Narcissism is epidemic and there is scarcely a domain that is immune. A Clear and Present Danger: Narcissism in the Era of Donald Trump brings together bestselling authors, university professors, and practicing clinicians. "Every country has the government it deserves", said Alexis de Toqueville, author of Democracy in America. Whatever history eventually records about the 2016 presidential election, this frank and thoughtful exploration of narcissism will prove to be a timely and timeless study.
Narcissism demands to be mirrored and refuses to be challenged. It demands acclaim, obedience, and accommodation, while disregarding others. Whether narcissism overtakes the home, the workplace, or the national stage, everyone who comes under Narcissus's spell, both the narcissist and their subjects, suffer.
Pundits insist that politics has seldom been as polarized as it became during the 2016 election in the USA. But there is a long history of what the religious scholar Mircea Eleade, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Henry Corbin, and C. G. Jung described as coincidentia oppositorum, the coincidence of opposites. While Donald Trump galvanized a vast number of angry, disaffected voters, Senator Bernie Sanders mobilized enormous crowds of young voters who were intent on changing the status quo.
The contributors share a hope that these essays will become a mirror for self-examination. Gaze into the reflecting pool, but beware that you do not become absorbed in your own image and the echo of your own voice. Then let your gaze return to the world around you, to the people who share your life, to the nation and planet you inhabit. And as Dr. Estés reminds us in the closing pages, remember "We were made for times like these."
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Front Matters
Introduction to Narcissistic Personality Disorder
The Goldwater Rule - Crossing the Border of Assessing Public Figures
Section 1: Opening Thoughts
Narcissis's Forlorn Hope: the Fading Image in a Pool too Deep - James Hollis
Section 2: Narcissism in the Era of Donald Trump
The Trump Complex, the John Wayne Archetype and States of National Possession. - Steven Buser
Healthy Presidential Narcissism: Is that Possible? - Nathan Schwartz-Salant
Trump and the American Selfie: Archetypal Defenses of the Group Spirit - Tom Singer
Trumplestilskin: Narcissism & the Will to Power - Leonard Cruz
Fascist Style in Narcissistic Fashion - John McClain
Waking Up! Malignant Narcissism: How Bluebeard and Hitler Came To Power - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
The Trump Phenomenon - Thomas Patrick Lavin
Section 3: Personal Narcissism
The Hall of Mirrors: Narcissism and Celebrity in the World of Twitter and Reality TV - Kathryn Madden
Narcissism and the Masculine - James Wyly
Narcissism in the Home - Nancy Swift Furlotti
Narcissism and Social Media: Eros Held Hostage- Eve Maram
Section 4: Archetypal Narcissism
The Wounded Healer: Transformation through Compassion - Jean Shinoda Bolen
Who was Narcissisus? - Alden Josey
Narcissism in Our Collective Home, Our American Culture - Nancy Swift Furlotti
The Demonic and Narcissistic Power of the Media in Shakespeare's Macbeth - Susan Rowland
The Opposite of Loneliness is not Togetherness, it is Intimacy - Laurence de Rosen
America in the Grip of Alpha Narcissism: The Predator Within and Amongst Each and All of Us - Jacqueline West
Section 5: Closing Thoughts
Come, There is Much that We Can yet Do! - Robert Moore
Do Not Lose Heart, We Were Made for These Times - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
