Recent events lead me to the conclusion that I should
comment on them with the hope of breaking up the current pattern. I see a lot of “hopes and prayers” commentary
and “we need to unite like we did after 911” – but I don’t think that gets us
very far. What might help is recognizing
the pattern, what it means, and using that knowledge to move ahead.
Let’s start with the pattern. To me it looks something like this.
1: Gun extremism for
the past 20 years (as previously defined).
This results in no adaptive solutions for the problem for one of the
major parties.
2: Normalization of
name-calling, blame, and rage by the President. I don’t think any footnotes or references are
needed at this point. He posts something
on almost a daily basis on his social media platform consistent with these
dimensions. As Robert Jay Lifton said in 2017 commenting on the Trump
Presidency as a descent into darkness “With Trump of course malignant normality
becomes the rule because he’s President and what a President does tends to
normalize potentially bad, evil, or destructive behavior.”
3: Secondary spread
of these patterns of behavior to everyone in his party – reinforced by
mandatory compliance with his wishes using direct threats.
4: Attributing all of
the bad behavior to other people and another political party and acting as if
that is true.
In psychiatric parlance, 1 -> 4 above is referred to as
projection. I notice today that it is
also used by commentators who are not psychiatric professionals. A basic definition of projection is: ‘’Feelings
and desires are not seen and admitted in oneself, but excluded from one’s
experience and attributed to another.” (1)
In dealing with a person who uses that defense – it is common to feel
like you are being blamed for something you are not responsible for and
experience the associated anger.
But it can get even more complicated. Kernberg writes: “In contrast to higher levels of projection
characterized by the patient’s attributing to the other an impulse he has
repressed in himself, primitive forms of projection, particularly projective
identification are characterized by: 1) the tendency to continue to experience
the impulse that is simultaneously being projected onto the other person, 2)
fear of the other person under that projected impulse, and 3) the need to
control the other person under the influence of this mechanism.” (2) In other words, the accuser in this case may
be doing the same behaviors that he is accusing the other person of doing. In
the cases I am referring to another party or member of another party is being
accussed of radical politics that leads to political violence by a party or
member of a party that has advocated
and conducted radical and violent politics for years.
Before anyone invokes the Goldwater
Rule here – let me say that I am not making any diagnosis of any
individual. I am simply observing
patterns. Observing patterns at a macro
level is different from observing them in an individual patient in an
intersubjective setting. That field is
profiling and it was invented by Jerrold Post, MD. Post observes that in the case of paranoia projection
distorts reality (3). More specifically: “Attempting to discredit Clinton’s popular
victory in the 2016 election, he claimed massive voter fraud by illegal
aliens. As the 2018 midterms approached
Trump expressed his concerns that the ‘Russians would be fighting very hard for
a Clinton victory’. So in his fevered imagination,
there was a real basis for voter fraud.
And this suggests, given his reliance on the defense mechanism of
projection that he would consider voter fraud.”
He subsequently refused to consider any polls that did not show him
leading and called them fake news. (4).
Given his role in concessions to Putin and uniting China, Russia, and
North Korea – the original suggestion of voter fraud was not consistent with
reality.
Sure you can say it’s just entertainment. You can say like a recent District Court
Judge that it is just rhetorical hyperbole that no reasonable person should take
seriously. You can say that Trump is “just
joking” and that nobody takes him seriously but that misses two critical
points. First, this pattern of thought
had to start somewhere. Most of us are
familiar with it from early to mid-adolescence when it is a developmental stage. We can recall when it ended and we made a
conscious decision to take responsibility rather than blaming other people for
our problems. Second, there are
obviously many people who take this pattern of thought seriously and who can
blame them? I have seen trained mental
health professionals fooled and reacting to it.
It is at the point where it cannot be ignored. If you “do your own research” all the facts
are out there. The current situation is the result of a decades long process that
values gun extremism and political divisiveness – all leveraged by one
party. As long as you are caught up in
that process – things will only get worse.
The results of future violence will be predictable and the soonest
anyone can hope for change is 3 more years.
Stop the problem now by seeing this for what it is – a pattern of
thought and behavior that most people grow out of.
Are there concrete steps you can take? I suggest the following. First, recognize what is going on. I am an
old man and I have never seen a President behave like Donald Trump before. All the projection going on needs to be
ignored. When you see news stations an social
media sites trying to amplify his rage and name calling – just shut them off or
ignore them. Think of the good old days
when we had Presidents from both parties that did not demand our constant
attention and outrage. The government
ran quietly in the background. It was
never perfect but it was a lot better than what we currently have. Second, recognize that one of the provocative
strategies associated with projection is to devalue some and overidealize
others. Civil servants, military
officers, veterans, women, and minorities have all been devalued while Confederate
Generals, dictators,
and white
supremacists and neo-Nazis. It is a consistent dynamic with him over
time. Third, projection is a mechanism for
producing bogeymen. One good example is the alleged left-wing organization
Antifa. Whenever I encounter that trope,
I typically ask for evidence the organization exists and find none. The Wikipedia page suggests there have been
more hoaxes than action. For comparison, I was in college during the time of
the Weather Underground and a collection of other undergound left wing organizations
were responsible for 2,500 domestic bombings in 1971 and 1972 (5). That included attacks on universities
and munitions plants. There is no possible way that any organizations like
those exist today. Fourth, recognize that
the mechanisms I am referring to are intertwined with rhetoric and a distorted sense
of reality. The best example I can think of is the constant accusation that you
must hate a politician because you disagree with them. That is a recent
development in the political landscape and it is a direct product of
projection. You can only attribute hate to someone else if you really hate them
and (per Kernberg) may experience it at the same time, fear the person you are
projecting onto, and feel the need to control that person. You also don’t have to think about it too long
to see that the person(s) doing this has to see themselves as being extraordinarily
important in your life. And that is also not consistent with reality.
There has never been a time in my life when ignoring
rhetoric and focusing on reality has been more important. I hope I have provided a few pointers on how
to get there.
George Dawson, MD, DFAPA
References:
1: PDM Task Force. Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual. Silver Springs, MD. Alliance of Psychoanalytic Organizations.
1980: p. 643.
2: Kernberg OF. Severe Personality Disorders:
Psychotherapeutic Strategies. Yale University Press, New Haven. 1984: p. 16-17.
3: Post JM. The Psychological Assessment of Political
Leaders. University of Michigan Press.
Ann Arbor, MI. 2003: p. 96.
4: Post JM, Douchette
SR. Dangerous Charisma: The Political Psychology
of Donald Trump and His Followers.
Pegasus Books, New York. 2019: p. 222.
5: Burrough B. Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, The
FBI, and the Forgotten Age of revolutionary Violence. Penguin Press, New York. 2015
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