Throughout his presidency, there has been speculation about President Obama's mental health (no derision intended,) specifically whether he is narcissistic. I find his behavior so bizarre and nearly impossible to understand, so I decided to look into narcissism. I noticed how listless and distracted he's been during the last few speeches he's given, which is a complete shift from his speeches early in his presidency. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) by the American Psychiatric Association, a narcissist is "haunted by criticism [which] may leave him feeling humiliated and degraded." (pp 715) It appears the nationwide criticism that has been mounting in recent months is resulting in humiliation and degradation, manifesting itself in the utter lack of conviction in his speeches. I thought, during his joint session of congress speech September 8 and other recent addresses, that it doesn't sound like he believes one word of what he's saying, not to mention the fact he has hesitated more while reading the teleprompter, which is totally inconsistent with his earlier display of skill in delivering a speech.
People with narcissistic personalities also have a driving need for constant attention and praise, which explains the countless addresses to the nation and other speeches. Like Rush said, he's getting Obama burn-in on his LCD. A narcissist lacks the ability to understand rejection by anyone, so there would be no capacity to comprehend fatigue on the part of Americans in seeing his face yet again on their television screens.
According to Selecting Effective Treatments by Linda Seligman and Lourie W. Reichenberg, people with narcissism "believe they must always appear powerful, in control, and superior to others, concealing their real selves from others lest their fraudulence and failure be discovered." (pp. 460) This characteristic could explain his nose-in-the-air posture whenever he is not speaking, but in attendance at an event, and putting on the appearance of dignified listening. This would also fit the fact we know very, very little about his time in college; the content of papers written by him, his transcripts, how he got to Harvard, and so on.
According to the DSM, narcissistic individuals "feel that they can only be understood by...people who are special or of high status." (pp. 714) This might explain this clip of an interview Brian Williams had with President Obama on September 13, for which Fox News had the headline, "You'll Realize Later What a Good Job I Did."
His apparent perception that we simply do not understand him--because it could NEVER be that he's wrong--is further supported by the fact he said in July, "Sometimes I forgot part of my job is explaining to the American people why we're doing this policy and where we're going." Again, it could never be that we know full well where he's taking us and we're screaming at him to stop. The possibility of rejection is not on the radar, nor can it be, as it would amount to admission of fault. The capacity for fault does not exist in a narcissistic personality.
In Selecting Effective Treatments, the authors note, "fear of rejection or humiliation can [drive] their disregard of rules or the requests of their supervisors." (pp. 462) This particular characteristic dovetails with Obama's complete disregard for the constitution (the rules) and the will of the American people (his supervisors.) Compliance with the requests of others would require deference and showing respect for the judgement of people other than himself.
From what I've been reading about narcissism, it is the result of deep fear and insecurity, due to low self-worth and will result in the driving away of other people, coupled with anger toward others and self. The driving away of others, or other natural consequences of narcissism, is sometimes met with relief by the narcissist. In the end, the narcissist self-destructs because their demands, both of others and themselves, can never be met.
Really, what drives President Obama does not matter in the end. We know, no matter what, he must be defeated. My motivation for digging further into narcissism and its characteristics is the importance of knowing our opponent. The narcissist, because of the inability to constructively interact with others, can cause nothing but damage. Memo to Republicans: there's no working with this man. What we need to do is to contain the damage as best as we can and then soundly defeat him on 11-6-12.
Very well done. Your conclusion is very important: one cannot work with a narcissist. Rather what needs to be done is manage and repair any damage that person does.
ReplyDeleteAnother point that needs to be recognized is that politics draws narcissists, because politics places people in positions that draw recognition to themselves, exactly what a narcissist seeks. Many politicians are NOT especially narcissistic, but politics are very attractive to a narcissist. That is why we the people must be on our toes all the time. If we are not---if we let the politicians "run the show", we get into trouble.
What is really interesting is that the best gov't officials are those who are not narcissistic, i.e. ones who must be dragged into office; they do not look for the office, but the office, the work, looks for them. They do it out of duty, not for the thrill. Interesting also, is that is the attitude of great military people: they serve out of duty, because someone has to do it.
Well done!!!