again.
