Donald Trump -- A Triumphant President: A Psychoanalyst’s Observations and OpinionsAmerican Thinker, May 20, 2019, Peter Olsson, MD
During the 2016 presidential campaign I was stunned and often revolted by Donald Trump’s aggressive and insulting verbal behavior and political tactics. His comments about Carly Fiorina’s face angered and disgusted me. At times, his ad hominem attacks on political opponents were beyond impolite. Such behaviors were harshly labeled as unpresidential by pundits. As a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, I took note of Trump’s obvious narcissistic preoccupations and relentless insecurity about criticism. his impulsive, punching, and counterpunching Tweets that created social media chicken and egg dilemmas. […] I also noted Trump’s hypomanic behavior and personality style. My earliest associations about Trump were to Teddy Roosevelt. Like a classic hypomanic personality, Trump seems to need little sleep and demonstrates unending energy and drive.
Over time, however, I became fascinated and increasingly impressed with Trump’s successful campaign despite his blatantly unorthodox political tactics and narcissism. I reminded myself that narcissism is not necessarily a psychiatric curse word. The psychoanalytic term for the complex area of self-love and dignity is narcissism, or the narcissistic sector of our personality. It is important to note that narcissism is not necessarily a synonym for selfishness or self-absorption. In a normal personality, self-love matures and develops through anxieties and challenges, just as the ability to love others also has the opportunity to grow and mature.
[…]
In my opinion, Trump’s obvious narcissism is a prominent thread within the complex skein of his remarkable ego strength and type A personality. A strong ego is not egotistical in the common-sense usage of the expression “big ego,†but indicates accurate intuition, street-smart intelligence, and judgement. Strong enough to withstand the attacks of bitter Democrats who never thought Trump would win the presidency. Strong enough to take on “the swamp†of Washington politics, politically correct liberal university professor enemies, and a massively anti-Trump and vicious liberal American press. Even smiling, hypocritical Trojan Horse Republican party enemies like John McCain and Mitt Romney were targets of Trump’s withering unpresidential tweets.
As Trump said early in his first campaign, he knows personally where all the political bodies are buried in Washington and how the pay-to-play swamp game is negotiated, and deals are made.
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