AS EUROPE reels at the audacity of President Trump’s claim for Greenland (News, 16 January), and new tariffs are announced on UK goods, I am reminded of how often the current President of the United States has been informally diagnosed as a “narcissist”. This manifests in the constant bigging up of his achievements and his contempt for those who dare to oppose him.
At a more primitive level, he seems to see himself as irresistible: the golden hair, the eyes that search but rarely smile. Last year, he condemned a new portrait of himself for the Colorado State Capitol. He had insisted that the portrait be mounted in a gold frame, so that it would glimmer; and yet, when he saw it, he claimed that it distorted him. The reality was that it made him look more ordinary than usual, which was, for him, simply intolerable.
Narcissism is self-love. The Latin poet Ovid tells of a beautiful youth who attracted many admirers. Eventually, he caught sight of his own image in a pool and fell in love with the image to the point at which he died of hunger staring at it. A narcissus bloomed where he had fallen.
Psychologists describe narcissistic personalities as grasping, manipulative, and exploitative of others, while being fundamentally untouched by them. They even seem to have an uncanny “golden” touch that makes them seem irresistible. The root of narcissism is thought to lie in a childhood in which adults have failed to “mirror” the child to himself or herself, leaving them with an inner emptiness that turns them into “collectors”, of people, money, fame, and possessions — anything to fill the gap. In the Ovid myth, the only true friend of Narcissus is the nymph, Echo, who faithfully repeats his words over and over again.
President Trump may fit the bill psychologically, but his popularity at home suggests that he may represent a common American pathology: a pride in self which reflects history. After all, the first colonists believed that they were creating “a city set on a hill”: a culture to be admired and an example to an old, tired, and conflicted Europe. The mantra of MAGA looks back to that past idealism. It conjures hope in those many Americans who believe that their fault has been to be too tolerant of others who have betrayed past American benevolence.
As I reflect on Donald Trump’s golden reign, I am grateful that those of us who live in old, tired Europe still retain a strong sense of the fallibility of our politicians. With the possible exception of Boris Johnson — and I am not sure about him — our leaders tend not to display narcissistic traits. After all, we let an empire go, and we are currently beating ourselves up with guilt about having had one. Perhaps there is something to be said for a sense of sin.