narcissism and reflections

post #319

     Today is a quiet day for me, in the company of my own personal head cold, but I am determined to touch on a serious topic – which is narcissism. Although my blog is about photography and Appalachia, visitors here do know I sometimes think about other things as well.  In fact, I have already mentioned in a recent post that narcissism is not a personality TRAIT, but rather it’s a personality DISORDER. 
       I now feel I need to speak up some more about this condition. In fact I was encouraged to do so when yesterday I read that it’s one of the things film maker Michael Moore is also concerned about as far as this presidency is concerned. We are a democracy after all, and caring means participating and speaking truth to power.
      I am not talking here about who should have won the election. I am mostly confused why few politicians seem to have bothered to research narcissism to find out for themselves what the word actually means. Do they really not know? Do they think narcissism merely means being full of yourself? Are they denying the possibility that such a mental health impairment requires vigilance?
     I don’t claim in the least to be a mental health professional. Instead I have an overactive curiousity gene, and I have had occasion in my life to learn as much about narcissism as I could. It’s not a pretty picture. And by its very nature is very hard to treat. For one thing, admitting a mistake is apparently almost impossible to do for someone with serious narcissism.

                   We as a nation seem unwilling to explore the true reality of many things, including narcissism, therefore it doesn't get enough due respect. Quite simply, while no one wants to make fun of anyone’s mental disorder, we should at least be willing to become well enough informed to admit that being narcissistic can cause major problems. I am not listing the symptoms here because they’re easy to look up. I’d wager it’s not the only issue Trump has, but I don’t claim to know as much about whatever the others might be.
                 The consequence of so many heads in the sand is that someone who exhibits every sign of serious narcissism will soon be our president. The real question is what the backup plan is when a president ends up being potentially unable to handle his job.
                How many of his cabinet choices are willing now to take responsibility for what difficulties lie ahead! How much enabling is going on by his “team” and by others who should be better informed and show more backbone!  To me, it seems like too many politicians are overlooking this devastating reality for some reason of their own. If they do understand the facts but don’t mention it, then each of them becomes partly responsible for how this truth affects the future for all of us. We have to hope that some of them are working behind the scene to stem the chaos.

Donald Trump can’t change, and he won’t change. This condition has nothing to do with  how much money or how many buildings around the world a person has.  Or how smart he is or how rich.  Or even how many votes he managed to secure. However, it may have everything to do with how much he wants to think Vladimir Putin likes him.

All I am doing here is using my small voice to speak up on this topic, one I just happen to know something about. As much as I hope I am proven wrong, it feels very serious to me.  NOTE: my sister has just sent a link to an excellent article on this same topic. I highly recommend it: Narcissism

I want to end this post with two wonderful photos my daughter took this week. The second one is literally and figuratively a call for personal reflection, which I obviously took to heart before writing this post. Thanks for taking the time to read these concerns of mine....    
         Today's post is not like any other I've done, so next week I plan to share with my blog visitors how I usually pull a post together.

 
     

five years old and on the pond the day before -- the rope is for being pulled over the ice by her dad --

and the next morning -- still enough ice below to come close to walking on water!