![]() Expert on the psychology of Donald Trump and his supporters says their behavior can be explained by a “narcissistic symbiosis” and “shared psychosis.” Tayfun Coskun Getty Imagesĭo you think Trump is truly exhibiting delusional or psychotic behavior? Or is he simply behaving like an autocrat making a bald-faced attempt to hold onto his power? Violence helps compensate for feelings of powerlessness, inadequacy and lack of real productivity. ![]() Trump is now living through an intolerable loss of respect: rejection by a nation in his election defeat. And when respect is unavailable, one resorts to fear. Briefly, if one cannot have love, one resorts to respect. In my textbook on violence, I emphasize the symbolic nature of violence and how it is a life impulse gone awry. When mental pathology is accompanied by criminal-mindedness, however, the combination can make individuals far more dangerous than either alone. First, I wish to clarify that those with mental illness are, as a group, no more dangerous than those without mental illness. Why does Trump himself seem to gravitate toward violence and destruction?ĭestructiveness is a core characteristic of mental pathology, whether directed toward the self or others. When a highly symptomatic individual is placed in an influential position, the person’s symptoms can spread through the population through emotional bonds, heightening existing pathologies and inducing delusions, paranoia and propensity for violence-even in previously healthy individuals. “ Shared psychosis”-which is also called “ folie à millions” when occurring at the national level or “induced delusions”-refers to the infectiousness of severe symptoms that goes beyond ordinary group psychology. When such wounded individuals are given positions of power, they arouse similar pathology in the population that creates a “lock and key” relationship. The leader, hungry for adulation to compensate for an inner lack of self-worth, projects grandiose omnipotence-while the followers, rendered needy by societal stress or developmental injury, yearn for a parental figure. Narcissistic symbiosis refers to the developmental wounds that make the leader-follower relationship magnetically attractive. The reasons are multiple and varied, but in my recent public-service book, Profile of a Nation, I have outlined two major emotional drives: narcissistic symbiosis and shared psychosis. What attracts people to Trump? What is their animus or driving force? Scientific American asked Lee to comment on the psychology behind Trump’s destructive behavior, what drives some of his followers-and how to free people from his grip when this damaging presidency ends. On January 9 Lee and her colleagues at the World Mental Health Coalition put out a statement calling for Trump’s immediate removal from office. These insights are now taking on renewed importance as a growing number of current and former leaders call for Trump to be impeached. Lee recently wrote Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul, a psychological assessment of the president against the backdrop of his supporters and the country as a whole. “This declaration was created in response to the experience of Nazism.” “Whenever the Goldwater rule is mentioned, we should refer back to the Declaration of Geneva, which mandates that physicians speak up against destructive governments,” Lee says. In doing so, Lee and her colleagues strongly rejected the American Psychiatric Association’s modification of a 1970s-era guideline, known as the Goldwater rule, that discouraged psychiatrists from giving a professional opinion about public figures who they have not examined in person. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and president of the World Mental Health Coalition.* Lee led a group of psychiatrists, psychologists and other specialists who questioned Trump’s mental fitness for office in a book that she edited called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. Yet the rioters’ actions-and Trump’s own role in, and response to, them-come as little surprise to many, particularly those who have been studying the president’s mental fitness and the psychology of his most ardent followers since he took office. Capitol Building last week, incited by President Donald Trump, serves as the grimmest moment in one of the darkest chapters in the nation’s history.
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