Any DUers with psychological or psychiatric training

[orangecrush]

What is wrong with Stephen Miller?

Name calling aside.

I can't grasp what kind of mind is capable of unleashing such a firehouse of pure hate.

He undoubtedly sees the results of his handiwork, the killings, the beatings, the grief of families torn asunder, the crying of the children, and is gleeful without a drop of remorse


It's not even intermittent, it is a constant thing.

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. Diagnostically difficult to say

He could be a candidate for Antisocial Personality Disorder, disregard for the rights of others with no remorse, but all his statements and actions related to that are indirect- he orders others to carry out his sociopathic wishes. He doesn’t have a history of robbing banks, or conning seniors out of their retirement funds, or threatening his neighbors.

I find armchair psychology not very useful in resisting this regime. We don’t have to know “what’s wrong” with Miller or Trump or anyone to know that what they are doing is wrong, and focus our efforts on how to fight back.

(I am a retired therapist)

[stopdiggin]

4. we can all agree that this guy IS a very strange (and repulsive) specimen

While it profits little to delve much deeper .... Unless it bears on some way to rid ourselves (and a suffering country) of his presence.

[True Dough]

6. Out of curiosity,

was your practice called 'Fiendish Thingy'?

You would have attracted a certain type of client with that business name, I'd imagine.

[TxGuitar]

12. Lots of Beatles fans would choose a

Therapist with that name if/when they needed "Help!"

[artemisia1]

2. Malignant narcissism with sociopathy, imho, though I am not a credentialled expert. Nevertheless, I have 40+

years studying human behavior and this is my view.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

13. I think there's an element of insecurity to him, also...

The guy is like 4’ 11”. Surely, he’s got an inferiority complex under there to bolster his hate of everyone else.

Not a doc, but I spent over 15 years transcribing all kinds of medical interactions, and the psych notes were some of the weirdest. (The shrinks were often as bizarre as the patients…)

[H2O Man]

14. "malignant narcissism"

is Erich Fromm's term for sociopathy/psychopathy.

[leftstreet]

3. Shoved into too many school lockers n/t

[True Dough]

8. One more time!

And we'll lock it up for eternity!

[orangecrush]

21. Weld it

[tulipsandroses]

5. He's no different from racists from the past. We are just not used to seeing it this close and up front

Think about the violence that was visited on black people before the civil rights movement. The open brutality. Those folks did not have a psychiatric illness. Folks happily attended lynchings in the public square. This was the norm for many.

I think for many of us, we are hard wired to see the good in people first. It boggles our minds when people display this level of malevolence. There has to be a reason. What if the only reason is white supremacy.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. No need to pathologize him. He's simply racist asshole.

[Ocelot II]

9. Hard to say. I raised the question to a psychiatrist I know about why some people are evil,

and we got into the whole bad vs. mad discussion. Apparently nobody really knows. Miller has been a bigoted little shit ever since he was in high school, so his attitude is nothing new, and seems only to have gotten worse. Where did he get it? Did his parents not hug him enough? Was he just a bad seed from the beginning? Some people are just bad; Trump was throwing rocks at a neighbor's baby when he was a kindergartener. His parents, especially his father, seem to have been pretty dreadful, but the other siblings didn't become psychopaths as far as we know. Some members of Miller's family regard him as thoroughly evil and have disowned him. DSM-V defines personality disorders but it doesn't explain where they come from. It's a very old and still unanswered question.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Psychopath.

Easy diagnosis.

[orangecrush]

16. I think he's on the low end of the Hitler - Pol Pot spectum

But would rise to that level in a heartbeat if unimpeded.

[Phoenix61]

11. He lacks empathy and morally is a three year old.

He is incapable of assessing the long-term consequences of his actions. When he doesn’t get what he wants he lashes out in anger.
Kholberg’s Stages of Moral Development
The first stage ages 3-8
Pre conventional one of the attributes is…
Self-Centered Moral Reasoning
In this stage, children’s moral reasoning is often self-centered. They focus on how actions affect them personally, rather than on a broader understanding of fairness or ethics.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/kohlberg.html#Level-1-%E2%80%93-Preconventional-Morality
I don’t think he enjoys hurting others because that would require him to recognize another’s feelings and one needs empathy for that. He doesn’t care on a fundamentally non-human way.

M Scott Peck’s People of the Lie is a great read about people like him and a lot of others in the administration.

[orangecrush]

17. Thank you

[H2O Man]

15. Recommended.

In his classic book "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness," Erich Fromm noted that when a sociopath (his term was "malignant narcissist&quot gains political power, their gravity will pull anti-social personality disordered people close to them. We see this in every office in this adfministration. Next, those people serving with him will have license to engage in cruelty.

For a more detailed explanation, people can read my three-part interview with Dr. Bandy Lee, which was posted on DU in 2020.

[orangecrush]

18. Thank you

A link to the interview would be appreciated.

[msongs]

19. psych training - does watching newhart count? nt

[orangecrush]

22. Of course

Great show!

[AnotherMother4Peace]

20. He has extremely awkward mannerisms, especially when challenged. The way he speaks, shifts his eyes,

holds his body, tilts his head - he's socially awkward. It seems that the idea that he's wrong is a personal threat and challenge to him. That's when he displays his extremely awkward mannerisms.

I believe that he was bullied as a child, and learned how to be a bully. He learned how to be a cruel bully, more cruel than the people who bullied him.

From my experience working with children/adults on the autism spectrum, he may be autistic. He reminds me a bit of Sheldon from the Big Bang theory (the early seasons). Children w/autism are different and are often bullied. Their social skills are limited, but often have great knowledge about subjects that interest them.

I had a little group of 5 year olds at the beach, all playing in the sand, except for one little boy. He was trying to figure out which rays of the sun were penetrating the umbrellas, and wanted to talk to the other kids about it. Needless to say they weren't interested.

EDIT to add: I believe he doesn't think people can love unconditionally, can give for the sake of giving, care about others because of empathy. I really believe that he thinks everyone has ulterior motives, and judges people as such.

[orangecrush]

23. Thanks

I thought the boy asking about the sun rays was beautiful.