To explain Trump’s post-election behavior as president requires an understanding of his individual character structure. Displaying the features of a phallic narcissistic character with an oral unsatisfied block, he functioned in the business world as a highly successful businessman. As a business leader he was used to being top dog and playing by his own rules. He was able to act aggressively and get things done in the world of business.
However, in his new, unfamiliar world of partisan politics, he is not in charge of his environment in the way he was at home in business. He has difficulty playing by the new rules of politics and getting his political agenda off the ground. In addition, because he is touchy, he becomes frustrated and plays into the hands of his opponents by reacting in a defensive manner when his policies are threatened.
This is a typical feature of people with his character type. His high energy, phallic narcissistic structure leads him to react defensively with poorly directed aggressive attacks blaming others for things gone wrong. Additionally, his oral unsatisfied block leads to loose talking and his defensive whining and complaining like a big baby about how poorly he is being treated by his critics. These self-destructive displays of bad behavior do no credit to him, the presidency or to the nation.
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I tend to agree with you, but as Reich said, “For every truth there is a counter-truth”. In this case, I cannot help but wonder, Trump, whatever his personality traits might be, is an intelligent man and cannot be totally unaware of how he looks to other people. It is possible at least a part of his public persona is intentionally crafted to help him win points with the target demographic he plays to. After all, it seems to be working for him.
Anyone in politics should be suspected of putting on an act for public consumption. If Trump is knowingly playing a role calculated to endear him to a certain type of voter, he is doing a good and successful job of it.
I’m sure that part of his behavior is showmanship. But like all show people he must feel liked. This is his narcissism.
Trump is falsely attacked by the emotional plague constantly, e.g., that “he did a televised imitation of the tics of an interviewer who asked unwelcome questions” (see video below) and other COMPLETE nonsense. Trump may be quite neurotic – but his detractors and their endless innuendos are outright plaguey! Do I differentiate correctly between Trump’s neurosis and the emotional plague of those carriers of the Trump derangement syndrome, Dr. Konia?
Dear Peter,
Your differentiating is correct.
Dr. Konia
Trump had no clue of what he would be facing in terms of emotional plague attacks. One of his most effective campaign slogans was “drain the swamp in Washington”. It was very naive to warn the members of the “swamp” that he would be “draining” them but have no real strategy to accomplish this. He also brought on no advisers who could help him develop an effective strategy to deal with all of the above. Sadly, as a result, the only resource he had to defend against the inevitable attacks was his neurotic character structure. Many of his policies are potentially a step in the right direction. I hope he can have some success
In the future it will serve a leader well to have the wisdom to hire some advisers well versed in functional thinking and who possess a warrior like character structure so that they can develop some serious strategies and contingency plans to adequately deal with the destructive nature of anti-authoritarianism. I am not sure these advisers exist today. Maybe they will in the near future.
Many thanks for your valuable insights.
Dr. Konia