The Psychology of Trump Derangement

Why, in the wake of Donald Trump’s convincing victory in the presidential election, would it occur to somebody to pick up their phone, film themselves screaming and shouting “Why?!” and “No!” and then post this online, much to the amusement of Trump supporters? What is the psychology of an adult who records themselves having a tantrum, of the kind of 3 year-old might have, and then publishes it?

Let’s put aside the publishing it for a moment and simply look at the fact of having a tantrum at all. Such people are obviously deeply unhappy that Trump has won; indeed they are emotionally unhinged by this fact. As I have explored in my book Woke Eugenics: How Social Justice is a Mask for Social Darwinism, numerous studies concur that leftists are relatively high in the personality trait of Neuroticism; in experiencing negative feelings such as anger, paranoia and anxiety strongly. They are also high in grandiose Narcissism; in believing that they are perfect and superior and in being highly entitled and manipulative. This combines Neuroticism and low Agreeableness.

The grandiosity element of Narcissism develops as a consequence of Neuroticism: You feel intensely negative about yourself so you tell yourself that you are wonderful; you create a false self, in this case one in which you are morally perfect and powerful. The “entitlement” element is a consequence of low Agreeableness and can develop if you are spoilt: you always get everything you want so you have never had to develop coping mechanisms for not getting what you want.

Trump’s victory has inflicted two Narcissistic injuries on these kinds of people. Firstly, it has left them questioning their own superiority (as if they are wrong in their Woke worldview, then the illusion of superiority is shattered) and it has left them feeling powerless and unimportant and so confronted with their own unfathomable negative feelings.

Secondly, they haven’t got what they want. They are not used to this and they have not learnt to cope with it happening. What is the result? Uncontrollable fear and rage. Like a child, they have a tantrum as a means of bullying mummy into giving them what they want or into ensuring that they are not failed by mummy again.

In addition, they are likely to feel an intense sense of fear. Borderline Personality Disorder is often co-morbid with Narcissism. Sufferers have a fundamental fear of abandonment, display intense mood-swings (as if stuck at a child-like stage), oscillate between extremes (such as Narcissism to self-loathing; deep love to intense hatred) and, thus, have unstable goals. Under stress, they can display psychosis, in which they become absurdly paranoid. Being psychotic is a survival strategy in a dangerous and unstable world; it will cause the evil orange man to be frightened and keep away from you. They are adapted, in other words, to an unpredictable environment, in which parental love has been capricious. This fear of abandonment, and consequent Borderline Personality, may be behind an aspect of these breakdowns. For extreme-leftists, the state is Mummy and the state has abandoned them to the wicked, abusive Step-Daddy.

Obviously, the fact of having a tantrum has two positive consequences in a purely mechanical sense. If you are stressed then your muscles tighten. Having a tantrum releases tension in the muscles. It also releases endorphins. Hence, it makes you feel slightly better to have a little breakdown.

But that explains how they feel. What about the performative element to these breakdowns? Why publish them online? One answer is that it allows them to socially signal to other leftists just how committed to “social justice” they are. Rather like North Koreans competitively crying upon the death of Kim Il-Sung, they are competitively furious upset and aghast as a way of indicating just how deeply they believe in Woke ideas.

There may also be a manipulative element to this as well. In a sense, they might be seen to be vulnerability-signalling; signalling that they are out of control and need help. The left are not only high in Grandiose Narcissism but also in Vulnerable Narcissism. More common among women, you believe you are wonderful and that you deserve to be looked after. To achieve this, you present yourself as a misunderstood victim, the world’s biggest victim, and this manipulates people into doing what you want. Are they hoping that their cries of pain will persuade people to look after them by standing up to the evil orange man?

Their problem is that the more they engage in such behaviour, and the more extreme it becomes, the more likely people are to look into what is happening and to realise that these people are simply deeply mentally unstable and selfish.

They are the 15 year-old girls who burn themselves with cigarette lighters to get attention and to feel a sense of control over their chaotic world. They are manipulative and dangerous and should probably be institutionalised, yet Americans have been forced to live inside their heads for at least the past decade. Hopefully, as well as building a physical wall on the southern border, Trump’s victory will allow Americans to build a psychological wall between themselves and these nasty, manipulative young women.