[FRIAM] Is the new president mentally ill?

[Eric Charles]

This is, overall, a strange concern, because you need additional layers of
analysis. Functional narcissists do well because they have particular
strengths, and when those strengths are on the side of third parties, those
third parties tend to do quite well. To the extent that we can get Trump's
narcissism to effectively feed off of the success of the country (which he
seems quite willing to do), things will probably go quite well. To the
extent that he is able to look at Putin and say "Who care's what you think?
I'm president of the U.S., which is doing great by the way, terrific, and
you are at the top of a crumbled empire," I don't think there is any risk
of reaching for the football. A nuclear bomb wouldn't be good for the stock
market, wouldn't help real estate prices, wouldn't help convince Ford to
move that factory to the U.S., where Trump could do a ribbon cutting in
front of an adulating crowd.

People keep saying that he is quick to anger, holds grudges, goes on the
attack to much, but, frankly, we are mostly talking about tweets here. Has
he ever bought a company just to fire someone? Is there an implication he
has ever had people killed who were suing him (something well within his
financial means)? Has he started a company to bankrupt someone else in the
same niche who pissed him off? Are we really afraid he will go from tweet
to nuclear launch with no escalation in between? What past history
of escalation do we have to suggest that is a thing to worry about? And, in
the mean time, might we not get some countries to the bargaining table
based on the perception that Trump won't rule nuclear launch out, who might
not be dealing with us otherwise?

If we are lucky, we have an effective narcissist on our side. If we are
unlucky we have a reasonably competent businessman, in way over his head.
Either way, I'm not worried he'll launch a nuke in week 2.



-----------
Eric P. Charles, Ph.D.
Supervisory Survey Statistician
U.S. Marine Corps
<echarles at american.edu>

On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 1:54 AM, Jochen Fromm <jofr at cas-group.net> wrote:

> I posted this on Google+, since we have a lot of psychologists here you
> might be interested too?
>
> Psychologists, therapists and mental health professionals seem to be
> fascinated and terrified alike by the new president who has not only become
> a brand, but is nothing but a brand:
>
> 1. he seems to be a textbook case of a narcissistic personality disorder
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-greene/is-donald-
> trump-mentally_b_13693174.html
>
> 2. he was elected although he imitates the behavior of an massive Internet
> troll
> https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-embodied-mind/
> 201701/unified-theory-trump
>
> 3. he displays a total lack of honesty and truth-telling
> http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
>
> All DSM-5 criteria of a narcissistic personality disorder seem to be
> fulfilled. Should we be worried? What do you think? He shows a clear need
> for instant retaliation if someone criticizes him, which is obviously some
> form a narcissistic rage. It is clearly more than a self-serving bias, and
> such a deep personality disorder is not harmless at all.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias
>
> The problem is he is in a position where he can pull the strings now, as
> the commander in chief of the most powerful army. The US has about 2000
> nuclear weapons on high alert, and there is a soldier with the nuclear
> football following the president at all times. What could go wrong?
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_football
>
> -Jochen
>
>
>
>
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