What Happened When I Looked Up Personality Disorders - Or Obama is a Narcissist

While performing research on my latest paper concerning motivations for defectors, I decided to look into very basic (believe me, I’m no psychology expert!) possible psychological explanations for why people defect.  That’s when I came across the Wikipedia entry for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  OK, OK, yes, I know, you can’t quote Wikipedia.  Oh well, this isn’t an academic article… and at least this has citations from the Diagnostic Manual.

So, I read it and just couldn’t believe the parallels between the actions and emotions of a person suffering from this disorder and our current president.  Congratulations America!  You elected someone with a (I think, clearly diagnosable) mental disorder.  I’m calling for an intervention.

“People who are overly narcissistic commonly feel rejected, humiliated and threatened when criticized. To protect themselves from these dangers, they often react with disdain, rage, and/or defiance to any slight criticism, real or imagined.  Though individuals with NPD are often ambitious and capable, the inability to tolerate setbacks, disagreements or criticism, along with lack of empathy, make it difficult for such individuals to work cooperatively with others or to maintain long-term professional achievements.  With narcissistic personality disorder, the person's perceived fantastic grandiosity, often coupled with a hypomanic mood, is typically not commensurate with his or her real accomplishments.”

Wow!  Where do you begin???  The way Obama responds to criticism reflects this perfectly.  And how about the bit about long-term achievements?!?!?!  Fantastic grandiosity?  This is too much!

Obama displays all of these characteristics, but how did he get that way?  (my comments in red)

• “An oversensitive temperament at birth is the main symptomatic chronic form
• Overindulgence and overvaluation by parents
• Valued by parents as a means to regulate their own self-esteem (Now that’s a product of the liberal 60s!)
• Excessive admiration that is never balanced with realistic feedback (Too bad we can’t look into his grades and university work… I wonder why?)
• Unpredictable or unreliable care-giving from parents (Thanks Barry Sr.!!!)
• Severe emotional abuse in childhood (Having your real dad abandon you, being raised by another dude in Indonesia, and then by your grandparents… nahhh… no emotional abuse there!)
• Being praised for perceived exceptional looks or talents by adults (no comment necessary – reference Chris Matthews, David Brooks, et al)
• Excessive praise for good behaviors or excessive criticism for poor behaviors in childhood”

So.  I wonder what a real psychologist would say if he/she had to do an honest evaluation on his Messiahship (peace be upon him)?  Anyone want to venture a guess?

But, remember, we conservatives lost the Senate because we did not vet our candidates.  Now excuse me while I clean up the coffee I just spit all over my keyboard.

In case you are interested here’s the wiki link.