Barack Obama - Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic? - REVISITED - Bam's Last hooray?

Global Politician ^ | 8/13/2008 | Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

[schu]

Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist. Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician (which I am not) 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. ...

The "small people", the "rank and file", the "loyal soldiers" of the narcissist - his flock, his nation, his employees - they pay the price. The disillusionment and disenchantment are agonizing. The process of reconstruction, of rising from the ashes, of overcoming the trauma of having been deceived, exploited and manipulated - is drawn-out. It is difficult to trust again, to have faith, to love, to be led, to collaborate. Feelings of shame and guilt engulf the erstwhile followers of the narcissist. This is his sole legacy: a massive post-traumatic stress disorder.

[schu]

I do believe it is time to dust off the ideas of the Narcissist in Chief and spend some time predicting where he will take us. I do think he has at least one bullet left and he is going to shoot it, and he wants to make a big bang!

His (and many our) problems in a nutshell:

1. Declining/cratering popularity

2. Pretty good chance he will lose congress in November, 2010

3. An oil spill that has even his most ardent supporters asking him WTF?

4. An economy near the tipping point, double dip is now a serious probability.

5. Small chance of any meaningful change in the UE rate for the next 18 months.

6. Some serious and potentially fatal ethics issues, this paves the way to boot him by TPTB if he becomes much more of a liability.

7. A hugely unpopular and politically suicidal healthcare law that does none of what he promised and will (hopefully) be gutted or overturned.

8. International flash points that are high risk, Iran, Korea and Israel.

9. Two very costly wars in which he/the nation are floundering and where there are no easy ways out.

10. Europe on the verge of a crash/depression.

And others.

It seems the Narcissist in him will lash out, he will get publicly angry because people do not like him anymore and especially if they start laughing at him. He cannot stand to be laughed at, even though he is a buffoon and laughable. Ultimately he has to show that he needs to be taken seriously, so I think he is looking for the big bang, the mondo effort that will get him on top and in the forefront again.

So I do believe he will revert to Nero and hand sesterces to the praetorian to gain their favor and give him some time. This of course will take a different tact in 2010, but I think he will embark on a multi-trillion cash hand out stimulus program, and I think it is in the works as we speak.

He will decree that Bernanke send every citizen (and maybe non-citizen) $10K, all in the name of a "national emergency". This adds up to about $3.3T give or take. Use the Fed to print money and the Treasury to mail the checks. Write the checks or "vouchers" such that they need to be used to "buy stuff", a new flat screen, a vaca, new car, whatever you want. But you will not be able to use it to pay your mortgage or reduce your credit card balance, that is deflationary. You can use it to buy stocks, the Dow will be at $15,000! Make it an even $4T and give the rest to the states to help balance their budgets. This will keep his primarily constituency, big banks/financial institutions, labor unions and large corporates happy for a while.

The people will “love” it, or more importantly “love him”. This is at the core of his psyche, he needs to be adored by the masses. Most of the other problems are not fixable by him, plus they are hard and require someone else to get the credit to be successful, but issuing vouchers with his picture to be redeemed at Wal-Mart has some interesting possibilities!

This of course will be a disaster, many will decry his plan and will shake their head at the stupidity. But most folks won’t care, the people are numb and disconnected (but waking up), so here is his last hooray! There will be economic carnage, but it will be 2012 before we see the effect. By then, who knows what the world will be like?

schu

[Steely Tom]

Earlier.

[knarf]

Screw the psychobabble, he's an arrogant @$$hole.

There ain't NObody that will hang with him.

Hell .. he had to slam a whole city of cops to have a beer with a real man.

[Chode]

i’m starting to believe that the boy truly is Nyarlathotep...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyarlathotep

he is described as a “tall, swarthy man” who resembles an Egyptian pharaoh who wanders the earth, seemingly gathering legions of followers through his demonstrations of strange and seemingly magical instruments, the narrator of the story among them. These followers lose awareness of the world around them, and through the narrator’s increasingly unreliable accounts the reader gets a sense of the world’s utter collapse. The story ends with the narrator as part of an army of servants for Nyarlathotep.

[historyrepeatz]

His upcoming trip to Kenya should answer any questions. It’s the “I’m here. Worship me.” complex.

[colonialhk]

Dealing with narcissistic personality disorder is hard enough but when combined with an incompetent twit...vote them all out fast because he will lash out.

The buffoon in chief can and is doing incalculable damage the only union that matters.

[Auntie Mame]

Love this: “Most of the other problems are not fixable by him, plus they are hard and require someone else to get the credit to be successful.”

Well if we all get $10K, let’s make a pact and all go out and buy $10K worth each of guns and bullets.

[x]

Why the repost?

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician (which I am not) can determine whether someone suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and this, following lengthy tests and personal interviews.

Oh, just throw him in the water. If he floats, he's a narcissist.

[arthurus]

Such will/would probably cause an instant tripling-or more- of the price of gold. I would take my 10k check and immediately buy gold with it and it would surely be too late. It might get me an ounce and it might not.

[syriacus]

IMHO Obama is a sociopath who deliberately says does things in order to cause uncertainty and to anger and hurt people.

[maine-iac7]

The malignant narcissist invents and then projects a false, fictitious, self for the world to fear, or to admire. He maintains a tenuous grasp on reality to start with and this is further exacerbated by the trappings of power. The narcissist's grandiose self-delusions and fantasies of omnipotence and omniscience {where are my Greek Columns]are supported by real life authority and the narcissist's predilection to surround himself with obsequious sycophants. [take a peek in the WH]

The narcissist's personality is so precariously balanced that he cannot tolerate even a hint of criticism and disagreement.

...Narcissistic leadership often poses as a rebellion against the "old ways" - against the hegemonic culture, the upper classes, the established religions, the superpowers,

"Fundamenatally change this country...""

Narcissism, Thy name is Barry.

The question is: With such a sudden and unprecedented, unforeseen turn about in adulation - even his most ardent sycophants - AND the press - 'dumping' on him, what is the likelihood of a melt down?

[arthurus]

He will gather his SEIU troops around him and arm them. Then we will see more clearly where we are going.

[arthurus]

It would seem that Billious Clintus was a practical narcsissist rather than a pathological one in that he was able to adapt to his reduced circumstances due to the 1994 elections.

[GatorGirl]

GREAT idea Auntie Mame!

[Seaplaner]

Thanks for dusting-off this critical article.

I suspect that the author might be correct; however, I'd love to hear what some psychiatrists might have to say or add. (Charles Krauthammer, M.D. comes to mind)

I agree that some sort of scorched earth scenario might be possible, but even more important is this...

If (if) the CIC could be showing some adverse psychological manifestations, then might there be some exodus from the Dem side, beginning with some in the "news" media (possibly a mass migration) at some critical point?

(Could there be an attempt to secure some medical help (again, if needed))? .

[nathanbedford]

I accept that Obama is a narcissist and have contributed several replies in that vein going back a year. However, I depart somewhat from the author when he implies that Obama as a narcissist is not bound by his ideology. I think the two are inextricably intertwined and the man cannot be understood without considering his ideology as well as his narcissism.

If one concedes, as the author does, that Hitler and Stalin were narcissists, one ought to consider that both of these men were utterly doctrinaire. Hitler confected an entire socialist and racist worldview, wrapped up with nationalism, which he exploited but also thoroughly believed. He was, to quote Churchill, "a maniac of ferocious genius, the embodiment of the most virulent hatred that ever corroded the human breast." And he was also a carpet chewing narcissist. One could say the same things about Stalin.

And I will argue the same thing about Obama. By the way, I do so without bothering with the obligatory apologies and protestations when anyone cites the Nazi era by way of comparison that there is no and can be no fair comparison. I think the comparison is apt but the particulars are not so extreme.

Anyway here is a reply advancing the twin characteristics of our man: narcissism and Marxism.

I think he is a narcissist who survives and prospers not by addressing problems but by manipulating people. Narcissists like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama are not stupid, they are wonderfully clever and exceedingly effective in reading their victims and manipulating them.

I think that Barack Obama has a worldview provided to him, posthumously, by Saul Alinsky which gives him a framework for analysis. In other words, Obama does not "analyze", rather he "sorts" and puts data into their appropriate slots provided by the philosophy of Saul Alinsky. He has learned a vocabulary which enables him to contrive a front of effectiveness, a seriousness of purpose and depth of character which is all a sham.

Think of Barack Obama as the professional coordinator at an Alinsky meeting. For those old enough, think of Barack Obama as the leader of an EST meeting of the 1970s. These experiences give him an eschatology, a vocabulary, a forensic ability to manipulate, and ego satisfaction. What was he doing as editor of the Harvard Law Review if he was not producing actual work? He was acting out as a community organizer with the shtick modified to fit a new venue. If one examines his career at every level the pattern is the same. As a constitutional law lecturer he produced no written work but he was evidently perfectly fit to the culture of the law school. In the Illinois Senate he voted present but ingratiated himself with the Daley machine. He barely passed go in the United States Senate but he knew the vocabulary and he passed muster with the likes of George Soros. In each instance, Barack Obama behaves as a narcissist, very shallow, producing no work product, but selling a great package.

If one takes away the Marxist belief system provided to him or reinforced in every step of his development from his mother to Frank Marshall Davis, to Columbia University, the Harvard Law school, William Ayres, to Reverend Wright, one is left with a truly hollow man. That is why Obama is such a dangerous ideologue. There is no Obama apart from a lifelong sham, a compensation for always being advanced beyond his competence because of his race and his ability to manipulate. He simply cannot stop the act and get off stage because there is nothing but the act.

Obama is a man without a soul and without a spiritual compass. His relationship to Reverend Wright reveals that he has no real spiritual quality to him for there could hardly be a more rank apostasy than in the church which he attended for 20 years. It has nothing to do with spirituality and everything to do with ego satisfaction. It is the opposite of the Judeo-Christian message.

Obama cannot abandon his radicalism because there is no other there there. He is a massive compensation system. His body is a life-support system for his narcissism and the narcissism is utterly dependent on the received wisdom from Saul Alinsky and the rest of them.

[schu]

Obama cannot abandon his radicalism because there is no other there there.

Agreed, he will not abandon his core beliefs.

So does he take everyone down with himself like Hitler? Does he do away in a gruesome manner with all his rivals like Stalin? Does he act out like a Nero?

My guess is he makes one more lunge at “stardom” and then reverts to Hitler, he will see America not worthy of his brilliance. You can see some of that now, he seeming indifference to so many problems, he has not changed what he does since the campaign. Make a speech, play basketball, have a party, rinse & repeat....

schu

[schu]

I do believe we will see some good info on the Bamster over the next few weeks as he attempts damage control over this GOM oil spill. Clearly they know it is hurting him politically, especially with his base. The MSM is trying to provide him some cover, but so far it is getting limited traction.

The recent comments about not talking to the BP CEO, looking for “some ass’s to kick” and attending fund raisers and concerts while the oil gushes are very revealing to a lot of the electorate, and they do not like what they see. In the interview with Matt Lauer he looked childish, was unwilling to take any responsibility, and was clearly at a loss about what to do.

He does not like to be criticized, that is for sure, but he can weather this if it doesn’t get any worse. If they start laughing at him, then he is trouble and may react irrationally.

Frankly, as many have warned, when/if events get really tough, the Bamster is just not up to it.

schu