The Potential Consequences of the Malignant Narcissism Alleged by Psychotherapist Dr. John Gartner

[DDySiegs]

On January 27, U S News and World Report published an article, entitled “Temperament Tantrum” in which it is reported that practicing psychotherapist Dr. John Gartner, “who taught psychiatric residents at Johns Hopkins University Medical School” asserts that

"Donald Trump is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president." Trump, Gartner says, “has ‘malignant narcissism,’ which is different from narcissistic personality disorder and which is incurable.”

Moreover, Dr. Gartner initiated a petition directed to senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, which purports to be for signature by mental health professionals and currently has over 19,000 supporters. This petition states that Trump “manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of” the presidency and calls for his removal from office under the 25th amendment to the constitution.

In light of the foregoing, consider this history: In chapter 29 of his memoirs (entitled “Inside the Third Reich”) Albert Speer, Nazi Germany’s Minister of Armaments and War Production, recounts that in March of 1945 – shortly before the final defeat of the Third Reich – he was tasked by Hitler to carry out what has since become known as the Nero Decree, which essentially called for the demolition of all remaining infrastructure in Nazi Germany. Speer resisted and pleaded with Hitler to withdraw this hellish order, which, in Speer’s view, would have condemned much of the German civilian population to death. According to Speer, Hitler rejected the plea as follows:

“If the war is lost, the people will be lost also. It is not necessary to worry about what the German people will need for elemental survival. On the contrary, it is best for us to destroy even these things. For the nation, has proved to be the weaker, and the future belongs solely to the stronger eastern nation. In any case, only those who are inferior will remain after this struggle, for the good have already been killed.”

I suggest that one conclusion which can be reached from this is that in his exceptionally, indeed superlatively, narcissistic mind, Hitler had reached the point where he could not abide the idea that the German nation and the German people might survive him. In that mind set he might well have felt that his place in history could not be allowed to be reduced in its scope by the separation from his identity of the German state and its people. If he was to die the German people and nation had to die too, since for him they were nothing but an extension of his “glorious” and “all encompassing” ego. This, I suggest, was for him the ultimate expression of his extreme narcissism.

Now we see Trump, whom Dr. Gartner, a psychiatrist with seemingly excellent credentials, is labelling a “malignant narcissist”, taking over control of the most powerful nation on earth and of the world's most awesome nuclear weaponry. If the doctor’s assessment is correct, one has to ask what might be the ultimate expression of Trump’s mind set -- especially if he comes to the perception that things are going badly against him????

http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2017-01-27/does-donald-trumps-personality-make-him-dangerous

https://www.change.org/p/trump-is-mentally-ill-and-must-be-removed

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Decree

[manicraven]

1. Very interesting and chilling comparison!

Still wondering if tRump won't be removed from office in the next few months as the GOP gets tired of his over-the-top antics, protest marches and rallies, his declining poll numbers, disgruntled world leaders, flat out embarrassing behaviors and Twitter tantrums, etc. Maybe, if we're lucky, he won't be in office too long and do as much damage as he has the potential to cause. Otherwise, we have to hope we have enough checks and balances in place, such as the judge in Seattle.