Narcissist In Chief

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"Indeed, the word "narcissist" is increasingly being applied to America's 44th president. Pulitzer prize-winning columnist and former psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer asks, "Does the narcissism of this man know no bounds?" Jack Kelly, journalist and former high-ranking Reagan administration Pentagon official, says: "The most dangerous thing about having a narcissist in a position of power is his unwillingness – perhaps his inability – to ever admit error. ..." Radio giant Rush Limbaugh said of Obama recently: "He's supremely narcissistic … This is all about him. This has nothing to do with the country. It has nothing to do with our way of life. Every aspect of his presidency is about building him up, making him appear to be savior, messiah …"

Ah, yes. A certified right wing lunatic, a former "high ranking" Reagan official and Rush Limbaugh all use the exact same word to describe Obama! When a whole bunch of Republicans suddenly use the same word to refer to some Democrat, that just must mean something really important!

Like, maybe the talking points are out today, huh? Or maybe they're just all mentally ill. I'm not sure which.

Note: Sorry there. The passage from the article really got me into that italic thing. Next thing you know, I'll be putting everything in BIG CAPITALS, maybe even BIG RED CAPITALS, and then nobody will be able to tell me from Pammy Geller. I'd better get a grip on myself.


Comments

flavor411 said…
Green Eagle said;
"Like, maybe the talking points are out today, huh? Or maybe they're just all mentally ill. I'm not sure which."

I say; "How about both?"
Curious how they all repeat the same thing every day. Much like conservative bloggers following each other's sites to create the illusion of influence or something. Not that I would accuse them of doing something like that.
Poll P. said…
I wonder if the conservtive bloggers follow one another's sites because they enjoy reading what they love hearing. The illusion of influence could be a byproduct of that narcissistic habit.
(O)CT(O)PUS said…
When Limbaugh hurls the word, “narcissist,” it is merely a political epithet, i.e., name-calling. When Krauthammer hurls the word, the proper term should be “malpractice.” No DSM-IV diagnostic determination can be made without a face-to-face intake interview. Krauthammer’s unprofessional conduct would earn him the censorship of the psychiatric profession.

Another term deserves mention in this context: Projective identification.

Projective identification is an attempt to blame one’s own intolerable, dangerous, or painful thoughts or beliefs onto another person; for instance, accusing another person of having temper tantrums when the accuser is the one having them. By inducing the projected experience onto another, one is more able to avoid the reality that the projected content is part of one's own experience.

Karl Rove is a master in the use of projective identification as a political proganda tool.

Just because a psychiatrist makes a political statement, this does not make it authoritative. This psychiatrist, Radovan Karadzic, was arrested and extradited to The Hague for war crimes.
Poll P. said…
My husband says that the Republicans always accuse the Democrats of their (the Repubs) own dirty tricks and outrageous lies. In fact, you can see what the Repubs have up their sleeves by observing what they're accusing us of.
Green Eagle said…
(O)ct(O)pus (and Poll),

First, I want to suggest that when Krauthammer hurls this word or any other, the appropriate term might be "senility." Seriously, he seems to be living in a world of long ago, and appears to have lost the ability to respond meaningfully to anything that is happening in the present. Of course, that might just qualify him as a "Republican."

Now, as for the "Projection:" I don't want to be accused of violating Godwin's law here, but I remember Joseph Goebbels saying that, when the Nazis did anything bad, they always accused their opponents of the same thing, because it turned the criticisms of the Nazis into a sort of "he said-she said" argument. I never can tell, when the Republicans pull this stunt (as they always do) what mixture of delusion and self-serving lying is involved.
(O)CT(O)PUS said…
Projective Identification is a Freudian defense mechanism along with Denial, Devaluation (demonization), Reaction Formation (extreme overcompensation), and Splitting (all-or-nothing thinking), among others. Although part of our normal emotion responses, these can be downright pathological when used in excess.

When we think of propaganda tools, we usually think in terms of logical fallacies, especially the personal attack, i.e., Argumentum Ad Hominem. My point here is not to ignore the "ego" defense mechanisms. In fact, these can be far more effective because they reach deeper inside a person.

Goebbels is not the first nor the last to use these propaganda techniques. Since these mechanisms are "hard-wired" into everyone's emotional life, all the more reason to avoid the reductio ad Hitlerum reference. Nevertheless, my point is this: Once one understand how these mechanisms operate, it is so much easier to cut through the political bull.

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