Dr. Sam Vaknin, the author of the "Malignant Self Love" believes "Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist." Vaknin is a world authority on narcissism. He understands narcissism and describes the inner mind of a narcissist like no other person. When he talks about narcissism everyone listens. Vaknin says that Obama's language, posture and demeanor, and the testimonies of his closest, dearest and nearest suggest that the Senator is either a narcissist or he may have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Narcissists project a grandiose but false image of themselves.
Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of 'People's Temple', the man who led over 900 of his followers to cheerfully commit mass suicide and even murder their own children was also a narcissist. David Koresh, Charles Manson, Joseph Koni, Shoko Asahara, Stalin, Saddam, Mao,Kim Jong Ill and Adolph Hitler are a few examples of narcissists of our time. All these men had a tremendous influence over their fanciers. They created a personality cult around themselves and with their blazing speeches elevated their admirers, filled their hearts with enthusiasm and instilled in their minds a new zest for life. They gave them hope! They promised them the moon, but alas, invariably they brought them to their doom.
When you are a victim of a cult of personality, you don't know it until it is too late. One determining factor in the development of NPD is childhood abuse. His parents went through a divorce when he was an infant (two years old). Obama saw his father only once again, before he died in a car accident. Then his mother re-married and Obama had to relocate to Indonesia , a foreign land with a radically foreign culture, to be raised by a step-father. At the age of ten, he was whisked off to live with his maternal(white) grandparents. He saw his mother only intermittently in the following few years and then she vanished from his life in 1979. She died of cancer in 1995.
One must never underestimate the manipulative genius of pathological narcissists. They project such an imposing personality that it overwhelms those around them. Charmed by the charisma of the narcissist, people become like clay in his hands. They cheerfully do his bidding and delight to be at his service. The narcissist shapes the world around himself and reduces others in his own inverted image. He creates a cult of personality.
His admirers become his co-dependents Narcissists have no interest in things that do not help them to reach their personal objective. They are focused on one thing alone and that is power. All other issues are meaningless to them and they do not want to waste their precious time on trivialities. Anything that does not help them is beneath them and do not deserve their attention.
If an issue raised in the Senate does not help Obama in one way or another, he has no interest in it. The "present" vote is a safe vote. No one can criticize him if things go wrong. Those issues are unworthy by their very nature because they are not about him. Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a contract and advance to write a book about race relations.
The University of Chicago Law School provided him a lot longer than expected and at the end it evolved into, guess what? His own autobiography! Instead of writing a scholarly paper focusing on race relations, for which he had been paid, Obama could not resist writing about his most sublime self. He entitled the book "Dreams from My Father". Not surprisingly, Adolph Hitler also wrote his own autobiography when he was still nobody. So did Stalin.
For a narcissist no subject is as important as his own self. Why would he waste his precious time and genius writing about insignificant things when he can write about such an august being as himself? Narcissists are often callous and even ruthless as the norm, they lack conscience. This is evident from Obama's lack of interest in his own brother who lives on only one dollar per month.
A man who lives in luxury, who takes a private jet to vacation in Hawaii, and who has raised nearly half a billion dollars for his campaign (something unprecedented in history) has no interest in the plight of his own brother. Why? Because, his brother cannot be used for his ascent to power.
A narcissist cares for no one but himself. This election is like no other in the history of America . The issues are insignificant compared to what is at stake. What can be more dangerous than having a man bereft of conscience, a serial liar, and one who cannot distinguish his fantasies from reality as the leader of the free world? I hate to sound alarmist, but one is a fool if one is not alarmed. Many politicians are narcissists. They pose no threat to others...They are simply self serving and selfish.
Obama evidences symptoms of pathological narcissism, which is different from the run-of-the-mill narcissism of a Richard Nixon or a Bill Clinton for example. To him reality and fantasy are intertwined. This is a mental health issue, not just a character flaw. Pathological narcissists are dangerous because they look normal and even intelligent.
It is this disguise that makes them treacherous.
Today the Democrats have placed all their hopes in Obama. But this man could put an end to their party.
10 comments:
My lovely Mrs OR said; the first time she espied his Mrs, dangerous people!
World War 3 here we come...
HER especially, OR, I wouldn't like to cross her, or meet her in a dark alley!
That may not be too far from the truth, Rab.
I always sensed he had a grandiose personality disorder! I'm happy that a well respected expert on mental disorders agrees with me!
He is a dangerous indiv. who exhibits all the symptoms and then some from the DSM book!
Excellent post Spidey, and Opie too!
Now I really need a beer...hee hee.
PS: the wifey is just as bad or worse!
The Wifey is truly horrendous - only marginally better than Cherie Blair but a helluva sight tougher! I don't know if you saw my comment over at Opie's but this sums him up for me.
Have one for me while you're out tonight!
So was the archetype,amongst many other psychological traits, Tony Blair.
@GBBG: It IS a perfect description of Blair and I meant to mention it at the start of this post having already said so on a comment over at Opus #6's blog. Well spotted!
Be careful when reading Sam Vaknin (he doesn't have a doctorate in anything psychological btw). Although I think he's an analytic tour-de force, and can write at great length and in phenomenal detail about narcissism, much of his stuff comes across as self-indulgent and doesn't really go anywhere. I feel he sees everything and everyone as narcissistic. The fact is, is that we all have narcissistic traits. You could probably argue that your personality or your 'false self' is narcissistic per se. That said, I'd happily have a beer with Dr Sam V.
:)
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<p>Point taken, ICD, :) , I appreciate what you're saying, although, having endured Tony B. Liar's self-delusion for ten years, I would say Dr. Sam is spot on with this particular assessment.<span> </span> ;)
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