7/27/2016

Narcissists in Politics

Narcissism is a loaded term.  Formally, it’s a personality disorder that results in significant disruption of interpersonal relationships and personal coping skills.  It includes traits like grandiosity (I’m the Greatest; worship me!) and vulnerability (Everyone HAS to like me or I will feel awful.) and lack of remorse for actions that hurt others.

Informally, it’s used to describe people who are all about themselves...

It's  been hard to distinguish some types of narcissists from psychopaths/anti-social personalities, but I’m going to avoid all these problems and define narcissism in a very narrow way, which I am cheerfully stealing from the work of Ashley L. Watts* and her colleagues:

Narcissists are flamboyant and socially dominant people who love to be the center of attention. They can be very good at selling themselves as innovative when they may not be. They may also be overconfident decision makers who put their own needs before the needs of others. 

Narcissists say “yes” to questions like these:

• I have a natural talent for influencing people.
• I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so.
• If I ruled the world it would be a better place.
• I like to be the center of attention.
• I see myself as a good leader.
• I always know what I am doing.

Donald J. Trump, I’m looking right at you. 

So Trump is a narcissist. That’s probably not news, right?  A better question would be: is narcissism a good thing or a bad thing in presidents? And the answer is, it’s a mixed blessing.  In general, this kind of narcissism was highly related to things like leadership ability, willingness to take risks, and imagination. It was also related to negative things like impeachment.  Oops, Ms. Lewinsky.

For me, it boils down to this: Do I, personally, as someone trained in psychology, think Trump would make a good president? Absolutely not. He lacks the practiced skills in governance to accomplish his goals but will never be able to see that in himself and to then take advice from others, or otherwise to correct his course. I think he would be a disaster.

For those of you keeping score, here are the most narcissistic presidents, in order:

Lyndon Johnson

Teddy Roosevelt

Andrew Jackson (soooo not a surprise)

Franklin Roosevelt

John Kennedy

Richard Nixon

Bill Clinton

*Watts, Ashley;  Lilienfeld, Scott; Smith, Sarah; Miller, Joshua,;Campbell, W. Keith; Waldman, Irwin; Rubenzer, Steven and Faschingbauer, Thomas. (2013).  The double-edged sword of grandiose narcissism: Implications for successful and unsuccessful leadership among presidents. Psychological Science, 24(12), 2379-2389