Posted on 09/27/2006 4:13:28 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
A funny thing happened on the way to the midterm elections: everybody started talking about Bill Clinton. Television networks, newspapers, present and former DNC chairmen, Speaker of the House wannabes, left-wing shills, you name it. For almost a solid month, the former president filled the airwaves like a new strain of influenza in the dead of winter.
What haven’t the Democrats and their media minions been talking about since summer ended? Surprisingly, the only issue that can lead them to victory six weeks from now – Iraq.
Doesn’t seem like a very wise campaign strategy, does it?
It’s My Party, I Can Lie if I Want To
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
President Bush's critics can carp with the best whiners, but what they cannot do is present an alternative that's credible. For that matter, they just don't offer any alternative.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Clinton, Shame and Narcissism: Destroying the Eyes of the World
Clinton’s pathetic performance with Chris Wallace this weekend was a wonderfully revealing moment. While the purpose of his humiliated fury was to try to destroy the eyes of the world, for those of us with eyes that survived the attack, it simply cemented the perception of him as a world class pathological narcissist. For those of you who don’t have the benefit of a Ph.D. in psychoanalysis, allow your old Gagdad to break it all down for you. I knew that piece of paper would come in handy some day.
The narcissistic personality has several core problems, all involving dysregulation of one sort or another. First, they are subject to wide mood swings, the reason being that their mood regulation is not internalized but is dependent upon external circumstances. Circumstances good, mood good. But if circumstances turn bad, than their mood will become poopy very quickly, as is true of my 17 month old. In his case, it is entirely developmentally appropriate. However, it’s a little frightening imagining him carrying around the nuclear football when he hasn't gotten his way.
The adult narcissist has a specific difficulty auto-regulating shame, the “keystone” affect of their disorder. It is unconscious and therefore unrecognized, or only dimly so. Narcissists are quite brittle, the reason being that they attempt to bypass their shame by erecting a facade of grandiosity. But when the grandiosity is poked or prodded, the narcissist will bristle. He might well accuse you of having a “little smirk” on your face or being part of a right-wing conspiracy after making some innocent comment that threatens their grandiosity, as Chris Wallace discovered on Sunday.
Narcissism is not a monolithic condition, but is actually situated along a spectrum from mild to severe. However, the most severe narcissists can often appear to be the most outwardly accomplished. One of the reasons for this is that the more severe the narcissism, the more driven they are to accomplish something in accordance with their grandiosity.
(As an aside, this is why it is generally a mistake to elect someone president who desperately wishes to be president, such as LBJ, Nixon, Al Gore, Clinton. Our better presidents could take it or leave it, because they already had satisfying lives and were capable of generating meaning from within--Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush.)
There are two main classes of narcissism, an egotistical, Clintonian type, and a dissociative type. See if this does not ring a bell: the egotistical (also described as the “oblivious”) type is self-absorbed, arrogant, unabashedly self-aggrandizing, attention demanding, and seemingly shameless.
But underneath the smooth and competent facade, these individuals show a preponderance of shame over guilt, the latter of which is much more healthy. For example, in response to Wallace’s question about Clinton's well known failures to take terrorism seriously, a non-narcissist would simply have said, “hey, my bad. I was like everybody else. Before 9-11, I didn’t take al Qaeda seriously, and I’m really sorry about that now. Let's just be thankful my successor is nothing like me.”
But for a narcissist, this kind of guilt instantly descends into shame, which cannot be tolerated. The EJECT SHAME NOW button has been pushed--therefore, the finger in the face and the shrill accusations of unfairness and right wing conspiracies. We saw the same desperate pattern a few weeks ago with the 9-11 movie. We will continue to see it as long as Clinton takes breath, or until he finally realizes that he doesn't have a legacy to stand on.
As another aside, does this not demonstrate the systematic bias of the left wing MSMistry of Truth? Bush and Rumsfeld and Rice have to deal with these kinds of questions from the press constantly, but when liberals interview Clinton, it’s like a warm bath. He relies upon the liberal media to mirror his grandiosity, and they do a fine job of it. He simply does not know how to deal with tough questioning, both because he’s never had to and because he falls apart unless he has a ready lie at his disposal to ward off both the questioner, and more importantly, his shame.
The narcissistic personality is known to experience rage in reaction to a narcissistic injury--or even the threat of an injury. Clinton, of course, is famous for his infantile “purple fits” of shame-rage, which are not to be confused with manly aggression or assertiveness. Rather, it is the weak man’s imitation of a strong man. It is the same weakness and vanity that caused Clinton to govern by poll rather than principle (and to govern his private life by pole rather than principle).
Speaking of which, awhile back, Ann Coulter took some heat for suggesting that Clinton was not our first black president but our first gay president. This comment is very easy to misunderstand, but there is no reason for homosexuals to be offended by it. Most insightful homosexuals are aware of the fact that there is a substantial segment of male homosexuals who unconsciously feel an absence of masculine power, so they engage in compulsive sexual activity in order to try to appropriate and internalize the masculinity of the anonymous partner.
Naturally the compulsion doesn’t work, which is why it must be acted out again and again. Clinton’s well-chronicled sexual compulsion and subsequent inability to separate crotch and state must be understood in this light, as a blind attempt to gain the spurious sense of masculinity that he lacks. Apparently it hasn't succeeded yet (hey, here's a free tip--next time don't marry a castrating phallic mother. That goes for all my readers).
While on the topic of sexually confused narcissists and their mothers, the history of the egotistical type narcissist will not infrequently involve a seductive type of “wooing” mothering that resembles love, but actually stems from the mother’s own emotional needs. According to Allen Schore, “this type of ‘psychotoxic’ maternal care is the diametrical opposite of emotional deprivation, namely a surfeit, an overdose of affective stimulation,” which is generally more aversive and harmful than understimulation.
Another analyst notes that these individuals are often reared “by ‘adoring,’ doting, narcissistically disturbed parents who have objectified the child and through their adoring gaze have projected onto the child aspects of their own idealized self; these parents have not only failed to find adequate support for the child’s true sense of self but have also failed to provide enough realistic positive and negative evaluation to support some degree of tension between the actual and the idealized self.” Such parenting may outwardly look like a generous gift, but as they say, “yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia.”
*All quotes taken from Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development.
posted by Gagdad Bob at 7:59 AM 49 comments links to this post
from www.http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/
I've been thinking about the Clinton performance and the fact that Newt Gingrich thinks that it was staged. I was wondering what would be the purpose of staging something like that. Then I heard some on the left complaining that Clinton was distracting from the leaked NSA report that should have monopolized the news coverage. I had to wonder if this was the purpose, to distract from the NSA report, because Clinton realized that the report was damning to the Democrat cut and run strategy.
Quite a day for the self-absorbed and narcissistic. First T. O. and still Clinton and Pelosi -- Where has Chuck Schumer been hiding??
If that is "Razzle Dazzle" I'll pass, thank you. More like Fizzle Pizzle....
Here's Hillary's problem. If, as the NYT now reports, the Dems win at least one or both houses of Congress, there is NO WAY the country will elect ANY Democrat President in 2008. She knows it, Billy knows it, they ARE only thinking of themselves in an effort to sabotage this year to set up a better chance for her in 2008.
And, I really don't think this helps Hillary, although they tried their damnedest to spin it. Hillary in the White House means Bill in the White House and when everything becomes about him, people just won't put up with it.
Oh, foo! John and Jacqueline Kennedy were not "John and Jacqueline Kennedy", either. Their "Camelot" mystique was a total fabrication.
Who cares about Bill Clinton? Or his wife, for that matter?
"Their "Camelot" mystique was a total fabrication."
Being one old enough to remember, I remember being impressed with how carefully the myth was being created. I don't recall John Kennedy being particularly popular or noteworthy until after his assassination.
There is something mentally wrong with Bill Clinton. He acts like he needs Anger Management. This guy is emotionally unstable. His eyes are ready to pop out of his head when he gets mad. This guy is prime target for another heart attack!
Other Freepers have commented on how bad things happen to those who get too close to the Clintons. For example, Vince Foster, Ron Brown and Jim McDougal are dead because of it, and Al Gore has gone insane. Would you agree that the same bad luck is now happening to the whole Democratic Party?
My rock-ribbed Republican Dad was disgusted by some of the propaganda I spouted when I came home from school. Luckily, by 1968, the first year I was old enough to vote, I'd graduated and gone to work and proudly voted for Nixon.
Being in the real world among real adults all day was very educational. I've been a conservative ever since, except for one brief bit of insanity in the early '70s when I had a crush on a then-young and (for younger Freepers, I know hard to believe) handsome Dan Rather ;-)
ping
I believe Gingrich got it just about right. When Clinton came to the set he was spoiling for a fight. It didn't matter what the question would be, he planned a reaction. He has done this many times. He can get into character like turning on a light switch. And so he did. He feigned rightous indignation and supported with his delusional 'facts' which you and I know were lies, out and out. He persisted in this character role playing until he got off of the set. One of his employees got in his way and he unloaded on him.
I believe this was a message to all democrats to go on the offensive and be offensive to conservatives.
Problem is, now, every sentence he said is having a postmortum performed on it and we know, and can prove in writing or video, that almost every notion he uttered was a lie. Where is Lanny Davis? Where are the political leaders who are standing shoulder to shoulder with Bill? Hillary....what is she to say.....she still is standing by her man, like little Tammy Wynette, even if she says she is not. The Clintons are out of power now and they cannot pull near the strings they could when they occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The sycophants that are carrying their water are willful Clinton agents, but they must be embarrassed by the lies which they cannot possibly defend. Remember Peter Jennings?....."Peter, you don't want to go there. You don't want to go there." Then proceeded to blame Jennings and ABC....ABC for supporting everything Ken Starr said. He actually stated the MSM was carrying water for conservatives. That is brass. It was, of course, not true, but the truth has never been an impediment to Clinton telling lies.
Woe unto this nation if these two creatures are put back into the White House. It will be a national nightmare which may take 8 years to wake up from.
Well, to be due to luck would imply a gamble, but I'm pretty sure gambling sort of presupposes informed consent, and that requires some kind of intellectual process, so, hmm, no. ;') ;') ;')
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