Malignant Narcissism, according to John D. Gartner, one of the country?s top psychologists, is basically a combination of three mental illnesses ? Anti-social Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder ? plus sadism, or the enjoyment of inflicting pain.
?The concept was developed by a famed psychologist named Erich Fromm, who escaped Nazi Germany, as a way to describe evil,? Gartner says. ?He used it to describe Hitler.?
That?s pretty scary. And unfortunately, the assertion that Trump has it is not something that can be chalked up to politics.
?Even though I disagree with everything he stands for, I would be immensely relieved to have a president Pence. He?s conservative; he?s not crazy,? Gartner told me. Paul Ryan? He?d be great, too.
?Martin Luther King famously said the arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. If we hit a traffic jam on the way to social progress, we?ll still get there,? Gartner said. ?But if we?re all dead from a nuclear war, we won?t.?
Which is exactly what someone with Malignant Narcissism might start.
Gartner, who taught personality disorders at Johns Hopkins University for 28 years and explained Bill Clinton?s mental issues in the book In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography, says Trump?s illness might be called ?Dictator Personality Disorder.? Malignant Narcissism often coincides with mild mania ? the ability to consistently stay up all night obsessing on a project ? which helps sufferers achieve high career status despite their cruel tendencies. Trump exhibits this, too.
?I?ve been a specialist in personality disorders for 35 years,? Gartner says. ?Trump is the most severe case I?ve seen in my career.?
The DSM is clear about what constitutes the three personality disorders that add up to Malignant Narcissism. Here they are broken down:
Now let?s take a look at Donald Trump?s behavior ? from the public record ? against the criteria:
Sadism
Trump has been a bully since he was a child. We?ve already gone over some of his well-documented history of relishing humiliating people and groups weaker than himself. This is classic sadism.
The court deposition by Trump?s ex-wife, recounted in Harry Hurt?s biography Lost Tycoon, paints a disturbing picture of a sadistic episode where Trump pulls his wife?s hair out and violates her to make himself feel better after a painful surgery:
Manipulation
Many politicians could be categorized as manipulative. Trump is not a typical politician, but he literally wrote books on manipulation. His history and tactics of manipulation ? from his followers to opponents to the media ? are well-documented.
Use of projection
When Trump defends accusations of racism by calling someone else a racist, that?s psychological projection. He does this sort of thing all the time. One of the most surprising moments of Trump?s presidential debates with Hillary Clinton was the time she accused him of being a Russian puppet, and he automatically projected the accusation ? with nothing close to evidence ? directly back on her:
Here?s Donald Trump?s scorecard for Malignant Narcissism:
There is no question. Donald Trump suffers from Malignant Narcissism.
No other president has come close to this disorder. Manipulation is a common trait among politicians. It?s part of the definition of politics. Bill Clinton could be deceitful. George W. Bush showed some reckless tendencies (DUIs, etc.). Barack Obama could be private and a touch arrogant. But none of them remotely qualify as mentally ill.
Trump, on the other hand, over-qualifies. Says Dr. Gartner,
?If I wanted to take out the DSM and say, ?I want to create a Frankenstein monster ? I want to create the most dangerous leader that could possibly be imagined ? and I had a free hand to mix and match any set of diagnoses and symptoms, I couldn?t improve on Donald Trump.?
So what now?
We need President Trump to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. If he refuses to do so, that?s bad news. Refusal itself could be validation of his personality disorder. People with personality disorders generally won?t consider that they might not be all right, whereas mentally healthy people will generally want to know if they have a problem.
And if Trump can be persuaded to sit down for an objective psychiatric evaluation?not from a doctor under his employ?there?s a high probability that he will be diagnosed with the mental illnesses we?ve discussed. Which will mean that he is not healthy enough to be president.
The 25th Amendment of the Constitution says that the vice president and a majority of the president?s cabinet can vote to remove the president for being ?unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.? This was put into place after Kennedy was shot, in case a president becomes too ill, injured, or mentally unwell to perform.
Removing Trump would be tough because his cabinet is made of people who he?s chosen himself. There?s no restraining hand to stop him.
However, if the cabinet did decide to listen to the psychiatric community and remove Trump, someone with Malignant Narcissism like him would likely not go quietly. With his back to the wall, there?s no way to predict what a sadistic, antisocial, paranoid narcissist in command of special forces, a Twitter army, and nuclear codes will do.
But the danger of not removing him is very clear. ?We?ve had presidents with psychological disorders,? Gartner points out. Lincoln had depression, after all. ?But this is unique. We?re not just talking about mental illness, we?re talking about the worst possible mental illness.?
Shane Snow is a journalist, speaker, and entrepreneur in New York City.
If you liked this one, check out my recent post on fixing the health care system: Trickle-Down Health Care.