Daniel

Werder.

[Daniel @danixx17]

Ich habe vom Schotten mit dem Bart geträumt.

Heute kann alles passieren.

[Daniel @danixx17]

@SwamijiSamantha @Iamivy05 can you tell me what mutation that is? What‘s it called?

[Daniel @danixx17]

@jaaarno und das zuhause

[Vlad Vexler @VladVexler]

We Need to Talk About Trump’s Narcissism

Trump’s unchecked narcissism is destabilising global politics, yet we refuse to analyse it seriously.

Every relationship Trump has - with Putin, Starmer, Macron, Zelensky - is shaped by his narcissism. For Trump, every act - from cutting taxes to pouting - is designed to satisfy his need for narcissistic supply.

The kind of narcissism I am talking about is not a personality “trait” like greed or vanity. It is a personality disorder: a deep denial of mental and emotional reality which leaves Trump relating to the world with a child’s view of adult capabilities.

We usually avoid discussing the mental disorders of public figures. But this taboo is no longer defensible. As our democracies decline, we risk electing increasingly disturbed individuals. When someone holds the power to dismantle democracy or start a war, the public has a right to scrutinise their psychological condition.

Narcissism and Power: the Oval Office ambush

At the heart of narcissistic personality disorder is an insatiable need for narcissistic supply.

There is positive supply - for instance, receiving adulation. There is negative supply, sometimes called sadistic supply - the need to be seen as omnipotently destructive, to command a kind of dark admiration.

Recall Trump’s theatre of cruelty with Zelensky in the Oval Office. Trump demanded gratitude while calling Zelensky a dictator, blaming him for Putin’s invasion, and scheming to extract Ukraine’s natural resources. This was about sadistic narcissistic supply: being seen across the world as the master of Zelensky’s misery.

Narcissists divide people into two groups: people they idealise, and people they dismiss.

In Trump’s mental world, Putin is idealised. Trump invites Putin into an idealised society of his own creation. Zelensky, on the other hand, is in the non-idealised group. Zelensky does not meet Trump’s needs for narcissistic supply, and therefore, for Trump, does not exist.

During the Oval Office meeting, J.D. Vance sensed that Trump was running dry on narcissistic supply. His intervention from the sidelines framed Zelensky as ungrateful and disrespectful, creating a new dynamic in which Trump could torment him - converting frustrated narcissistic need into the satisfaction of sadistic narcissistic supply.

Putin Stabilises Trump’s Inner World

Narcissism is often misunderstood as simple self-obsession. This is wrong.

The opposite of narcissism is not care for others - that is the opposite of sociopathy. The opposite of narcissism is authenticity, and by extension, growth - being real and looking inward to find a steady self inside. My philosophical hero Richard Wollheim called this “seeing in”.

When Trump looks inside, he finds nothing. There is no “I” there. Only a false self that craves narcissistic supply as a means of self-regulation.

Because Trump has a false self, he cannot grow. He lives the same day over and over. He accumulates no lessons or burdens.

When Trump is exposed to human suffering, he recognises what is shown to him, but has no correlate emotional response. Trump doesn’t carry anything - whether it’s Ukraine, Gaza, or even Melania.

Narcissistic Submission

For the narcissist, life is theatre organised around perceptions of authority.

Trump either dominates - staging spectacles of humiliation and control - or submits. When he submits, he aligns himself with special figures so he can bask in the fake glory he attributes to them. I call this “narcissistic submission”.

Psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas talks similarly about “the narcissistic contract’:

“I promote you as exalted”, welcome you into my “world of idealisation” and then “bask in the radiant light of the idealised object”.

If you’ve encountered narcissists, you know they often exaggerate others’ achievements so they can bask in their glow. This explains why Trump rolls out the red carpet for Putin. Trump is not interested in the real Putin. He is incurious about him. But he is attached to an idealised image of Putin, soaking up its radiant glow.

Criticism of Putin is therefore not merely a political problem for Trump. He experiences criticism of Putin as an attack on himself, an undermining of the idealised world on which he depends for self-regulation.

Trump’s Manipulability

Trump is easy to manipulate because his false self leaves him without true direction. He is not goal-oriented.

Trump holds very few steady beliefs, most of which he has maintained since the 1980s. Beyond those, his mental life is not organised around beliefs but around fleeting dispositional states which come and go. If something promises to feed his narcissistic hunger, he will pursue it.

The ideal manipulator of a narcissist is a non-narcissistic psychopath - somebody strategic, goal-oriented, and unburdened by a false self.

Unfortunately, Putin fits this description to some extent. Putin may not be a psychopath. But he is a master of sociopathy with pronounced psychopathic traits. His narcissistic tendencies are there, but they do not amount to a personality disorder.

This creates an asymmetrical relationship. Trump uses Putin for emotional self-regulation. Putin uses Trump to achieve real political goals in the world.

Worse still, Trump’s narcissism appears to be amplified by forms of neurodiversity, including traits commonly associated with ADHD. Neurodiversity itself is not the problem - many of the most ethical and capable individuals in history were neurodivergent. The danger lies in the interaction: when narcissistic pathology is combined with ADHD traits, the result can be explosive.

In Trump’s case, this interaction intensifies the liabilities of his narcissism - heightening impulsivity, contrarian reflexes, and an inability to disengage from fixations once they take hold.
Let’s now draw some lessons.

Lesson One

Our culture amplifies narcissism, sociopathy, and even psychotic thinking.

Social media floods us with tragedy, fuelling both sociopathic detachment and a psychology of moral disgust at the ghastliness of the world that makes us want to depart politics.

Post-truth politics weakens our grip on reality and fuels psychotic patterns of thought: when we find reality so unbearable that we destroy the world in our minds in order to bear it. This helps explain the psychological appeal of Trumpism.

In turn, consumerism twists our search for truth into self-obsession, normalising and amplifying narcissism. We shop for the news that matches our identity.

This transforms politics because societies that are sick elevate sick people into positions of power.

Lesson Two

We rarely link personal psychology to large-scale problems.

The psychological professions focus on private life and ignore politics. The professional study of politics largely ignores psychology.

We urgently need more psychological insight into our relationships mediated by the institutions we share.

When our institutions get sick, they corrupt mass psychology, which further corrupts institutions. Left unchecked, this cycle accelerates.

Lesson Three

Many of the daily messages we are exposed to online are psychically destructive.

They leave us feeling unsafe, powerless, and lost - with a fractured sense of reality.

This generates another vicious cycle: destructive communication disinhibits us to produce ever more destructive communication. Segregated mental and factual worlds multiply, in which destructive acts no longer appear destructive at all.

Lesson Four

Don’t vote for narcissists.

They distort reality and use you for their gain.

They act malevolently when it suits them and endanger your country.

It is indeed true that most leaders have narcissistic traits. But most do not have narcissistic personality disorder. This distinction matters politically and should not be used as an excuse to vote for narcissists.

And don’t vote for psychopaths - a warning that will become even more important in the 2030s, as post-truth authoritarian buffoons like Trump give way to colder, more disciplined authoritarians like Orban.

The Ideological Dimension

Everything above concerns psychology. But psychology is not the whole story.

Trumpism and Putinism are two versions of the same global ideology. Both embrace a monarchist, “might is right” worldview, with elements of fascisation. Both approach the world as a market in which everything can be bought, and what can’t be bought, can be taken by force.

I discuss the ideological link between Putinism and Trumpism in a dedicated video, and a video version of the psychological argument in this essay is also available on YouTube.

[Joni Askola @joni_askola]

Elon Musk is the richest man in history, but the one thing he wants, respect, he cannot buy.

He will always be an insecure, dishonest, weird white supremacist who is full of hate, craves attention, and overestimates his intelligence.

People despise him for good reasons

[Daniel @danixx17]

@Kidtoyung Pflanzlicher Block

[Daniel @danixx17]

@vorstadtratte Zwinkern

[Daniel @danixx17]

@Butterbirne1899 @worum_org superagu

[Daniel @danixx17]

Let‘s talk about six baby #stage

[Daniel @danixx17]

@Theholisticpsyc Are you thinking about creating a Bluesky account?

[Daniel @danixx17]

@BeTraumaFree I can relate to everything in this post. Also from a very early age, it‘s the only way I ever knew myself and the world to be. I‘m glad you‘re self-compassionate now and don‘t see yourself as a bad person anymore. You did/feel all that only to survive.

[Daniel @danixx17]

@werderbremen Ja, vorletzte Nacht 😉 https://t.co/HyVZ2os4ww

[Daniel @danixx17]

Ich habe vom Schotten mit dem Bart geträumt.

Heute kann alles passieren.

[Daniel @danixx17]

@unfasseble Tu ich seit 2010/11

[Daniel @danixx17]

Ich habe vom Schotten mit dem Bart geträumt.

Heute kann alles passieren.

[Daniel @danixx17]

@S666HB 🍻

[Daniel @danixx17]

🧔🏻

[Daniel @danixx17]

Ich habe vom Schotten mit dem Bart geträumt.

Heute kann alles passieren.

[Daniel @danixx17]

@TNyco @worum_org Du meinst die Relegation zur 1. Liga

[Daniel @danixx17]

@schuld_eth @PicturesFoIder I have a friend living there. I asked him how it‘s like living in North Korea. He said he can‘t complain.

[Daniel @danixx17]

@schuuulie 🫂

[Daniel @danixx17]

@schuuulie Everything‘s gonna be allrheydt