Harper West, a clinical psychologist who studies emotional problems as adaptive responses to fear, trauma, and lack of secure attachment, was interviewed about the odd relationship between Donald Trump and his supporters. West is an expert in shame, domestic violence, and in surviving narcissistic abuse by parents and partners. Her book, Pack Leader Psychology, won the Ben Franklin Award for Psychology.
Here are some excerpts from that interview with her:
> I compare Trump to an abusive personality. Abusers dominate and take advantage of their victims, who may be completely unaware of the abuse. Many Trump supporters seem clueless to the harm he is causing them.
> Abusive and authoritarian personalities create an effect not much unlike a cult, with some people becoming spellbound and submissive to a charismatic leader.
> Provoking fear is something all authoritarian leaders do because they know how effective it is at securing fervent supporters. When our brains are hijacked by fear, our ability to think rationally goes out the window. We become self-absorbed with short-term physical or emotional survival, a way of thinking that does not lend itself to comprehending complex, long-term problems.
> Trump is an extreme example of what I call an “other-blamer”. These types of people, due to their childhood attachment traumas, have low self-worth and are overly sensitive to shaming experiences, such as being criticized, making mistakes, failing, or being “less than” in any way. To manage shame they learned to blame-shift to others to preserve their fragile psyches. This shows up in an inability to be accountable and admit mistakes with equanimity. “Other-blamers” are an abusive style of personality, since offloading blame to others creates unfair and unbalanced relationships and can even reach severe levels of physical violence.
> “Other-blamers” see nothing wrong with Trump lashing out in rage or blame. In fact, they applaud it. This is exactly what they wish to do in their lives — rage and blame to feel powerful and keep criticism at bay. Trump’s supporters love it when he refuses to admit he is wrong, because they, too, do not like to be held accountable. In his entitlement, over-confidence and bloated ego, they see themselves and feel vindicated. They can relate to his fear of accountability, because they suffer from the same trait. Seeing authoritarian, immoral and unethical behavior in a successful billionaire, they conclude that these are not faults, but positive attributes.
> This type of person is going to be very difficult to turn away from their true belief in Trump, because to do so they would, in essence, have to reject themselves.
> I wish I could say Trump supporters are well-informed and have a healthy relationship with the truth, but the research is clear that many get their news from a very restricted selection of sources that tend to corroborate their limited viewpoint and that tend to be very fact-averse, such as Fox News.
> But from a psychological perspective, we can also understand that most of these stubborn Trump supporters continue to back him for emotional reasons that go beyond a misunderstanding of the facts on policy positions.
> “Other-blamers” are in general not open-minded, which can lead them to be misinformed. To learn new information requires an admission that one does not already know that information, which can provoke feelings of inadequacy in “other-blamers”. In response, they are often unwilling to read, think deeply, or be well-informed, which by all accounts describes Trump and seems to describe many of his supporters.
> To acknowledge one is wrong takes good shame tolerance and personal fortitude, which Trump and many of his supporters apparently do not have.
Full article:
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/trump- ... nts=disqus