PART ONE
Sources: RawStory.com; YourHHRS News.
Over a month ago, more than 100 senior mental health experts went on record to declare that Donald Trump is too psychologically dangerous and mentally unfit to continue his presidency or qualify for reelection. Why? To warn again against his symptoms of pathological narcissism and its resulting rage.
Since dozens of mental health experts put together the best-selling book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, all our warnings have been realized, and almost on schedule: from what became a massacre of our Kurdish allies to the assassination of a top Iranian general to his disastrous mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. When we speak of his rage, mean the kind that pathological narcissism portends.
Trump’s overinflated sense of self is meant to overcompensate for the level of emptiness, inadequacy, and worthlessness he feels inside. Should anyone question him, his answer is the unloading of a colossal victimhood complex. And then there follows predictable yet still shocking sadism: He would rather wreak havoc and revenge than to allow anyone who has even minimally rebuffed him to succeed.
The pathological narcissist is very sensitive to shame, which he perceives as humiliation: a blow to his self-image and a threat to what he believes himself entitled to, which is a status superior to all others. Shame is worse than death for a pathological narcissist, because it exposes some flaw in him, even if it is a natural human flaw.
Pathological narcissists must retain their grandiose delusions of superiority and perfection at all costs: it is all they have. Democratic processes consequently have no place in their world view.
The rage with which a pathological narcissist reacts to shame or humiliation thus helps him to fight against his inner emptiness and easy depression, which he cannot tolerate. Deprived of the admiration and special treatment he believes he deserves, it does not take much to provoke his rage: a simple, neutral observation or even the prospect of a loss can unleash it like hellfire on an unsuspecting victim.
Shame intolerance is another reason why a pathological narcissist never takes responsibility for his behavior. Nothing is ever his fault, no matter how great a mess he creates. Responsibility and blame are for other people, as is any loss. Admitting his fault in any way creates a crack in his false façade. Should the truth — those inconvenient facts about his life and his character—be revealed — there would be emotional annihilation.
Narcissistic rage attacks can be lethal — we see it often in the most tragic instances of domestic violence. We have also seen it brazenly displayed by “Dear Leader” tyrants whose underlings who give honest feedback and pay for it with their professional (if not literal) lives.
By Elizabeth Mika, a clinical psychologist at Gifted Resources of Nortnern Illinois, and Bandy X. Lee, author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.