The best way to destroy Trump is to exploit his psychopathology (NPD/APD)

[NAO]

Getting out facts and appealing to reason have been abysmally ineffective in combating Trump.

Donald Trump clearly suffers from severe personality disorders. He could be the poster child for Malignant Narcissism. If evaluated by a professional he would certainly be diagnosed with both Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD).

Possibly the most effective way to campaign against him would be to inflict narcissistic injury on his fragile ego. This would destabilize his personality and likely precipitate an on-air narcissistic rage explosion/meltdown. He would then be exposed as the deranged, dangerous mentally unstable person we all know him to be.

Getting out facts and appealing to reason have been abysmally ineffective in combating Trump. Exploiting the vulnerabilities in his deranged psyche may be the only hope we have to defeat this dangerous demagogue and save the Republic.

[niyad]

1. well, the problem with that scenario is that we already know that he is nuts. his

supporters and acolytes won't care how he explodes or implodes or self-destructs. they will say it is all a conspiracy.

[truebluegreen]

5. We don't care about his supporters and acolytes, they are beyond help.

We care about everybody else, including the mythical moderate Republicans. They need to see, not just his bombast, but his derangement.

[niyad]

41. problem is, those insane people will probably VOTE, so, yes, we do care about them.

[truebluegreen]

42. My point is, they can't be reached or reasoned with.

Concentrate on those who can be.

[Sanity Claws]

30. That is true for some, possibly most

but not all.
Some people who always vote Republican just because they are Republican may prefer to stay away from the polls rather than vote for him.
This is worth doing.

[milestogo]

2. The best way to deal with a narcissist is to walk away.

You never win.

[truebluegreen]

4. So your plan is to ignore irrational and antisocial behavior

in a presidential candidate? Great idea.

[milestogo]

6. That's the best way to deal with a narcissist on a personal level.

When the narcissist is a highly public person, the best thing would be to stop giving him attention because he thrives on it. The media is giving him all the attention he craves.

[truebluegreen]

8. On a personal level I certainly agree.

But this is anything but personal and the chance that the media will stop paying attention is nil. So a pro-active stance is required and provoking a meltdown the most obvious method--it is clear that facts and reason are ineffective.

[MillennialDem]

11. Right, but how do you stop the media from giving him that attention? Even if Hillary does

absolutely nothing, refuses debates with him, and literally goes into hiding until November the media will still be covering Trump wall to wall.

[milestogo]

26. I sense a turn in the media during the last week or so...

ever since he called the ABC reporter a sleaze during a press conference. He's been hostile and aggressive towards the media, and they have the power to turn on him. I've seen some nasty headlines about Trump during the past week.

They can't ignore him, but they can trash him.

[gollygee]

24. Well that's certainly ideal for Trump in this situation

No one be mean to the Donald. Just leave him alone.

[tyne]

3. I've been saying this^^^^

for a long time.

[BainsBane]

7. Definitely Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

I think you have a point. The Dems should have some psychologists working on this very thing.

[NAO]

9. He is a Narcissist His BASE is mass hysteria. Psychologists/Psychiatrists should be consulted

Mental Health professionals are THE essential political consultants in this bizarre election.

I doubt any conceivable FACT could bring down the Donald. But if he explodes on the air, displays bizarre behavior that is unhinged, it might wake up some people.

[MillennialDem]

13. Definitely a narcissist, but could also be a sociopath as well and many others. They're not

mutually exclusive.

[BainsBane]

18. True

The Narcissism is obvious though, and just not in the colloquial sense but as a diagnosed personality disorder.

[MillennialDem]

21. Agreed

[NAO]

10. Revenge of the Media - They love spectacles and ratings, are intimidated by Trump

The Media have two pertinent characteristics:

1. They love ratings and reporting on spectacle rather than substance (you can't fight Trump with substance anyway, because he has none.)

2. They hate and are intimidated by Trump and are infuriated by the way he has "used" them.

How fantastic would it be for everybody, news media, reporters, the American people if the news could become a reality show about the meltdown of Trump.

Each news story of his unhinged behavior would enrage him further, get reported with glee, and that would evoke further rage...

Panels of psychologists could be brought to the shows to discuss his psychopathology. People could write in about their experiences of Narcissistic Abuse. It could be discussed what medications might help him. It's fun to dream, but something more subtle, but similar could actually happen if he comes unhinged just once in plain sight.

The media would be just "covering the story". It's not a vendetta or anything - they are just covering what gets ratings, right?

[cheapdate]

12. +1

[snagglepuss]

31. I don;t really know much about NPD. Are you saying that given his disorder

he couldn't control his rage even if he wanted to if the right buttons are pushed? Is it not possible that he feel rage but not show it?

[MillennialDem]

14. So we need to go after his penis until he whips it out live on the air?

[AntiBank]

15. you would blind half of the millions of viewers

[MillennialDem]

17. I don't get the reference

[Zambero]

28. Severe eyestrain perhaps?

Alleviated only by a magnifying glass?

[snagglepuss]

32. LOL Spot on. nt

[Gabi Hayes]

16. it's all out there.....easy pickings....dems better get going with stuff like this, from vanity fair:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/donald-trump-narcissism-therapists

For mental-health professionals, Donald Trump is at once easily diagnosed but slightly confounding. “Remarkably narcissistic,” said developmental psychologist Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education. “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder,” echoed clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis. “He’s so classic that I’m archiving video clips of him to use in workshops because there’s no better example of his characteristics,” said clinical psychologist George Simon, who conducts lectures and seminars on manipulative behavior. “Otherwise, I would have had to hire actors and write vignettes. He’s like a dream come true.”

That mental-health professionals are even willing to talk about Trump in the first place may attest to their deep concern about a Trump presidency. As Dr. Robert Klitzman, a professor of psychiatry and the director of the master’s of bioethics program at Columbia University, pointed out, the American Psychiatric Association declares it unethical for psychiatrists to comment on an individual’s mental state without examining him personally and having the patient’s consent to make such comments. This so-called Goldwater rule arose after the publication of a 1964 Fact magazine article in which psychiatrists were polled about Senator Barry Goldwater’s fitness to be president. Senator Goldwater brought a $2 million suit against the magazine and its publisher; the Supreme Court awarded him $1 in compensatory damages and $75,000 in punitive damages.

[NAO]

36. Vanity Fair, Dr.Gardner, Goldwater... WWII and Native American Code Talkers

On that line of thought.

It's not just "folk-wisdom" or "common sense" -- Trump is genuinely seriously mentally ill. He is a deranged dangerous person, as medically diagnosed by a internationally recognized mental health professional.

He has no real positions or policies - he will say anything (typical of psychopath/ sociopath/ narcissistic personalities- the ONLY real way to attack him is to go after his psychopathology.

In WWII desperately needed help in the war effort came from the most unlikely, unexpected source - Native Americans who were able use their (lost) native languages as an unbreakable code for the Allies.

In this election - what columnist Andrew Sullivan has called an "extinction level event" - our only hope may not be from fact checkers, political consultants, or attack ad writers, but from psychologists and psychiatrists.

[Gman]

19. Getting out facts, I believe now

Is needed also. It's s different audience in the primaries that facts don't work with.

[Gene Debs]

20. Nope. Time and time again, for months, we've seen his psychopathology escalate, and escalate, and

get more and more over the edge, and every time it does, his supporters love him more for it.

The best way to destroy Trump is to nominate Bernie Sanders.

[pnwmom]

22. I hope Hillary is getting some coaching on this. For example, in the debates

she should needle him in a way that isn't overtly confrontational, but makes him react in fury. And that shouldn't be too difficult, given his personality.

[Maeve]

25. I'm pretty sure she is

I also think she is "keeping her powder dry", waiting for the best opportunity to strike, closer to the election. It's not her first campaign; she knows something about pacing herself.

I'm still not convinced that the Trumpeter can last in general election mode, when he'll have trouble getting back to his own bed every night and the media stops letting him phone it in all the time (he's pissed them off and it's time for the "worm has turned" storyline to kick in).

[Cosmocat]

35. IMO

Hillary knows him well enough personally, and is sharp and tough enough, that she already knows this and will do just what you posted.

I think it is also important for a LOT of other high profile liberals and progressives to troll the living shit out of him like Elizabeth Warren has.

He CAN NOT, I mean he is totally incapable, of letting shots at him not go answered.

The more people of status that tweak him, the more he will focus his time and energy into going after them.

[NAO]

37. Exactly!!! Clinton (and everyone else) should be coached in inflicting narcissistic injury

Without appearing to be attacking or being anything other than presidential.

Because of his mental condition, it's possible to enrage him by saying things that seem minor or innocent to ordinary mentally healthy people.

In the professional literature from Freud to Gardner, we have the "plans to the Death Star" where a nearly invisible yet deadly vulnerability may be found that would allow us to take out the seemingly invincible, massively destructive entity known as "The Donald".

[pnwmom]

39. +1. n/t

[zazen]

23. this is why Sanders will be such a great attack dog and their debate would have been awesome

I still think it's possible that he'll win the nomination and/or Clinton will be replaced by shifting her delegates to a neoliberal like Biden if she's indicted.

If she continues, however, Sanders is the best attacker we have--and I'm confident he'll do it if the HRC supporters would just back off--because he can confront Trump in that brash New York male-to-male way that Clinton can (and should) not. She doesn't have that kind of personality anyway and gender politics being what they continue to be she's got to walk that thin line of appearing not to intentionally bait him while she does (Warren can pull it of and still seem warm and likeable--Clinton cannot). Sanders however can mock and jibe at and ridicule his masculinity in the Brooklyn, male locker room "doing the dozens" fashion and expose him for the malignant narcissistic weakling he is, and then Clinton will be seen to rise above it. Sanders knows exactly what makes an insecure man like Trump tick because like many feminist men he's had to learn to rise above his own inner demons and privilege.

For the life of me I don't grasp how the Clinton supporters could have been so afraid of that debate. Exposing that maniac Trump for who he is is issue number 1 for the next few months and Sanders could have pushed the media and 30% entrenched idiotic American population past the false equivalency and crazy legitimizing of Trump v. Democrats back to Clinton (neoliberalism, neoconservatism) v Sanders. Let's have an open debate on the merits of Clinton/mainstream Republicanism v Sanders and if we lose this time our movement will continue because it's not just about Sanders. I can live with that, and so can Sanders. Trump however is taking us down a path toward world annihilation.

[MillennialDem]

29. As a Sanders supporter, yes I think he will be a good attack dog, but so will Warren and Obama

Bill might even get in on it.

[NAO]

38. The debate - Bernie could have rattled Trump like no other

Even the part about "not chicken out" was a jab at Turmps ego. I'm surprised Trump was able to walk away from that debate.

Bernie is THE PERFECT provocateur of Trump, for the exact reasons you stated above.

And because Bernie is considered to be a lightweight crazy by the sheeple, it will enrage and humiliated Trump that much more to be needled by him.

I'm a hard left progressive and I'd love to see President Sanders, but given the current choices, I'd gladly take a moderate republican like HRC any day over a dangerous lunitac like Trump.

[meow2u3]

27. Sen. Warren is doing a good job of getting under Chump's TP-thin skin

Last edited Fri Jun 3, 2016, 09:42 PM - Edit history (1)

No need to debunk his pack of lies. Just keep up the attacks on his ego and we should do fine exposing him as the pathetic little pissant he is.

[mercuryblues]

33. TP-thin skin

LOL. Just the TP in his pricey hotels - single ply.

[DCBob]

34. I think attacking him on his wealth claims will get to him.

I am sure he is worth much less that he claims which is why he won't release his tax forms. Hillary and Dems should dig up as much as they can on anything that shows his actual wealth much smaller than he states and release that and see what he does. I suspect he will freak out.

[NAO]

40. I read that he'd be richer if he'd just put his inheritance in the bank

It was claimed his "deals" had either lost money or made do little that he would have been better off just putting his inherited wealth in the bank at 0.01% or whatever today's interest rates are.

THAT would piss him off, as well as destroy his alleged qualifications of being a "brilliant businessman".

Seeing that he's just an angry egotistical little boy who plays with daddy's money and claims to be a genius but is just a non self made fuck up would completely destroy him for all but his "white rage" supporters.

Make no mistake - though he has lots of white rage supporters, there are also many people who support him because they think he is a successful businessman. Those supporters would evaporate if his financiers were shown to be fraudulent.

[DCBob]

43. Right.. if he would invested his fathers money in S&P index he would be about 10 times as rich now.

"Brilliant" businessman.

[awoke_in_2003]

44. Pay someone

to go everywhere he has a rally to shout out "why are your hands so small". Do it in the debates if you have to. This is a very touchy subject for him, and has been for a couple decades.

[NAO]

45. Article - Too Sick To Lead: The Lethal Personality Disorder Of Donald Trump

Too Sick To Lead: The Lethal Personality Disorder Of Donald Trump
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-north-patterson/too-sick-to-lead-the-leth_b_10086768.html

excerpt

"...But there is nothing more “current” or important than Donald Trump’s psychological fitness to be president. All the hyperventilation of the media - parsing his “positions”, pontificating on his” strategy” and intuition- is a poisonous form of the “political correctness” he otherwise deplores, normalizing the abnormal by shoehorning him into the usual analytic boxes. And what it yields is, in great part, rubbish.

There is only one organizing principle which makes sense of his wildly oscillating utterances and behavior - the clinical definition of narcissistic personality disorder.

The Mayo Clinic describes it as “a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others.” This is bad enough in selecting a spouse or a friend. But when applied to a prospective president, the symptoms are disqualifying.

With Trump ever in mind, try these. An exaggerated sense of self-importance. An unwarranted belief in your own superiority. A preoccupation with fantasies of your own success, power and brilliance. A craving for constant admiration. A consuming sense of entitlement. An expectation of special favors and unquestioning compliance.

A penchant for exploiting or disparaging others. A total inability to recognize the needs of anyone else. An incapacity to see those you meet as separate human beings. An unreasoning fury at people you perceive as thwarting your wishes or desires. A tendency to act on impulse. A superficial charm deployed to disguise a gift for manipulation.

A need to always be right. A refusal to acknowledge error. An inability to tolerate criticism or critics. A compulsion to conform your ever - shifting sense of “reality” to satisfy your inner requirements . A tendency to lie so frequently and routinely that objective truth loses all meaning.

A belief that you are above the rules. An array of inconsistent statements and behaviors driven by your needs in the moment. An inability to assess the consequences of your actions in new or complex situations. In sum, a total incapacity to separate the world from your own psychodrama..."

Full Article:

Too Sick To Lead: The Lethal Personality Disorder Of Donald Trump
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-north-patterson/too-sick-to-lead-the-leth_b_10086768.html

[Ruby the Liberal]

46. Narcissists need supply

The greatest source of injury is cutting off supply - and it doesn't matter if its negative or positive - they feed off both, some equally. The more self-sustaining (ie wealthy) where they don't need to rely on other people, the more the negativity is fuel.

Thats why it won't happen. You see, to a narcissist like Trump, it matters not if the media is kissing up or punching down - its all attention (fuel/supply) to him. Ignoring him isn't an option, but thats how the beast gets starved.