This is Dr. Justin Frank, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center, offering his insights into the state of mind of the Malignant Loser as he faces escalating legal problems and the loss of his Potemkin business empire:
There is an often-neglected component of narcissism that ends up directed against the narcissist himself. Don’t forget that Narcissus drowned after he became weak because he was unable to look away from his reflection in the water. Trump’s power is weakening for the same reason. He is unable to look away from fantasies of his own great beauty - his reflection in the lake - long enough to keep himself from weakness before he fell in and died. While specifics are different, the myth persists. Now I think Trump can’t look away from his paranoid anxiety, including his impending dementia, and will drown in jail.
He is willing to go to jail because it is a continuation of the psychotic part of his narcissism - he is so special and powerful and compelling that others will keep looking at him, while he doesn’t realize that few people are as narcissistic as he is. It will be the next part of his downfall because of that very myth, now projecting his own eyes of his greatness onto his followers, but not Into Them.
As for his kids, pathological narcissists see kids as extensions of themselves. So, if they stop functioning as extensions when they turn on him, he will cut them loose. His not showing up for their testimony is a case in point. It will be interesting to see if he will show up for Ivanka’s on Wednesday.
All of this is about assumptions of undying love like his undying self-love.
Trump is so secure in being loved that he is unable to think clearly. What this means is that he assumes that people love him so much he can still shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and he can still lie to federal agents, and they will love him still as he goes to jail. That is not true, because, following the myth of narcissus to its end, he is nearing the level of complete self-destruction.
There are several other experts quoted in the linked article offering other opinions, but all with the well- traveled common denominator that this is a deeply wounded sociopathic narcissist capable of much destructive behavior, both to those around him and to himself. We posted an observation to the same effect yesterday from reporter Jon Karl on the Malignant Loser's mental decline and detachment from reality. Of course, to many of us -- including you reading this -- it hasn't been a revelation. You don't need to be a psychiatrist to recognize the Malignant Loser's mental problems. His narcissism was inborn and on display his entire life to this point, only getting worse as he gained the power of presidential office. His mental decline is far, far worse than any ascribed to President Biden. His foundational ignorance on most matters isn't equaled by anyone else who held the Presidency in the past hundred years. And yet ... his cult follows.
Frank posits that the Malignant Loser is "nearing the level of complete self-destruction" and that at the next level of his downfall -- convictions and jail time -- his cult members will begin to disconnect. We're not at all sure about that, but regardless, he will get his first ego- deflating comeuppance in New York soon. It almost doesn't matter how his cult reacts at this point. We just want the downfall to begin cascading.
