The Day Narcissist Barack Obama Snaps and Loses It

Sam Vaknin is a friend of mine and we have compare observation about AKA Obama's precarious mental state since before the election.  Here Sam lays out the dangerous implications in detail.  Please click the link to Global Politician and read the entire article.  Sam's explanations will be a blueprint for what to expect as AKA Obama comes unraveled!

The Day Narcissist Barack Obama Snaps and Loses It

By Sam Vaknin
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"

His domestic policy agenda hotly disputed and resented by large swathes of the electorate, Obama has become an albatross on the neck of a hitherto adulating Democratic Party. Come November 2010, he is bound to suffer a resounding rebuke at the polls – this on top of an unprecedented drop in his approval ratings. In July 2008, I was the first to suggest that Barack Obama may be a narcissist and may well be afflicted with Narcissistic Personality Disorder: a pernicious and all-pervasive mental health problem. By now this has become accepted wisdom: Obama is being labelled “narcissist” by pundits and mental health practitioners alike.

Now that Obama is experiencing defeats and setbacks and is subjected to acrimonious criticism and disagreement even among his rank and file, his malignant narcissism has frightening implications.

The front put up by the narcissist is penetrated only in times of great crises that threaten the narcissist's ability to obtain Narcissistic Supply. The narcissist then "falls apart" in a process of disintegration known as decompensation. The dynamic forces which render him paralysed and fake – his vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and fears – are starkly exposed as his defences crumble and become dysfunctional. The narcissist's extreme dependence on his social milieu for the regulation of his sense of self-worth is rendered painfully and pitifully evident as he is reduced to begging and cajoling.

At such times, the narcissist acts out (erupts) self-destructively and anti-socially. His mask of superior equanimity is pierced by displays of impotent rage, self-loathing, self-pity, and crass attempts at manipulation of his friends, family, and colleagues. His ostensible benevolence and caring evaporate. He feels caged and threatened and he reacts as any animal would do: by striking back at his perceived tormentors, at his hitherto "nearest" and "dearest".

The narcissist’s mental structure is a house of cards: precariously balanced brittle, susceptible to criticism and disagreement, vulnerable to the incessant encounter with a harsh and intolerant world. Deep inside, narcissists feel inadequate, phony, fake, inferior, and deserving of punishment. He is besieged by deeply ingrained (though at times not conscious) feelings of inadequacy, fears of failure, masochistic desires to be penalized, a fluctuating sense of self-worth (regulated by Narcissistic Supply), and an overwhelming sensation of fakery.



The Grandiosity Gap (between a fantastically grandiose - and unlimited - self-image and actual - limited - accomplishments and achievements) is grating. Its recurrence threatens the narcissistic personality. The narcissist finds to his chagrin that people out there are much less admiring, accommodating and accepting as his shortcomings, vacuity, and failures become more glaring by the day. The narcissist often becomes the target of constant derision and mockery, a sorry sight indeed. His claims for superiority appear less plausible and substantial the more and the longer he makes them.



Pathological narcissism - originally a defense mechanism intended to shield the narcissist from an injurious world - becomes the main source of hurt, a generator of injuries, counterproductive and dangerous. Overwhelmed by negative or absent Narcissistic Supply, the narcissist is forced to let go of it.



The narcissist then resorts to self-delusion. Unable to completely ignore contrarian opinion and data - he transmutes them. Unable to face the dismal failure that he is, the narcissist partially withdraws from reality. To soothe and salve the pain of disillusionment, he administers to his aching soul a mixture of lies, distortions, half-truths and outlandish interpretations of events around him. These solutions can be classified thus:
http://www.globalpolitician.com/26628-obama-elctions-narcissism-usa


AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)


Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self
Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East.
He served as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review,
PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI)
Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central
East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com/