It is disturbingly satisfying when my opinion is confirmed by distinguished former CIA Director John Brennan. Yesterday I wrote “Enraged thin-skinned narcissist attacks Alec Baldwin, a shrink warns he may be at breaking point” before Brennan made this statement to Nicolle Wallace (as described on HuffPost)
Ex-CIA Boss Brennan Rattled About National Security After Alec Baldwin Tweet: After Putin’s boast about nuclear missiles, the former director said he was chilled by Trump’s priorities: “This is surreal.”
Brennan was asked by Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC if he thought Trump was “too unstable” to possess the nuclear codes that would allow him to launch an attack. Brennan responded that he was rattled by the president’s strange focus on Baldwin the morning after Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted of his nation’s nuclear capabilities to strike anywhere in the world, including the U.S. A simulated video presented by Putin appeared to depict next-generation nuclear missiles striking Florida.
Trump has yet to respond to Putin. Instead, he ranted against the actor in an error-riddled tweet early Friday morning (the tweet was later reposted with corrections).
“When I hear what Vladimir Putin was saying about the nuclear capabilities he has [and] then the president of the United States is tweeting about Alec Baldwin this morning, I mean, where is your sense of priorities?” Brennan asked. “I think a lot of Americans are looking at what’s happening with a sense of: This is surreal.”
This week we have heard the word unglued applied to Trump every few minutes, or so it seems at least on MSNBC. This seems to be the word of the week which is, unfortunately, even more benign than last weeks word, unhinged.
Unglued is a word often used in songs with the same title but different lyrics, in a romantic or explicitly sexual way.
When Trump comes unglued it is definitely not romantic!
I think that using colloquial words like unglued and unhinged to describe Trump’s reactions when he is angry normalizes him.
The words minimize the conclusion that mental health professionals like me have drawn that he has a dangerous combination of personality disorders which together have been called malignant narcissism2, in addition to his being impulsive and paranoid.
While some mental health professionals don’t label Donald Trump as mentally ill even as they use their bona fides to warn the public that he’s unfit to be president because he’s dangerous, I belong to the “society” of mental health professionals started by Dr. John Gartner “dedicated to the proposition that Donald Trump is too seriously mentally ill to competently discharge his duties as president and must be removed according to the 25th Amendment.”
Donald Trump doesn’t become unglued and he doesn’t become unhinged. He has episodes of irrational narcissistic rage when he experiences a narcissistic insult or injury 1.
These are psychiatric symptoms of a disorder, malignant narcissism 2, which makes him dangerous.
References
1.
Narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury (Wikipedia)
Narcissistic rage is a reaction to narcissistic injury, which is a perceived threat to a narcissist's self-esteem or self-worth. Narcissistic injury (or narcissistic scar) is a phrase used by Sigmund Freud in the 1920s; narcissistic wound and narcissistic blow are further, almost interchangeable terms. The term narcissistic rage was coined by Heinz Kohut in 1972.
Narcissistic injury occurs when a narcissist feels that their hidden, "true self" has been revealed. This may be the case when the narcissist experiences a "fall from grace", such as when their hidden behaviors or motivations are revealed, or when their importance is brought into question. Narcissistic injury is a cause of distress and can lead to dysregulation of behaviors as in narcissistic rage.
Narcissistic rage occurs on a continuum, which may range from instances of aloofness and expressions of mild irritation or annoyance to serious outbursts, including violent attacks and murder. Narcissistic rage reactions are not limited to personality disorders and may be also seen in catatonic, paranoid delusion and depressive episodes.[2] It has also been suggested that narcissists have two layers of rage. The first layer of rage can be thought of as a constant anger (towards someone else), with the second layer being a self-aimed wrath.
2 Malignant narcissism
Malignant narcissism is a psychological syndrome comprising an extreme mix of narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggression, and sadism.[1] Often grandiose, and always ready to raise hostility levels, the malignant narcissist undermines families and organizations in which they are involved, and dehumanizes the people with whom they associate.[2]
Malignant narcissism is a hypothetical, experimental diagnostic category. Narcissistic personality disorder is found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), while malignant narcissism is not. As a hypothetical syndrome, malignant narcissism could include aspects of narcissistic personality disorder as well as traits of antisocial personality disorder and paranoia. The importance of malignant narcissism and of projection as a defense mechanismhas been confirmed in paranoia, as well as "the patient's vulnerability to malignant narcissistic regression". Wikipedia
Sunday, Mar 4, 2018 · 3:15:53 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
Overnight The Washington Post published a story that is being discussed on all the non-Fox talk shows.
Excerpts:
… aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility — with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center.
These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: “We haven’t bottomed out.”
Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal. He voices frustration that son-in-law Jared Kushner has few on-air defenders. He revives old grudges. And he confides to friends that he is uncertain about whom to trust.
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Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey said the American people — and Congress especially — should be alarmed.
“I think the president is starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well,” McCaffrey said. “Trump’s judgment is fundamentally flawed, and the more pressure put on him and the more isolated he becomes, I think, his ability to do harm is going to increase.”
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Still, the developments have delivered one negative headline after another, leading Trump to lose his cool — especially in the evenings and early mornings, when he often is most isolated, according to advisers.