From: The Atlantic
THE MIND OF DONALD TRUMP
The Atlantic:
In 2006, Donald Trump made plans to purchase the Menie Estate, near Aberdeen, Scotland, aiming to convert the dunes and grassland into a luxury golf resort. He and the estate’s owner, Tom Griffin, sat down to discuss the transaction at the Cock & Bull restaurant. Griffin recalls that Trump was a hard-nosed negotiator, reluctant to give in on even the tiniest details. But, as Michael D’Antonio writes in his recent biography of Trump, Never Enough, Griffin’s most vivid recollection of the evening pertains to the theatrics. It was as if the golden-haired guest sitting across the table were an actor playing a part on the London stage.
“It was Donald Trump playing Donald Trump,” Griffin observed. There was something unreal about it.
…
In a 2013 Psychological Science research article, behavioral scientists ranked U.S. presidents on characteristics of what the authors called “grandiose narcissism.” Lyndon Johnson scored the highest, followed closely by Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson.
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As a psychotherapist who learned a lot about child development, I have concluded the following:
1. His impulsiveness shows that he had difficulty attaching and learning to love. He was probably not held enough before 36 months.
2. Since the psychological world is still unsure of the cause of narcissistic personality disorder, all we know is that his is a severe case, aggravated by his intense anger. This also explains his remarkable lack of empathy.
3. My guess is that he has some form of early PTSD, most likely from separation from
a love object. Hence his paranoia, hyper-vigilance, inability to focus, and perhaps his inability to sleep normally.
4. His lack of respect and his view of women as objects of hatred is difficult to explain, but my guess is his abuse by some female in his early life.
5. The most upsetting characteristic is his inability to predict the reaction of others to his actions. Sometimes I believe he has a case of grandiose delusional disorder.
6. Any student of defense mechanisms can see which ones he uses. They are primitive.
a. blaming
b. schizoid fantasy
c. projection
d bigotry or the inability to think abstractly.
e. he acts out.
7. His rhetoric reveals his concrete thinking, his inability to plan, his inability to laugh at himself, all Freud’s
idea of healthy defense mechanism.
8. Trump has an amazing lack of knowledge about how our three levels of government and simple issues that most college people learn in political science, accompanied by a startling general ignorance, make him pretty scary.
g. This is the biggest concern. His need for praise and approval makes him putty in the hands of his enemies. Even I know how to manage a person so desperate for approval and praise. Thanks for listening. Barbara Brodkowitz
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