Donald Trump: A man without pathos.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

pathos

pa·thos
/ˈpāˌTHäs/

noun

a quality that evokes pity or sadness.

Yesterday, I read a story about Donald Trump's infamous stint as guest host on Saturday Night Live in 2015, just as his campaign for President was gaining full steam.

http://www.newsweek.com/president-donald-trump-faked-phone-call-brag-about-book-sales-snl-cast-member-930256?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=NewsweekTwitter

One of the cast members, Pete Davidson, conveyed a story where Trump was sitting with cast members for a table read in preparation for the episode. According to Davidson, Trump abruptly interrupted the session to take an alleged phone call in front of the other cast members. After the call supposedly ended, Trump immediately announced to everyone that the phone call was pertaining to sales of his book and that he was told that his book was Number 1 on the best seller list.

The problem was, it was apparent to Davidson and everyone else at the table that the phone call was a fake; Trump hadn't even bothered to make it sound like he was listening to anyone else talk on the other end. Furthermore, Trump's book that week was not Number 1 on the New York Times bestseller's list.

Pathos is a funny, funny concept. The thing about pathos is that one does not even have to be inherently likeable or overly sympathetic to posses pathos. All it takes to have pathos is to be nominally complex enough provoke some sort of feeling of pity.

Think of a wounded animal that, if healthy, could possibly kill you. But because it's wounded, you can't help but feel sorry for it.

There are people I downright dislike who still evoke a subconscious sense of pathos. The example that most notably comes to my mind is Sarah Palin, who is an utterly contemptible individual who is completely unqualified for the success that life has given her. And yet perhaps because there's this sense you get that she's so completely out of her element and yet can't even see that herself, the instinctive response is to feel a sense of pity for her inherent blindness and trashiness.

But I get no such sense from Donald Trump.

Maybe because unlike Palin, or say, Tonya Harding, Trump was born into very comfortable circumstances and has so far succeeded in conning his way to the top and amassing large assets to his name (despite the fact I think it's highly leveraged with Russian and other illegal sources of money), but there's just nothing that screams "Oh, that poor sap Trump, what a tragic life gone wrong." He's just an asshole, through and through. And there's nothing humbling or humanizing about him whatsoever, even in a classically tragic way.

So the Pete Davidson/SNL story doesn't scream, "This is a sad cry for help from a sick man" to me at all. This isn't Jan Brady making up an imaginary boyfriend named George Glass because she thinks older sister Marcia's getting all the attention. This is just unmitigated narcissistic pride on parade.

Now, perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps one could make the case there is some deeper classically flawed angle of human dysfunction to be explored about Trump. Maybe one could look about his relationship with his father and draw something from that.

But I'm just not seeing it. To me, he's thoroughly, 100% without a doubt an unlikeable, shallow, irredeemable human being to the very core without a hint of subtext or pathos.

[louis-t]

2. He is without Athos and Porthos also.

Might have a little D'artagnan....

[Arkansas Granny]

3. K & R

[Caliman73]

4. Your reaction is understandable.

I do think that there is something deeper. Narcissism is typically accompanied by an extremely fragile sense of self.

When someone has confidence in their worth as a person, they do not typically need reassurance from the outside and they are not self aggrandizing.

The grandiosity and generally ugly way in which narcissist act is real and very off putting, and they may even believe it, but they are also extremely vulnerable.

I suspect that Trump's upbringing was pretty horrible. Given how his father has been described, the fact that he was sent away to military school, and the general lack of empathy and humanity that he displays, which are traits that unless there is some kind of organic brain damage, are typically learned through attachment, reciprocation of affection, and building trust in caregivers and the world.

Even given all of that, it is difficult for me to muster up any true feelings of sadness at Trump's situation. He is too destructive to merit that level of consideration.

Stalin, Hitler, and many other people who are considered monsters, had extremely abusive childhoods and traumatic experiences. While I am not putting Trump in their league at this point, generally I would say that we can examine the lives of individuals who did horrific things, and we will likely not find people who truly had love, connection, and genuine self esteem in their lives.

[smirkymonkey]

5. Even as much as I hated the Bushes, there was still something human enough about them where

I could occasionally muster up some sympathy when things were bad, but I can't for Trump. No matter how bad things get for him, I will never feel anything but an overwhelming sense of glee at his misfortune.