Donald Trump has not been 'hinged'

[speak easy]

since childhood. By nature and his father's abusive nuture, he approached adulthood as a shell , a container of reptilian impulses bent on survival.

Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.

Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.

You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.

If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction.

The Psychopath: The Mask of Sanity (2011)

The first rule of reptilian survival, is lying, lying about yourself, because if you have no empathy, no thoughts beyond your own selfish impulses, you have to learn to fake being a human being - and quickly.

Trump is not 'unhinged', only 'uncloaked'.

[brer cat]

1. K&R

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. Reading Mary's 1st book on the subject of her uncle reaffirmed....

that children raised devoid of love, structure, conscience, and a sense of right or wrong, will grow to be adults just like one Donald Trump.

With a PhD. in Clinical Psychology, Mary Trump should know.

[speak easy]

3. I disagree with Mary to some extent.

A psychologist will tend to emphasise nurture over nature. People can survive severely abusive childhoods, without becoming adult monsters. The many seeds of abuse found fertile soil in Donald J. Trump.

[mopinko]

5. i agree. have a kid who is bpd.

she had a pretty good childhood. not perfect, but never missed a meal, never slept anywhere but her own bed, never got hit, had all the stuff. but clearly had a kink in her brain at an early age.
nurture can help, tho. she got a ton of help, and functions pretty well. i suspect she has just the kind of kink that goes far in the corporate world. she climbed the ladder quickly.

nurture is less than half the equation, imho. in all things. we think we make choices, but were just doing what the voices in our heads tell us to do.

[democrank]

4. I never understood this notion of Trump being "unhinged"

To my way of thinking, it’s same old, same old…..just more of it, more often.

[Blue Owl]

6. K&R

[Silent3]

7. The Trump version of being "hinged" is keeping up that "ability to conceal from other people...

...that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs".

Trump was much better at this when younger. His now-weaker ability to do so waxes and wanes, I'd hazard a guess, partly due to stress, partly related to the relative potency of various drugs in his system at any given time.

I think over the years his lows keep dipping a little lower, and his highs fail to reach previous peaks of performance. But, so far at least, it's still a see-sawing decline we're witnessing. We keep declaring that "Trump is having a meltdown", but then he manages to press on and once again do better (at least at fooling the rubes).

I keep hoping we'll see a steeper general decline with less and less ability to swing the upward swings.