You might enjoy reading Bandy Lee, M.D., well-written book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” which was published last year. Donald Trump is, unfortunately, a man with a personality disorder. He is a narcissist. Personality disorders are not “fixable” by medical treatment. They are better described as a “warp in the weft”… a flaw in the “making” that is not generally responsive to tweaking by periodic visits to a psychologist. Personality disorders are not “fixable” — and they generally lead to greater deficits of character over time.
Trump, for instance, pads his explanations for the things he does with prevarications to justify them. He cannot tolerate criticism or confrontations, or attempts to correct what he says by pointing out when he’s made a mistake in something he says, or simply lied, exaggerated, or made excuses for his behavior. Narcissists are convinced they are above reproach, and do not make mistakes. Unfortunately, narcissists often do things that are dishonest or hurtful to others, and quite deliberately.
M. Scott Peck, Ph.D., wrote a book entitled “People of the Lie”, in which he laid out the psychology and the sociopathic motivations of narcissists like Donald Trump. Unfortunately, people with this personality flaw tend to get worse over time. They start out as children who are sometimes privileged, but generally are allowed or encouraged to be dishonest, and then they simply get worse and worse over the course of their lives. They become more distorted, and dangerous, as the years progress, until they are identified for what they are.
Psychopaths/sociopaths are dangerous to the rest of us. They can become horrendously dangerous. Serial murderers are often narcissistic sociopaths. So are authoritarian leaders (dictators). Donald Trump has a recognized authoritarian leadership style. He does not tolerate criticism or correction well, and he is quite capable of destroying people who do not take orders well (and totally), or who do not behave in ways he considers respectful.
Frankly, he’s dangerous to the welfare of our nation, and should have been removed by the Impeachment that we tried. Unfortunately, because he is also capable of flattering his followers (narcissists develop a talent for that, when they want to control people, and they always want to control people), he has a solid grip on his Republican representatives in Congress. They are deluded by his lies and his flattery, and so they are not capable of representing the rest of us.
Trump should definitely be removed from office in November, along with those he has so thoroughly deluded and corrupted. I hope the American people are up to the challenge. It’s not easy to remove a corrupt and mentally disordered leader (with fascist behavioral deficits) from leadership.
Remember what history has taught us about dealing with Adolf Hitler — which led to a world war. We’re facing that again now. I hope we’ve all learned what we’re dealing with here by now.
