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Mr. Kellyanne Conway (George) suggests that we look at the clinical definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

From the Mayo Clinic Website:

Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and the severity of symptoms vary. People with the disorder can:

• 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

At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:

• Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special treatment
• Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted
• React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior
• Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior
• Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change
• Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection
• Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation

When to see a doctor

People with narcissistic personality disorder may not want to think that anything could be wrong, so they may be unlikely to seek treatment. If they do seek treatment, it's more likely to be for symptoms of depression, drug or alcohol use, or another mental health problem. But perceived insults to self-esteem may make it difficult to accept and follow through with treatment.

If you recognize aspects of your personality that are common to narcissistic personality disorder or you're feeling overwhelmed by sadness, consider reaching out to a trusted doctor or mental health provider. Getting the right treatment can help make your life more rewarding and enjoyable.

I am not a therapist or a psychologist, but it seems far more difficult to explain Trump's behavior without the diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

As far as Trump's narcissism, remember when everyone kept talking about 'the pivot'? That after he got the nomination, he would act more Presidential? That didn't happen, so after the election everyone thought that he would act more Presidential. That didn't happen, so everyone thought it would be after the inaugural. Sean Spicer blew that out of the water on day 1.

This weekend Trump had no meetings, no golf, no Mar-a-lago. Left to his own devices he tweeted 50 times between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon. Reading those tweets my impression is that the President is receding more and more into the bubble of self-righteous victimhood. With Mueller, SDNY and numerous Congressional investigations pending, that sense of self-righteous victimhood will continue to grow.

I think Trump projected his fear about the endgame when several Republicans voted against his Emergency Declaration. He senses the erosion of support in Congress. When he talked about bikers, police and the military supporting him, my initial tendency was to dismiss this as a bit of wounded ego bravado. I don't really worry about the police or the military. The President's cult of personality is not large or persuasive enough right now.

But I do worry about the 'dog whistle' effect of his tweets. When Trump's ship of state begins to sink, he will kick a lot of people overboard on his way to the lifeboats. He will try to spin a fantasy that this is all fabricated, and he is being overthrown by a coalition of Radical Democrats, disployal turncoat Republicans, the Deep State and the Fake Media. How his supporters will react remains to be seen.

There's not a single shred of doubt in my mind that's he's got NPD. Not one single hint of a shred of doubt.

He's in a constant state of acting like what he thinks normal by mirroring the behavior of others. When he looks in the mirror there is no image but the artificial image that he creates in whatever role he's taking on.

Look at his rally speeches and the way he makes appeal to his base. He often takes on the role of blue collar working stiff. And, no one has to "act" more presidential when they already are.

What trips up a narcissist is their inability to consider the perspectives of others. This is why he can't see himself the way that others see him or the chinks in the armor. He superficially mimics what he sees externally in people, he has no blessed idea what goes on internally in others because he has a gaping hole were insight, compassion, perspective taking, depth and empathy should live.

MeDotOrg wrote:Mr. Kellyanne Conway (George) suggests that we look at the clinical definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

From the Mayo Clinic Website:

There's different varieties of narcissists. I don't know what type Trump is. I haven't taken time to attempt to study it out.

One thing I want to say is that it isn't a narcissists fault that they developed the disorder. It develops in early childhood and has everything to do with emotional and psychological neglect.

Still, that we've got one in the White House poses a threat to each and all of us.

Look at how he engages in splitting regarding his staff members. They're all good when he hires them. They're all bad when he perceives that they've screwed him over or made him look bad.

There's no in between. He hires the best people. Until they are not.

On the one hand, I have ingrained in my education where there is an extremely strong norm against diagnosing public figures from afar. On the other, Trump is so classically a narcissist that if you wrote him as a fictional case study, you'd be called out for writing such an unbelievable caricature of narcissism. He's almost a walking parody. "Malignant narcissism" is a controversial off-book diagnosis that combines anti-social / psychopathic traits with NPD traits. If that exists, Trump is about as much as a poster-person for it as can exist.

I don't Trump's pathology is limited to narcissism. He seems to also have many sociopath traits as well.

He's got the best job in the world for the disorder. He's got the entire world from which to suck out his supply and during the off hours when he's not being constantly fed, all he has to do is tweet out a pile of hyperbolic rubbish and it's like shooting himself up.

He's got it made, folks. He's on a 24/7 drip of supply.

moksha wrote:I don't Trump's pathology is limited to narcissism. He seems to also have many sociopath traits as well.

I don't think I know enough to sort between sociopathy v. psychopathy. I do think that they both walk around holding hands with NPD.

This is why somewhat normal persons like General Mathis and Kelly, eventually ditched. Even a Rex Tillerson. I am sure his narcissism was insurmountable for even them.

I think that the worst thing you can do to a narcissist is to figure them out and act accordingly because I believe that they can be manipulated into behaving something like sound and/or normal. I don't see 2 generals, for example, investing the time and effort in doing that and sustaining the effort when in the end, and on account of his position, Trump could end up going cowboy and do what he wanted without notice anyway so why bother?

If the stakes are that high, you either get in there and cry 25th Amendment (that's the one, right?) and see it through or you get out with your own integrity intact and distance yourself from the man.

I suppose (if I have this right) the only hope we have as a nation would be Congress and because Congress is so heavy Republican each congressperson with an agenda of their own, they're not going to do anything about Trump unless they have documentation of wrong doing and get him out of there based on that alone. The 25th A. won't work.

I don't think the Mueller investigation is going to make so much as a dent on this Presidency unless that and the possibility that Democrats can come up with a more desirable candidate. Those are the only things I can think of that could come near to getting this guy out of the job.

Jersey Girl wrote:

MeDotOrg wrote:Mr. Kellyanne Conway (George) suggests that we look at the clinical definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

From the Mayo Clinic Website:

There's different varieties of narcissists. I don't know what type Trump is. I haven't taken time to attempt to study it out.

One thing I want to say is that it isn't a narcissists fault that they developed the disorder. It develops in early childhood and has everything to do with emotional and psychological neglect.

Still, that we've got one in the White House poses a threat to each and all of us.

I think your point that his condition is not his fault is a good one. A therapist once told me that narcissists are extremely difficult to treat because they can’t see that there is anything wrong with their behavior. Trump cannot be other than who he is because he literally cannot imagine how he appears to anyone other than himself.

I have someone with NPD on my caseload. Treatment is no better than symptom management and a shrug. We employ DBT concepts, but there's basically no reason to think that's an effective treatment modality outside of theoretic connections between NPD and other cluster B disorders.