Barack Obama - Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?

[SavageOrangeJug]

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 8/13/2008

Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist. Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician can determine whether someone suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and this, following lengthy tests and personal interviews. But, in the absence of access to Barack Obama, one has to rely on his overt performance and on testimonies by his closest, nearest and dearest.

Narcissistic leaders are nefarious and their effects pernicious. They are subtle, refined, socially-adept, manipulative, possessed of thespian skills, and convincing. Both types equally lack empathy and are ruthless and relentless or driven.

Perhaps it is time to require each candidate to high office in the USA to submit to a rigorous physical and mental checkup with the results made public.

I. Upbringing and Childhood

Obama's early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocations. Mixed-race marriages were even less common then. 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.

Pathological narcissism is a reaction to prolonged abuse and trauma in early childhood or early adolescence. The source of the abuse or trauma is immaterial: the perpetrators could be dysfunctional or absent parents, teachers, other adults, or peers.

II. Behavior Patterns

The narcissist:

* Feels grandiose and self-important (e.g., exaggerates accomplishments, talents, skills, contacts, and personality traits to the point of lying, demands to be recognised as superior without commensurate achievements);

* Is obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance (the cerebral narcissist), bodily beauty or sexual performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal, everlasting, all-conquering love or passion;

* Firmly convinced that he or she is unique and, being special, can only be understood by, should only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or high-status people (or institutions);

* Requires excessive admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation – or, failing that, wishes to be feared and to be notorious (Narcissistic Supply);

* Feels entitled. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or her unreasonable expectations for special and favourable priority treatment;

* Is "interpersonally exploitative", i.e., uses others to achieve his or her own ends;

* Devoid of empathy. Is unable or unwilling to identify with, acknowledge, or accept the feelings, needs, preferences, priorities, and choices of others;

* Constantly envious of others and seeks to hurt or destroy the objects of his or her frustration. Suffers from persecutory (paranoid) delusions as he or she believes that they feel the same about him or her and are likely to act similarly;

* Behaves arrogantly and haughtily. Feels superior, omnipotent, omniscient, invincible, immune, "above the law", and omnipresent (magical thinking). Rages when frustrated, contradicted, or confronted by people he or she considers inferior to him or her and unworthy.

Narcissism is a defense mechanism whose role is to deflect hurt and trauma from the victim's "True Self" into a "False Self" which is omnipotent, invulnerable, and omniscient. This False Self is then used by the narcissist to garner narcissistic supply from his human environment. Narcissistic supply is any form of attention, both positive and negative and it is instrumental in the regulation of the narcissist's labile sense of self-worth.

Perhaps the most immediately evident trait of patients with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is their vulnerability to criticism and disagreement. Subject to negative input, real or imagined, even to a mild rebuke, a constructive suggestion, or an offer to help, they feel injured, humiliated and empty and they react with disdain (devaluation), rage, and defiance.

The rest of the article linked below.

SOURCE: Global Politician - Barack Obama - Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?

 

[TreeGreen]

Studies also show that the majority of politicians tend to be narcissistic because they gravitate to the power feeling of leadership positions. In other news, "Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician..." which this man is not qualified to be looking at his curriculum vitae, his "PhD in the Philosophy of Physics," and his lack of peer reviewed articles in psychology (grand total of 0). (http://samvak.tripod.com/cv.html#Education).

 

[defaultusername]

"There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president." -Kurt Vonnegut

 

[MG1968]

Studies also show that the majority of politicians tend to be narcissistic because they gravitate to the power feeling of leadership positions. In other news, "Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician..." which this man is not qualified to be looking at his curriculum vitae, his "PhD in the Philosophy of Physics," and his lack of peer reviewed articles in psychology (grand total of 0). (Shmuel (Sam) Vaknin - Curriculum Vitae (Biography)).

check out the section detailing his publications. His book Malignant Self Love appears to have been properly vetted by various peers.

US Citizenship aside, Mr. Vaknin is more qualified to be President than Obama ever thought of being.

 

[TreeGreen]

I see a lot of opinion reviews from independent readers, but nothing from standard psychology journals or people who are actually practicing and certified psychologists. My main issue is he is presenting himself as an expert while he has no history of academic writing, which is important because he is advertising the purchase of his book, writing blog like articles, and offering opinions on a website that "reviewed him." I'm not saying the guy is wrong, but the source is just dubious.

 

[SavageOrangeJug]

I see a lot of opinion reviews from independent readers, but nothing from standard psychology journals or people who are actually practicing and certified psychologists. My main issue is he is presenting himself as an expert while he has no history of academic writing, which is important because he is advertising the purchase of his book, writing blog like articles, and offering opinions on a website that "reviewed him." I'm not saying the guy is wrong, but the source is just dubious.

He addresses that issue in the first paragraph.

Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician can determine whether someone suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and this, following lengthy tests and personal interviews. But, in the absence of access to Barack Obama, one has to rely on his overt performance and on testimonies by his closest, nearest and dearest.

 

[WA_Vol]

Wouldn't you actually need to have met Obama and worked with him over a period of time, to have the knowledge to make a conclusion like this? Seems overtly biased.

 

[GAVol]

Isn't a large ego sort of a given for people who think they should be qualified to be the leader of the free world?

 

[MG1968]

Wouldn't you actually need to have met Obama and worked with him over a period of time, to have the knowledge to make a conclusion like this? Seems overtly biased.

sort of like how people who didn't know Sarah Palin were certain she was bubble headed bimbo from Alaska?

 

[SavageOrangeJug]

I think Dr. Vaknin's question has been resoundingly answered in the affirmative.