{"id":221,"date":"2016-11-18T00:56:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T00:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electionanalysis2016.us\/?page_id=221"},"modified":"2016-11-18T16:55:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T16:55:30","slug":"the-narcissistic-capture-of-american-nationalism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/the-narcissistic-capture-of-american-nationalism\/","title":{"rendered":"The narcissistic capture of American nationalism"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"row \"><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"col-lg-3 col-md-3 col-xs-12 col-sm-3\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-591\" src=\"http:\/\/www.electionanalysis2016.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Barry-Richards-bw-300x300.png\" alt=\"barry-richards-bw\" width=\"227\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Barry-Richards-bw-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Barry-Richards-bw-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Barry-Richards-bw-60x60.png 60w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Barry-Richards-bw.png 344w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 227px) 100vw, 227px\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"ProfileText8\">\n<p class=\"BIO\"><strong><span class=\"CharOverride-35\">Prof Barry\u00a0Richards<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"BIO\"><em>Professor of Political Psychology at Bournemouth University. His current research interests are in extremist ideologies, freedom of speech, and the psychology of nationalism. His book Emotional Governance (Palgrave, 2007) was about the emotional public sphere, and the forthcoming What Holds Us Together (Karnac, 2017) links\u00a0popular culture to the crisis of\u00a0politics and to\u00a0national identity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"BIO\"><span class=\"CharOverride-37\">Email: brichards@bmth.ac.uk<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-254\" src=\"http:\/\/www.electionanalysis2016.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-300x300.png\" alt=\"US2016 - Section 8\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-768x771.png 768w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-60x60.png 60w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8.png 1018w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"CampaignQuote8\">Section 8: Result and Beyond<\/h5>\n<div class=\"page-list\"><ul class=\"list-group-item\"><li class=\"page_item page-item-217\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/trump-and-the-populist-earthquake-in-american-politics\/\">Trump and the populist earthquake in American politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-219\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/democracy-trumped\/\">Democracy Trumped<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-223\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/with-a-mainstream-politics-seemingly-devoid-of-answers-many-vote-for-the-previously-unthinkable\/\">With a mainstream politics seemingly devoid of answers, many vote for the previously unthinkable<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-225\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/irrational-beliefs-matter\/\">Irrational beliefs matter<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-227\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/the-politics-of-de-legitimacy\/\">The politics of de-legitimacy<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-229\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/there-are-six-types-of-ugly-american-and-donald-trump-is-all-of-them\/\">There are six types of ugly American and Donald Trump is all of them<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-231\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/reflections-on-the-2016-us-election\/\">Reflections on the 2016 US Election<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-233\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/the-word-stupid-power\/\">The W\u00f8rd: stupid power<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"col-lg-9 col-md-9 col-xs-12 col-sm-9\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"FIRST-PARA\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">A striking feature of the 2016 Presidential election was the strength of the simplistic delusionality which the successful candidate offered, and which appeared to be so warming for so many people. \u2018Donald will put the mines back.\u2019 \u2018Donald\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"REGULAR\">will build a wall.\u2019 \u2018Donald will make America great again.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">Of course, the call of simplistic and delusional rhetoric is hardly a new phenomenon. Even in his serious pursuit of conspiracy theories, Trump stands in a long political tradition, that of the \u2018paranoid style\u2019, as the historian Richard Hofstadter called it in 1964. But there is a case for seeing in 2016 a new level of obliviousness to both moral principle and to reality-testing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">At one level, Trump\u2019s appeal is because he is a populist and nationalist. Populism is usually a divisive force, but is not always as toxic as Trumpism threatens to be. Nationalism is an empty container, which can be filled with many different kinds of politics, and different kinds of emotion. To understand the surge of Trumpist nationalism,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"REGULAR\">we need to analyse it psychologically as well as politically.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\">An American historian who wrote with scholarly eloquence about American politics was Christopher Lasch, author in 1979 of\u00a0<span class=\"ITALIC\">The Culture of Narcissism.\u00a0<\/span>While a lot of hostile commentary on Trumpism has used the term \u2018narcissist\u2019 to refer to the man himself, there has been less examination of how the basis of his appeal to American voters lies in his reflection of their own ideological narcissism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">To be clear, narcissism in the technical sense is not a spontaneous arrogance or selfishness, a self-love which some people just happen to have and others don\u2019t. As Lasch described, it takes many behavioural forms, some of which are very different from the popular image of the preening narcissist. Essentially it is an internal state of mind, a delusional inflation of the self which is a defence against anxiety, against unconscious fears of weakness and abandonment. Believe in your own invulnerability, and you will be fine. Given the vulnerability and dependency of the human infant, the tendency to fall into narcissistic fantasy is something we all have to work through in emotional development, and which situations of insecurity in adult life may re-evoke. In a world that seems dangerous, a narcissistically-based belief in your own powers to transcend reality can smother anxiety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">The defensive narcissism of Trump the person is clearly on view, in a form consistent with the popular view of how a narcissist behaves. The absurd braggadocio would be hard to sustain, even as a deliberate performance, by someone not bunkered in an experience of their own majesty. Precisely what fear and insecurity lies beneath, we can only guess. More pressing, and more do-able, is the task of understanding why this toxic defence\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"REGULAR\">is so plausible and welcome across the American electorate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">American nationalism has probably always had a strong element of narcissistic grandiosity, even when American power in the world meant that its citizens could feel safe at home and had less need to fantasize invulnerability. But part of the legacy of 9\/11 has been a narcissistic wound, a gash in the fantasy of American invincibility. Such an experience will stimulate some people to face the complexities of the world, while others \u2013 those with more anxiety and fewer emotional resources to manage their anxiety &#8211; will cling more tightly to images of the supremacy which Trump promised to recover immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">The moral strengths and creative richness of American society have created visions of the American nation not based on narcissistic defences. But the scale of Trumpist nationalism suggests that Lasch\u2019s diagnosis was more accurate than we might have thought when Obama was elected. When deployed in the field of political ideologies, narcissism can rapidly conjure up a volatile nationalism, a huge shield which offers massive reassurance against many kinds of anxiety &#8211; social, economic, and cultural, and also existential.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">Trumpism offers a magical healing of the narcissistic wound festering since 9\/11, a complete restoration of the narcissistic defence. This is a psychically turbo-charged nationalistic populism, in which hatred of the \u2018elite\u2019 can reach hallucinogenic levels of intensity. It does not matter that Trump himself belongs to a global elite, one which has led the assault on national cultures. The strategic trick of the populist is always to appear from outside power, to be the virgin politician. Whether the narcissism which Trump embodies can be contained when he is in the White House, or whether it will have calamitous consequences, may depend on how strong and malignant are his needs for control and domination, as well as on how much the complex realities of politics may restrain him. And realities aside, whether 47.5% of the American public continue to support him depends on how much the narcissistic defence which he offers continues to work for them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-221","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The narcissistic capture of American nationalism - US Election Analysis 2016<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/the-narcissistic-capture-of-american-nationalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The narcissistic capture of American nationalism - 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