Torn about whether Trump is an act?

[pnwmom]

19. He almost certainly has a personality disorder called narcissism. Nowadays, a psychiatrist would probably say

a personality disorder with "features of narcissism," but he is a textbook case of the old textbook definition of "narcissistic personality disorder."

I have come across a few of these people in my lifetime, but no one on Trump's scale. He does trump all.

A true narcissist has no empathy; no ability to see the world from anyone's point of view except his own. (This is what would distinguish that person from someone with "healthy narcissism," who has a lot of self-confidence but can put himself in other people's shoes.) This person has such a strong need to be perfect, to be better and superior to everyone else, that he convinces himself that he really is.

And even though these people are disordered in their thinking, that disorder doesn't have to keep them from success. People are drawn to a narcissist's sense of his power, and as long as they cater to him, he will respond positively. He wants beyond anything to be adored, and as long as you are among the adoring, he will be happy to have you near him. If you poke at him, he'll want to crush you like a bug . . . or like Megyn Kelly.

It's the combination of extreme boastfulness, the need to be utterly superior in every way, the inability to admit any flaw, plus an utter lack of empathy -- a complete inability to see the world from any point of view other than his own -- that distinguishes a pathological narcissist from the garden-variety selfish jerk.

And while we laugh at him now, it is horrifying to imagine what would happen if he somehow managed to become President.