I am prevented by professional practice standards from commenting on the psychological characteristics of the President:

“Psychologists provide opinions of the psychological characteristics of individuals only after they have conducted an examination of the individuals adequate to support their statements or conclusions. ” (Standard 9.01a; APA ethics code_

I believe this Standard represents an over-broad nullification of my rights of free-speech in political discourse because I possess certain domains of knowledge.

For example, I would be prohibited by this Standard from saying that President Trump is impulsive, since impulsive is a “psychological characteristic.”  I would similarly be unable to say that President Trump has poor judgement, since poor judgement is a “psychological characteristic.”

Since I am prohibited from exercising my free speech rights in political discourse, I am merely going to present information regarding the narcissistic personality and allow the general public to determine whether or not it is applicable.

Aaron Beck is one of the leading figures in mental health.  Here’s what Beck says about the narcissistic personality’s core beliefs:

“The failure to be superior or regarded as special activates underlying beliefs of inferiority, unimportance, or powerlessness and compensatory strategies of self-protection and self-defense.” (Beck et al., 2004, p. 241)

“He or she [the narcissist] remains firmly rooted in the importance of a flawless or powerful image… Without a flawless image, core beliefs of inferiority become activated.” (Beck et al., 2004, p. 246)

“The core belief of narcissistic personality disorder is one of inferiority or unimportance.  This belief is only activated under certain circumstances and thus may be observed mainly in response to conditions of self-esteem threat.  Otherwise, the manifest belief is a compensatory attitude of superiority.” (Beck et al., 2004, p. 249)

“The patient with NPD often has a low tolerance for frustration and expects not only to have wishes easily gratified but also to remain in a steady state of positive reinforcement. Conditional assumptions may include the notions, “If I want something, it is extremely important that I get it,” and “I should feel happy and comfortable at all times,” and “If I’m not happy, no one can be happy,” and “I need to feel special to feel happy.” (Beck et al., 2004, p. 252)

Theodore Millon is one of the leading experts on personality disorder pathology:

“Narcissists are neither disposed to stick to objective facts nor to restrict their actions within the boundaries of social custom or cooperative living… Free to wander in their private world of fiction, narcissists may lose touch with reality, lose their sense of proportion, and begin to think along peculiar and deviant lines.” (Millon, 2011, p. 415; emphasis added)

“Were narcissists able to respect others, allow themselves to value others’ opinions, or see the world through others’ eyes, their tendency toward illusion and unreality might be checked  or curtailed.  Unfortunately, narcissists have learned to devalue others, not to trust their judgments, and to think of them as naïve and simpleminded.  Thus, rather than question the correctness of their own beliefs they assume that the views of others are  at fault.  Hence, the more disagreement they have with others, the more convinced they are of their own superiority and the more isolated and alienated they are likely to become.  These ideational difficulties are magnified further by their inability to participate skillfully in the give-and-take of shared social life… They are increasingly unable to assess situations objectively, thereby failing further to grasp why they have been rebuffed and misunderstood.  Distressed by these repeatedly and perplexing social failures, they’re likely, at first, to become depressed and morose.  However, true to their fashion, they will begin to elaborate new and fantastic rationales to account for their fate.  But the more they conjecture and ruminate, the more they lose touch, distort, and perceive things that are not there.  They may begin to be suspicious of others, to question their intentions, and to criticize them for ostensive deceptions…” (Millon, 2011, p. 415; emphasis added)

“Deficient in social controls and self-discipline, the tendency of CEN [confident-ego-narcissist] narcissists to fantasize and distort may speed up.  The air of grandiosity may become more flagrant.  They may find hidden and deprecatory meanings in the incidental behavior of others, becoming convinced of others malicious motives, claims upon them, and attempts to undo them.  As their behaviors and thoughts transgress the line of reality, their alienation will mount, and they may seek to protect their phantom image of superiority more vigorously and vigilantly than ever.  Trapped by the consequences of their own actions, they may become bewildered and frightened as the downward spiral progresses through its inexorable course. No longer in touch with reality, they begin to accuse others and hold them responsible for their own shame and failures.  They may build a “logic” based on the irrelevant and entirely circumstantial evidence and ultimately construct a delusion system to protect themselves from unbearable reality. (Millon, 2011, 415; emphasis added)

“Under conditions of unrelieved adversity and failure, narcissists may decompensate into paranoid disorders.  Owing to their excessive use of fantasy mechanisms, they are disposed to misinterpret events and to construct delusional beliefs.  Unwilling to accept constraints on their independence and unable to accept the viewpoints of others, narcissists may isolate themselves from the corrective effects of shared thinking.  Alone, they may ruminate and weave their beliefs into a network of fanciful and totally invalid suspicions.  Among narcissists, delusions often take form after a serious challenge or setback has upset their image of superiority and omnipotence.  They tend to exhibit compensatory grandiosity and jealousy delusions in which they reconstruct reality to match the image they are unable or unwilling to give up.  Delusional systems may also develop as a result of having felt betrayed and humiliated.  Here we may see the rapid unfolding of persecutory delusions and an arrogant grandiosity characterized by verbal attacks and bombast.  Rarely physically abusive, anger among narcissists usually takes the form of oral vituperation and argumentativeness.  This may be seen in a flow of irrational and caustic comments in which others are upbraided and denounced as stupid and beneath contempt.  These onslaughts usually have little objective justification, are often colored by delusions, and may be directed in a wild, hit-or-miss fashion in which the narcissist lashes out at those who have failed to acknowledge the exalted status in which he or she demands to be seen.” (Millon, 2011, p. 407-408; emphasis added)

This is not going to end well.

Craig Childress, Psy.D.
Clinical Psychologist

Beck, A.T., Freeman, A., Davis, D.D., & Associates (2004). Cognitive therapy of personality disorders. (2nd edition). New York: Guilford.

Millon. T. (2011). Disorders of personality: introducing a DSM/ICD spectrum from normal to abnormal. Hoboken: Wiley.