Pcsychologist Sam Vaknin on Obama's Narcissism

Dr. Sam Gipp's Web Site ^ | August 2009 | Sam Gipp, Th.D.

[John Leland 1789]

Dr. Sam Vaknin is an Israeli psychologist. He has written extensively about narcissism. Dr. Vaknin states "I must confess I was impressed by Sen. Barack Obama from the first time I saw him. At first I was excited to see a black candidate. He looked youthful, spoke well, appeared to be confident - a wholesome presidential package. I was put off soon, not just because of his shallowness but also because there was an air of haughtiness in his demeanor that was unsettling. His posture and his body language were louder than his empty words. Obama's speeches are unlike any political speech we have heard in American history. Never a politician in this land had such quasi "religious" impact on so many people. The fact that Obama is a total incognito with zero accomplishment, makes this inexplicable infatuation alarming. Obama is not an ordinary man. He is not a genius. In fact he is quite ignorant on most important subjects." Barack Obama is a narcissist.

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. "Obama's early life was decidedly chaotic and replete with traumatic and mentally bruising dislocations," says Vaknin, "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."

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. The great majority of blacks have also decided to vote for Obama. Only a fool does not know that their support for him is racially driven. This is racism, pure and simple. The downside of this is that if Obama turns out to be the disaster I predict, he will cause widespread resentment among the whites. The blacks are unlikely to give up their support of their man. Cultic mentality is pernicious and unrelenting. They will dig their heads deeper in the sand and blame Obama's detractors of racism. This will cause a backlash among the whites. The white supremacists will take advantage of the discontent and they will receive widespread support. I predict that in less than four years, racial tensions will increase to levels never seen since the turbulent 1960's. Obama will set the clock back decades... America is the bastion of freedom. The peace of the world depends on the strength of America , and its weakness translates into the triumph of terrorism and victory of rogue nations.

It is no wonder that Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, the Castroists, the Hezbollah, the Hamas, the lawyers of the Guantanamo terrorists and virtually all sworn enemies of America are so thrilled by the prospect of their man in the White House. America is on the verge of destruction.

[hinckley buzzard]

Yeah, not much to argue with here, but no surprises either. We all had this guy pegged without going through the disillusionment stage.

[Venturer]

I speak about the reference to Obama’s brother.Obama takes little interest in his brother, because in reality he is hardly a brother.

Perhaps they share the same father,perhaps theydont. We havent seen the birth certificate which names the father, anyway that aside, Obama never met his half brother as a child, they never grew up together, they werent really “brothers’ as the term is usually used. I doubt he ever saw his African Grandmother until he started using blacks for their vote.

His fathers family can mean little to him as he never knew them until he started using them. Obama is a user, he uses people for his own means. American blacks mean nothing to Obama except a vote. He isnt one of them.

[Sherman Logan]

If anybody remembers, there were a whole bunch of negative long-distance psychological evaluations of Reagan and Bush2.

Such bloviating has little value.

[fujimoh]

Additional articles: Understanding Obama - Is He a Pathological Narcissist? The author, Ali Sina (pseudonym), has written an article that one should consider. You can read it here: Understanding Obama: The Making of a Fuehrer.
:
His photos and tag lines are worth a thousand words:

An unequivocal expression of delusional grandiosity

Obama inebriated with the fantasy of unlimited success.

Obama absorbed in reveries of omnipotence

His majesty condescendingly looks down at his scullions

When criticized, Obama's soul can be seen in his eyes. The following quote is evident every time he gets on the tube and tries to lie his way through his BS:

The pacific mask crumbles when the narcissist has become convinced that the very people he purported to speak for, his constituency, his grassroots fans, the prime sources of his narcissistic supply - have turned against him. At first, in a desperate effort to maintain the fiction underlying his chaotic personality, the narcissist strives to explain away the sudden reversal of sentiment. "The people are being duped by (the media, big industry, the military, the elite, etc.)", "they don't really know what they are doing", "following a rude awakening, they will revert to form", etc.

When these flimsy attempts to patch a tattered personal mythology fail - the narcissist is injured. Narcissistic injury inevitably leads to narcissistic rage and to a terrifying display of unbridled aggression. The pent-up frustration and hurt translate into devaluation. That which was previously idealized - is now discarded with contempt and hatred.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

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.

[bcsco]

Bump for later.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

And this was there for all to see from the moment Obama made his first pompous, hope and change nonsense of a stump speech. His arrogant, nose-in-the-air, imperious posturing was there from the first. Hopefully enough are beginning to see through him to bring defeat of his major initiatives. But it's still cause for concern that so many fell for his Elmer Gantry act to begin with.

.....“Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Hat Tip to Lawrence Eagleburger. He was one of the first prominent people to go on record (FOX) and declare emphatically that Obama is a "Charlatan". As well did EL Rushbo and FR.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

During the campaign I might add.

[GOP Golfer]

ping

[Finny]

On the other hand ... there is a possiblity -- slight, but quite real -- that backlash against Obama may unite blacks and whites in a way never before seen in our great nation. Watch the Rev. James Manning (I think that's his name), the black preacher who warns his black congregation "White people gonna riot -- and I don't blame them! I'd like to join them!" The sharpest, most eloquent minds in conservative thought today include a disporportionately high percentage of blacks, I suspect because the cultural experiences of intelligent, thinking Americans who are black gives them special insight into the core principles of conservatism.

With prayers for a miracle, this united backlash could happen: God has intervened with miracles on the side of righteousness often in human history. Prayer works -- millions on the globe prayed for the safe return of Apollo 13, and against all reasonable odds, the astronauts came back alive. FRiends, join me in praying for a miracle that will vanquish Barack Obama and restore liberty and righteousness to the United States of America.

[Will88]

...“Sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

Lol, but I think we should point out that Elmer was no where near as arrogant and imperious as Obama.

[uncbob]

At first I was excited to see a black candidate.

Me Thinks the DR has a problem of his own

[uncbob]

Great caricature!!!!!

[Republic]

regarding uhbama:

"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."

[Is the author telling us that uhbama has yet to assist his poverty laden brother in Africa, his blood brother, his FAMILY? And what about uhbama's blood aunt, you know the one, is she still living on our tax dollar in public housing in BOSTON? If she is....then we ALL know MORE than WE NEED to KNOW about the quality OF UNBAMA'S AND MICHELLE'S CHARACTER. They are both DIRTBAGS.]

" 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?" [Well, a congress that refuses to see what an absolute threat uhbama is to our nation is pretty damn dangerous, as well.]" 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. "

Altho in uhbama's case, it is hard to believe ANYONE could STILL be sucked into his vision for our nation, a vision which is a nightmare of total governmental control, even over life and death issues.....we need to get this very sick narcissistic sociopath OUT OF OFFICE ASAP and we need to remove the puppy from him....people like uhbama do not know how to love an animal but are highly likely to hurt them.

[razorback-bert]

At first, in a desperate effort to maintain the fiction underlying his chaotic personality

This is why, I support the BC issue. Questioning his story must rankle him.

[Movemout]

BTTT. THIS IS THE BEST EXPLANATION OF BHO I HAVE HEARD TO DATE.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

The crimes he and his masters are committing against America, our Constitution, and way of life are in no way mitigated by “narcissism”!

Who says their crimes are mitigated by their narcissism? If anything, their narcissism is the cause of their crimes. Along with their socialist/totalitarian agenda.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

“If anything, their narcissism is the cause of their crimes.”

Wrong.....The crimes he and his masters are committing against America are the ties that bind them.....not “narcissism”....ooohing and ahhhing “narcissism” is like a twinkie defense.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

OK, their crimes are the ties that bind them. But the CAUSE of their crimes is the narcissism that comes from their elitism. That's why they think they can get away with anything - and they do! - because they are the elites!

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.