
I wrote the Art of the Deal with Trump. His self-sabotage is rooted in his past - tim333
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/16/i-wrote-the-art-of-the-deal-with-trump-his-self-sabotage-is-rooted-in-his-past/?tid=pm_pop#comments
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tim333
I know this doesn't seem a very HN topic but I found it an interesting take on
the psychology of why Trump is as he is with a combative father and his
brothers suicide, rather than politics as such.

~~~
wahern
The article describes a classic narcissist or someone with a similar
personality disorder. And I don't mean the popular culture caricature of a
narcissist. And I don't mean it in any hyperbolic, rhetorical or judgmental
sort of way.

Such a severe disorder doesn't come about because of a domineering father or a
brother's suicide late in life, though those things obviously provide yarn for
spinning overly complex explanations, and a familiar narrative for empathetic
people to sympathize with. As the article explains, Trump's personality traits
were distinctly evident and exhibited as a small child. I find it odd that the
author doesn't put 2+2 together. The author says in one paragraph that Trump's
worldview was profoundly shaped by his father, but everything else related by
the author either conflicts with that assessment or is more easily explained
by an intrinsic (at birth) personality disorder.

The most generous interpretation is that the author means that Trump's sense
of his own worldview was shaped by his father--that is, Trump used his
relationship with his father as the foundation for building a narrative about
the world and why he felt compelled to behave in certain ways.

Trump is who he is because of biology. People who don't see that are
projecting way too much of themselves. Which, BTW, is precisely how
narcissists and psychopaths are so adept at manipulating people within their
sphere: they may lack empathy but they become skillful, intentionally or
unintentionally, at manipulating others' empathy.

Empathy is the ability to see yourself in others. You look at Trump and you
see another human being like yourself, and you try to understand him by
contemplating how you'd feel in his shoes. Someone without empathy looks at
you and sees a walking, talking piece of meat. The difference between an
extreme psychopath and an extreme narcissist is that the narcissist, for some
reason he doesn't understand, still measures his self-worth by others'
attention. In that sense you're less a piece of meat and more like a potential
point in some grand game.

Personally, I think this is highly relevant to HN because psychopathy and
narcissism are both predicated by and explainable in game-theoretic,
evolutionary terms. Theoretically you can even work out an equilibrium rate of
non-empathic people in a population and test it. Extremes like this (and
Trump's personality is almost absurdly extreme) are gold mines for genetic and
behavioral research, just as extremes are gold mines in other fields of
research. People like Trump provide invaluable insight, directly and
indirectly (i.e. how people respond to him), into the nature and biological
basis of empathy, consciousness, and cooperative group behavior.

------
slitaz
This is a relevant article to HN.

It articulates what to likely expect from the presidency in the future.

It also brings up a certain psychological profile that we may find in startups
and their founders.

