Trump, America, and Narcissism
Donald Trump continually reminds me of an article published in the New York Times by David Brooks. In it, Brooks outlines his definition of the narcissistic individual. I apologize for the long extract, but he writes:
The narcissistic person is marked by a grandiose self-image, a constant need for admiration, and a general lack of empathy for others. He is the keeper of a sacred flame, which is the flame he holds to celebrate himself. His self-love is his most precious possession. It is the holy center of all that is sacred and right. He is hypersensitive about anybody who might splatter or disregard his greatness. If someone treats him slightingly, he perceives that as a deliberate and heinous attack. If someone threatens his reputation, he regards this as an act of blasphemy. He feels justified in punishing the attacker for this moral outrage. And because he plays by different rules ……… revenge is a holy cause and a moral obligation, demanding overwhelming force.[1]
Although the description was aimed at Mel Gibson, it now seems an uncannily accurate definition of Donald Trump, identifying the fragile ego, the lack of empathy, the need for approval, the solipsism, the ad hominem nature of everything, the inability to take criticism, and the vengeful personality.
Narcissism is an abhorrent condition, not only because it reveals a diseased and insecure mind, but also because it impacts others as much as it does the narcissist. The narcissist suffers from self-loathing and a profound inferiority complex (though this is always masked by bravado and self-praise), and therefore he or she needs incessant approval and constant praise from others and, most importantly, is completely unable to accept any kind of criticism or censure. Because this condition is so reliant on the behavior of others, and therefore beyond the control of the narcissist, it unfailingly leads to antagonism, hostility, unpredictability, conflict, and a state of constant crisis. Perhaps there is no better summary of Trump and his presidency than this.
However, the more I think about narcissism, the more I realize that it is also an astute diagnosis of the contemporary United States. Rather than considering America a country simply with severe solipsistic and national supremacist tendencies, it seems that the malady of narcissism offers a far more telling insight into the American psyche. From this perspective, the claims of supremacism, greatness, and exceptionalism, as well as the vengefulness and disparagement towards others, demonstrate the essential symptoms of narcissism.
For Donald Trump, everything is about him. For the United States, everything is about America. One need only witness the endless national naval gazing about what America ‘means’; what it is to be American; the ideology of Americanism; and the constant obsession with national identity, history, and ideals; all of which are unlike anything I have ever seen outside of autocracies. Moreover, just as everything Trump does or plans to do is the ‘best,’ the ‘greatest,’ and the ‘most amazing,’ so it is with America and its relentless self-eulogizing and self-flattery despite the often contradictory reality. This is not simply national self-obsession run amok; these are the ruminations of the narcissist.
It is certainly easy to identify the United States in Brooks’ characterization. The “grandiose self-image” (‘greatest country in the world’, ‘beacon to the world’); “playing by different rules” (the self-bestowed notion of exceptionalism); being “hypersensitive about anybody who might splatter or disregard his greatness” (any criticism denounced as anti-Americanism); “self-love” and the “holy center of all that is scared and right” (the ‘city on a hill’ narrative — despite its complete distortion from Winthrop’s meaning –the obsession with ‘Americanness’ and Pharisee-like self-righteousness), and the “keeper of the sacred flame” (the banal ‘America is not a country but an idea’ motif and ‘the last best hope on earth’). Also recognizable is the “constant need for admiration,” which has been a characteristic of American culture since as far back as Tocqueville:
All free nations are vainglorious, but national pride is not displayed by all in the same manner. The Americans, in their intercourse with strangers, appear impatient of the smallest censure and insatiable of praise. They unceasingly harass you to extort praise, and if you resist their entreaties they fall to praising themselves. It would seem as if, doubting their own merit, they wished to have it constantly exhibited before their eyes.[2]
Although some other countries maintain a culture of national supremacism and a distinctly superior view of themselves, the American version seems far more predicated on narcissism, which, as mentioned above, creates more problems than merely self-love and delusions of grandeur because it is ultimately predicated on self-loathing and inferiority. Thus, American narcissism, like Trump’s, becomes as much about hypersensitivity to criticism, the denigration of others, and the thirst for revenge, than it is about self-glorification and self-acclaim; though, of course, all of these aspects are not mutually exclusive, but rather, merge, interact, and fuel each other. If Trump is the big, brash, wealthy, uneducated, self-obsessed braggart and bully who is, behind the façade, actually blighted by dysfunction, vacuousness, thin-skin, self-doubt, and an inferiority complex, then so goes America.
It is perhaps no coincidence that in an era of populist politics, in which voters no longer value experience, knowledge, and expertise, but seek in their leaders someone simply like themselves and ‘one of the people’, America has chosen a president who seems to encapsulate and personify quite profoundly the nation’s inherent characteristics. In many respects, unfortunately, Trump is America and America is Trump.
[1] D. Brooks, “The Gospel of Mel Gibson”, New York Times, July 15, 2010.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/opinion/16brooks.html
[2] A. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Signet Classic), p. 251.
