NPD, or Narcissistic Personality Disorder, is a diagnosis that has been playing around for a while as related to President Trump. I recall the first time I heard about it during the campaign. It was then, when much noise was made about the legitimacy of a candidate with NPD.
Campaigns are weird, ugly, and seldom represent reality. All candidates stand there and try to present an alternative persona of themselves. A persona that will get them elected. For this reason they often promise things they know they cannot accomplish and/or say things they do not fully believe in. Campaigns make people behave in a weird ways, and mostly in ways that are not themselves.
I still have Hillary Clinton’s walk-on-stage move implanted in my head. That one, where she smiles and points at people in the crowd. As if any of those people are her neighbors or close friends just there supporting “our brave gal“. Please.
This act is not party-specific. They all do it. And it’s fine, it’s part of the game of getting elected. We get it.
So during the election I didn’t pay much mind to NPD. How would I behave under such pressure? With the spotlight on me at all times, perhaps I’d behave the same way. However, once the election is over, it’s fair to expect the real person to come through.
According to the Mayo Clinic, people with NPD will express the following symptoms (in no particular order):
- Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance
- Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration
- Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
- Exaggerate achievements and talents
- Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
- Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people
- Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior
- Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations
- Take advantage of others to get what they want
- Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
- Be envious of others and believe others envy them
- Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious
- Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office
Individually, we all express these symptoms every once in a while. Perhaps even at times, we express them all at once. But it’s in their continual expression that a diagnosis is reached.
To be fair and clear, I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist. I am only trying to understand if, and how, these traits align with President Trump and their impact. For me, the most impactful are traits #9 and #10.
As a United States Citizen, the other traits/symptoms affect me indirectly, but #9 and #10 affect me directly. As an elected leader, the President swears to protect the country and its constitution. I am part of that country. I have rights thanks to that constitution. However, how can someone with this mental disorder be able to follow-through on their oath of allegiance?
One of the important and scary aspects of NPD is the absence of self-awareness of any of those traits. In other words, while to you and I, one, or all, of those traits may seem foul, they seem normal to the person with the disorder.
Take for example eating beef. For most Americans, eating beef is normal. As of 2016, the US ranked 4th in beef consumption per-capita, and 1st in total consumption. America likes beef (myself included). Beef is what’s for dinner. So it would seem incomprehensible to learn that certain regions in the world consider cows to be sacred (certain places in India). For an Indian who believed cows were sacred, when you bit into your hamburger you’d be committing a sacrilege, a sin. All the while, you would have no sense or understanding of said sacrilege. From your perspective (American), you are just eating. What else are you supposed to eat? Frogs?
If an intermediary were to step in and try to help you, or the Indian, see opposite perspectives, it would be reasonable for both to dismiss the absurdity of the opposite point of view. You see, when your point of view is this normal to you, any point of view which differs becomes abnormal.
Hence my concern with symptoms 9 and 10. If President Trump indeed has NPD, how can we expect him to follow through on his oath? To do so, would be absurd. And this the reason NPD has suddenly become very real and very scary.
