Article written by Tea Party/"Truther" friendly nut Sam Vaknin,
infamous on Wikipedia. In 2008 he
interviewed David Ray Griffin, where Griffin admitted he believed there were no hijackers. Of course he does this years after sounding reasonable and level headed. Few people would have been sucked into the "truther" scam if this had been a talking point in 2004.
Vaknin's bias' don't just include "conspiracies", but also the thinly veiled racist anti Obama rhetoric of Larouche and Von Mises. Archived here because Global Politician has disappeared.
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Barack Obama - Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 8/13/2008
Barack Obama
appears to be a narcissist. Granted, only a qualified mental health
diagnostician can determine whether someone suffers from Narcissistic
Personality Disorder (NPD) and this, following lengthy tests and
personal interviews. But, in the absence of access to Barack Obama, one
has to rely on his overt performance and on testimonies by his closest,
nearest and dearest.
Narcissistic leaders are nefarious and
their effects pernicious. They are subtle, refined, socially-adept,
manipulative, possessed of thespian skills, and convincing. Both types
equally lack empathy and are ruthless and relentless or driven.
Perhaps
it is time to require each candidate to high office in the USA to
submit to a rigorous physical and mental checkup with the results made
public.
I. Upbringing and Childhood
Obama's early life
was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising
dislocations. Mixed-race marriages were even less common then. His
parents went through a divorce when he was an infant (two years old).
Obama saw his father only once again, before he died in a car accident.
Then, his mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia: a
foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a
step-father. At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his
maternal (white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in
the following few years and then she vanished from his life in 1979. She
died of cancer in 1995.
Pathological narcissism is a reaction
to prolonged abuse and trauma in early childhood or early adolescence.
The source of the abuse or trauma is immaterial: the perpetrators could
be dysfunctional or absent parents, teachers, other adults, or peers.
II. Behavior Patterns
The narcissist:
* Feels grandiose and self-important (e.g., exaggerates
accomplishments, talents, skills, contacts, and personality traits to
the point of lying, demands to be recognised as superior without
commensurate achievements);
* Is obsessed with fantasies of
unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled
brilliance (the cerebral narcissist), bodily beauty or sexual
performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal, everlasting,
all-conquering love or passion;
* Firmly convinced that he
or she is unique and, being special, can only be understood by, should
only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or
high-status people (or institutions);
* Requires excessive
admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation – or, failing that,
wishes to be feared and to be notorious (Narcissistic Supply);
* Feels entitled. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or
her unreasonable expectations for special and favourable priority
treatment;
* Is "interpersonally exploitative", i.e., uses others to achieve his or her own ends;
* Devoid of empathy. Is unable or unwilling to identify with,
acknowledge, or accept the feelings, needs, preferences, priorities, and
choices of others;
* Constantly envious of others and seeks
to hurt or destroy the objects of his or her frustration. Suffers from
persecutory (paranoid) delusions as he or she believes that they feel
the same about him or her and are likely to act similarly;
*
Behaves arrogantly and haughtily. Feels superior, omnipotent,
omniscient, invincible, immune, "above the law", and omnipresent
(magical thinking). Rages when frustrated, contradicted, or confronted
by people he or she considers inferior to him or her and unworthy.
Narcissism
is a defense mechanism whose role is to deflect hurt and trauma from
the victim's "True Self" into a "False Self" which is omnipotent,
invulnerable, and omniscient. This False Self is then used by the
narcissist to garner narcissistic supply from his human environment.
Narcissistic supply is any form of attention, both positive and negative
and it is instrumental in the regulation of the narcissist's labile
sense of self-worth.
Perhaps the most immediately evident trait
of patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is their
vulnerability to criticism and disagreement. Subject to negative input,
real or imagined, even to a mild rebuke, a constructive suggestion, or
an offer to help, they feel injured, humiliated and empty and they react
with disdain (devaluation), rage, and defiance.
From my book "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited":
"To
avoid such intolerable pain, some patients with Narcissistic
Personality Disorder (NPD) socially withdraw and feign false modesty and
humility to mask their underlying grandiosity. Dysthymic and depressive
disorders are common reactions to isolation and feelings of shame and
inadequacy."
Due to their lack of empathy, disregard for others,
exploitativeness, sense of entitlement, and constant need for attention
(narcissistic supply), narcissists are rarely able to maintain
functional and healthy interpersonal relationships.
Many
narcissists are over-achievers and ambitious. Some of them are even
talented and skilled. But they are incapable of team work because they
cannot tolerate setbacks. They are easily frustrated and demoralized and
are unable to cope with disagreement and criticism. Though some
narcissists have meteoric and inspiring careers, in the long-run, all of
them find it difficult to maintain long-term professional achievements
and the respect and appreciation of their peers. The narcissist's
fantastic grandiosity, frequently coupled with a hypomanic mood, is
typically incommensurate with his or her real accomplishments (the
"grandiosity gap").
An important distinction is between cerebral
and somatic narcissists. The cerebrals derive their Narcissistic Supply
from their intelligence or academic achievements and the somatics derive
their Narcissistic Supply from their physique, exercise, physical or
sexual prowess and romantic or physical "conquests".
Another
crucial division within the ranks of patients with Narcissistic
Personality Disorder (NPD) is between the classic variety (those who
meet five of the nine diagnostic criteria included in the DSM), and the
compensatory kind (their narcissism compensates for deep-set feelings of
inferiority and lack of self-worth).
Obama displays the following behaviors, which are among the hallmarks of pathological narcissism:
* Subtly misrepresents facts and expediently and opportunistically
shifts positions, views, opinions, and "ideals" (e.g., about campaign
finance, re-districting). These flip-flops do not cause him overt
distress and are ego-syntonic (he feels justified in acting this way).
Alternatively, reuses to commit to a standpoint and, in the process,
evidences a lack of empathy.
Ignores data that
conflict with his fantasy world, or with his inflated and grandiose
self-image. This has to do with magical thinking. Obama already sees
himself as president because he is firmly convinced that his dreams,
thoughts, and wishes affect reality. Additionally, he denies the gap
between his fantasies and his modest or limited real-life achievements
(for instance, in 12 years of academic career, he hasn't published a
single scholarly paper or book).
- Feels that he is above the law, incl. and especially his own laws.
- Talks about himself in the 3rd person singluar or uses the regal
"we" and craves to be the exclsuive center of attention, even adulation
- Have a messianic-cosmic vision of himself and his life and his "mission".
- Sets ever more complex rules in a convoluted world of grandiose fantasies with its own language (jargon)
- Displays false modesty and unctuous "folksiness" but unable to
sustain these behaviors (the persona, or mask) for long. It slips and
the true Obama is revealed: haughty, aloof, distant, and disdainful of
simple folk and their lives.
- Sublimates aggression and holds grudges.
- Behaves as an eternal adolescent (e.g., his choice of language,
youthful image he projects, demands indulgence and feels entitled to
special treatment, even though his objective accomplishments do not
justify it).
III. Body Language
Many complain of
the incredible deceptive powers of the narcissist. They find themselves
involved with narcissists (emotionally, in business, or otherwise)
before they have a chance to discover their true character. Shocked by
the later revelation, they mourn their inability to separate from the
narcissist and their gullibility.
Narcissists are an elusive
breed, hard to spot, harder to pinpoint, impossible to capture. Even an
experienced mental health diagnostician with unmitigated access to the
record and to the person examined would find it fiendishly difficult to
determine with any degree of certainty whether someone suffers from a
full fledged Narcissistic Personality Disorder – or merely possesses
narcissistic traits, a narcissistic style, a personality structure
("character"), or a narcissistic "overlay" superimposed on another
mental health problem.
Moreover, it is important to distinguish
between traits and behavior patterns that are independent of the
patient's cultural-social context (i.e., which are inherent, or
idiosyncratic) – and reactive patterns, or conformity to cultural and
social morals and norms. Reactions to severe life crises or
circumstances are also often characterized by transient pathological
narcissism, for instance (Ronningstam and Gunderson, 1996). But such
reactions do not a narcissist make.
When a person belongs to a
society or culture that has often been described as narcissistic by
scholars (such as Theodore Millon) and social thinkers (e.g.,
Christopher Lasch) – how much of his behavior can be attributed to his
milieu and which of his traits are really his?
The Narcissistic
Personality Disorder is rigorously defined in the DSM IV-TR with a set
of strict criteria and differential diagnoses.
Narcissism is
regarded by many scholars to be an adaptative strategy ("healthy
narcissism"). It is considered pathological in the clinical sense only
when it becomes a rigid personality structure replete with a series of
primitive defence mechanisms (such as splitting, projection, projective
identification, or intellectualization) – and when it leads to
dysfunctions in one or more areas of the patient's life.
Pathological
narcissism is the art of deception. The narcissist projects a False
Self and manages all his social interactions through this concocted
fictional construct.
When the narcissist reveals his true colors,
it is usually far too late. His victims are unable to separate from
him. They are frustrated by this acquired helplessness and angry at
themselves for having they failed to see through the narcissist earlier
on.
But the narcissist does emit subtle, almost subliminal,
signals ("presenting symptoms") even in a first or casual encounter.
Compare the following list to Barack Obama's body language during his
paublic appearances.
These are:
"Haughty" body language –
The narcissist adopts a physical posture which implies and exudes an air
of superiority, seniority, hidden powers, mysteriousness, amused
indifference, etc. Though the narcissist usually maintains sustained and
piercing eye contact, he often refrains from physical proximity (he is
"territorial").
The narcissist takes part in social interactions –
even mere banter – condescendingly, from a position of supremacy and
faux "magnanimity and largesse". But he rarely mingles socially and
prefers to remain the "observer", or the "lone wolf".
Entitlement
markers – The narcissist immediately asks for "special treatment" of
some kind. Not to wait his turn, to have a longer or a shorter
therapeutic session, to talk directly to authority figures (and not to
their assistants or secretaries), to be granted special payment terms,
to enjoy custom tailored arrangements - or to get served first.
The
narcissist is the one who – vocally and demonstratively – demands the
undivided attention of the head waiter in a restaurant, or monopolizes
the hostess, or latches on to celebrities in a party. The narcissist
reacts with rage and indignantly when denied his wishes and if treated
equally with others whom he deems inferior.
Idealization or
devaluation – The narcissist instantly idealizes or devalues his
interlocutor. This depends on how the narcissist appraises the potential
his converser has as a Narcissistic Supply Source. The narcissist
flatters, adores, admires and applauds the "target" in an embarrassingly
exaggerated and profuse manner – or sulks, abuses, and humiliates her.
Narcissists
are polite only in the presence of a potential Supply Source. But they
are unable to sustain even perfunctory civility and fast deteriorate to
barbs and thinly-veiled hostility, to verbal or other violent displays
of abuse, rage attacks, or cold detachment.
The "membership"
posture – The narcissist always tries to "belong". Yet, at the very same
time, he maintains his stance as an outsider. The narcissist seeks to
be admired for his ability to integrate and ingratiate himself without
investing the efforts commensurate with such an undertaking.
For
instance: if the narcissist talks to a psychologist, the narcissist
first states emphatically that he never studied psychology. He then
proceeds to make seemingly effortless use of obscure professional terms,
thus demonstrating that he mastered the discipline all the same, as an
autodidact – which proves that he is exceptionally intelligent or
introspective.
In general, the narcissist always prefers show-off
to substance. One of the most effective methods of exposing a
narcissist is by trying to delve deeper. The narcissist is shallow, a
pond pretending to be an ocean. He likes to think of himself as a
Renaissance man, a Jack of all trades. The narcissist never admits to
ignorance in any field – yet, typically, he is ignorant of them all. It
is surprisingly easy to penetrate the gloss and the veneer of the
narcissist's self-proclaimed omniscience.
Bragging and false
autobiography – The narcissist brags incessantly. His speech is peppered
with "I", "my", "myself", and "mine". He describes himself as
intelligent, or rich, or modest, or intuitive, or creative – but always
excessively, implausibly, and extraordinarily so.
The
narcissist's biography sounds unusually rich and complex. His
achievements – incommensurate with his age, education, or renown. Yet,
his actual condition is evidently and demonstrably incompatible with his
claims. Very often, the narcissist lies or his fantasies are easily
discernible. He always name-drops and appropriates other people's
experiences and accomplishments.
Emotion-free language – The
narcissist likes to talk about himself and only about himself. He is not
interested in others or what they have to say, unless they constitute
potential Sources of Supply and in order to obtain said supply. He acts
bored, disdainful, even angry, if he feels that they are intruding on
his precious time and, thus, abusing him.
In general, the
narcissist is very impatient, easily bored, with strong attention
deficits – unless and until he is the topic of discussion. One can
publicly dissect all aspects of the intimate life of a narcissist
without repercussions, providing the discourse is not "emotionally
tinted".
If asked to relate directly to his emotions, the
narcissist intellectualizes, rationalizes, speaks about himself in the
third person and in a detached "scientific" tone or composes a narrative
with a fictitious character in it, suspiciously autobiographical.
Narcissists like to refer to themselves in mechanical terms, as
efficient automata or machines.
Seriousness and sense of
intrusion and coercion – The narcissist is dead serious about himself.
He may possess a subtle, wry, and riotous sense of humor, scathing and
cynical, but rarely is he self-deprecating. The narcissist regards
himself as being on a constant mission, whose importance is cosmic and
whose consequences are global. If a scientist – he is always in the
throes of revolutionizing science. If a journalist – he is in the middle
of the greatest story ever. If a novelist - he is on his way to a
Booker or Nobel prize.
This self-misperception is not amenable to
light-headedness or self-effacement. The narcissist is easily hurt and
insulted (narcissistic injury). Even the most innocuous remarks or acts
are interpreted by him as belittling, intruding, or coercive. His time
is more valuable than others' – therefore, it cannot be wasted on
unimportant matters such as mere banter or going out for a walk.
Any
suggested help, advice, or concerned inquiry are immediately cast by
the narcissist as intentional humiliation, implying that the narcissist
is in need of help and counsel and, thus, imperfect and less than
omnipotent. Any attempt to set an agenda is, to the narcissist, an
intimidating act of enslavement. In this sense, the narcissist is both
schizoid and paranoid and often entertains ideas of reference.
These
– the lack of empathy, the aloofness, the disdain, the sense of
entitlement, the constricted sense of humor, the unequal treatment and
the paranoia – render the narcissist a social misfit. The narcissist is
able to provoke in his milieu, in his casual acquaintances, even in his
psychotherapist, the strongest, most avid and furious hatred and
revulsion. To his shock, indignation and consternation, he invariably
induces in others unbridled aggression.
He is perceived to be
asocial at best and, often, antisocial. This, perhaps, is the strongest
presenting symptom. One feels ill at ease in the presence of a
narcissist for no apparent reason. No matter how charming, intelligent,
thought provoking, outgoing, easy going and social the narcissist is –
he fails to secure the sympathy of others, a sympathy he is never ready,
willing, or able to reciprocate.
IV. Narcissistic and psychopathic Leaders
The
narcissistic or psychopathic leader is the culmination and reification
of his period, culture, and civilization. He is likely to rise to
prominence in narcissistic societies.
The malignant narcissist
invents and then projects a false, fictitious, self for the world to
fear, or to admire. He maintains a tenuous grasp on reality to start
with and this is further exacerbated by the trappings of power. The
narcissist's grandiose self-delusions and fantasies of omnipotence and
omniscience are supported by real life authority and the narcissist's
predilection to surround himself with obsequious sycophants.
The
narcissist's personality is so precariously balanced that he cannot
tolerate even a hint of criticism and disagreement. Most narcissists are
paranoid and suffer from ideas of reference (the delusion that they are
being mocked or discussed when they are not). Thus, narcissists often
regard themselves as "victims of persecution".
The narcissistic
leader fosters and encourages a personality cult with all the hallmarks
of an institutional religion: priesthood, rites, rituals, temples,
worship, catechism, mythology. The leader is this religion's ascetic
saint. He monastically denies himself earthly pleasures (or so he
claims) in order to be able to dedicate himself fully to his calling.
The
narcissistic leader is a monstrously inverted Jesus, sacrificing his
life and denying himself so that his people - or humanity at large -
should benefit. By surpassing and suppressing his humanity, the
narcissistic leader became a distorted version of Nietzsche's
"superman".
But being a-human or super-human also means being a-sexual and a-moral.
In
this restricted sense, narcissistic leaders are post-modernist and
moral relativists. They project to the masses an androgynous figure and
enhance it by engendering the adoration of nudity and all things
"natural" - or by strongly repressing these feelings. But what they
refer to as "nature" is not natural at all.
The narcissistic
leader invariably proffers an aesthetic of decadence and evil carefully
orchestrated and artificial - though it is not perceived this way by him
or by his followers. Narcissistic leadership is about reproduced
copies, not about originals. It is about the manipulation of symbols -
not about veritable atavism or true conservatism.
In short:
narcissistic leadership is about theatre, not about life. To enjoy the
spectacle (and be subsumed by it), the leader demands the suspension of
judgment, depersonalization, and de-realization. Catharsis is
tantamount, in this narcissistic dramaturgy, to self-annulment.
Narcissism
is nihilistic not only operationally, or ideologically. Its very
language and narratives are nihilistic. Narcissism is conspicuous
nihilism - and the cult's leader serves as a role model, annihilating
the Man, only to re-appear as a pre-ordained and irresistible force of
nature.
Narcissistic leadership often poses as a rebellion
against the "old ways" - against the hegemonic culture, the upper
classes, the established religions, the superpowers, the corrupt order.
Narcissistic movements are puerile, a reaction to narcissistic injuries
inflicted upon a narcissistic (and rather psychopathic) toddler
nation-state, or group, or upon the leader.
Minorities or
"others" - often arbitrarily selected - constitute a perfect, easily
identifiable, embodiment of all that is "wrong". They are accused of
being old, they are eerily disembodied, they are cosmopolitan, they are
part of the establishment, they are "decadent", they are hated on
religious and socio-economic grounds, or because of their race, sexual
orientation, origin ... They are different, they are narcissistic (feel
and act as morally superior), they are everywhere, they are defenceless,
they are credulous, they are adaptable (and thus can be co-opted to
collaborate in their own destruction). They are the perfect hate figure.
Narcissists thrive on hatred and pathological envy.
This is
precisely the source of the fascination with Hitler, diagnosed by Erich
Fromm - together with Stalin - as a malignant narcissist. He was an
inverted human. His unconscious was his conscious. He acted out our most
repressed drives, fantasies, and wishes. He provides us with a glimpse
of the horrors that lie beneath the veneer, the barbarians at our
personal gates, and what it was like before we invented civilization.
Hitler forced us all through a time warp and many did not emerge. He was
not the devil. He was one of us. He was what Arendt aptly called the
banality of evil. Just an ordinary, mentally disturbed, failure, a
member of a mentally disturbed and failing nation, who lived through
disturbed and failing times. He was the perfect mirror, a channel, a
voice, and the very depth of our souls.
The narcissistic leader
prefers the sparkle and glamour of well-orchestrated illusions to the
tedium and method of real accomplishments. His reign is all smoke and
mirrors, devoid of substances, consisting of mere appearances and mass
delusions. In the aftermath of his regime - the narcissistic leader
having died, been deposed, or voted out of office - it all unravels. The
tireless and constant prestidigitation ceases and the entire edifice
crumbles. What looked like an economic miracle turns out to have been a
fraud-laced bubble. Loosely-held empires disintegrate. Laboriously
assembled business conglomerates go to pieces. "Earth shattering" and
"revolutionary" scientific discoveries and theories are discredited.
Social experiments end in mayhem.
It is important to understand
that the use of violence must be ego-syntonic. It must accord with the
self-image of the narcissist. It must abet and sustain his grandiose
fantasies and feed his sense of entitlement. It must conform with the
narcissistic narrative.
Thus, a narcissist who regards himself as
the benefactor of the poor, a member of the common folk, the
representative of the disenfranchised, the champion of the dispossessed
against the corrupt elite - is highly unlikely to use violence at first.
The
pacific mask crumbles when the narcissist has become convinced that the
very people he purported to speak for, his constituency, his grassroots
fans, the prime sources of his narcissistic supply - have turned
against him. At first, in a desperate effort to maintain the fiction
underlying his chaotic personality, the narcissist strives to explain
away the sudden reversal of sentiment. "The people are being duped by
(the media, big industry, the military, the elite, etc.)", "they don't
really know what they are doing", "following a rude awakening, they will
revert to form", etc.
When these flimsy attempts to patch a
tattered personal mythology fail - the narcissist is injured.
Narcissistic injury inevitably leads to narcissistic rage and to a
terrifying display of unbridled aggression. The pent-up frustration and
hurt translate into devaluation. That which was previously idealized -
is now discarded with contempt and hatred.
This primitive defense
mechanism is called "splitting". To the narcissist, things and people
are either entirely bad (evil) or entirely good. He projects onto others
his own shortcomings and negative emotions, thus becoming a totally
good object. A narcissistic leader is likely to justify the butchering
of his own people by claiming that they intended to kill him, undo the
revolution, devastate the economy, or the country, etc.
The
"small people", the "rank and file", the "loyal soldiers" of the
narcissist - his flock, his nation, his employees - they pay the price.
The disillusionment and disenchantment are agonizing. The process of
reconstruction, of rising from the ashes, of overcoming the trauma of
having been deceived, exploited and manipulated - is drawn-out. It is
difficult to trust again, to have faith, to love, to be led, to
collaborate. Feelings of shame and guilt engulf the erstwhile followers
of the narcissist. This is his sole legacy: a massive post-traumatic
stress disorder.
Sam
Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self
Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the
East. He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe
Review, PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press
International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of
mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory
and Suite101.
Visit Sam's Web site at
http://samvak.tripod.com You can download 22 of his free ebooks in
our bookstore
NOTE: as per Wikipedia there is some doubt about the validity of Vaknin's PhD.
