We are in the waning days of Donald the Dumb as our fake president. Sooner or later, he will have to leave his underground bunker under the White House. In just over two months, the nightmare will end for many of us but not all of us. Some of the over 10 million people who contracted COVID-19 will have medical problems for years to come. Even worse, we have a quarter million Americans who aren’t suffering anymore, because they died.

Trump inherited millions from his father and messed up that fortune. Therefore, as a failing businessman, he decided to become our president. While he claims that he was second only to Lincoln, no one believes him.

Trump has been able to take a Greek tragedy about an imaginary person called Narcissus (Νάρκισσος), and he becomes the 21st century manifestation of that Greek myth. Narcissus was so self-enamored by his good looks that he couldn’t leave looking at himself in a reflecting pool. As a result, Narcissus angered Nemesis, a Greek goddess. Nemesis punished Narcissus for his hubris of self-love. What did Nemesis do as her form of punishment? Narcissus spent the rest of his life looking at himself in the pool of water.

“Aren’t I great?”

A couple of millennia later, the American Psychiatric Association classified all the various psych disorders into a large manuscript called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Narcissus has the honor of living on as a psych disorder, narcissistic personality disorder (301.81).

A present-day Nemesis is punishing Trump.

“Aren’t I great?”

The following is a list of the behaviors of those suffering from narcissistic personality disorder:

Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance, Expecting to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it Exaggerating your achievements and talents Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people Requiring constant admiration Having a sense of entitlement Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations Taking advantage of others to get what you want Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others Being envious of others and believing others envy you Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner

You don’t need to be a psychiatrist to see the precise parallels between narcissistic personality disorder and Trump. My grandmother wasn’t a psychiatrist. Nevertheless, she was able to cut to the chase when she observed people acting like Trump. Her one-liner was, “I love me. I think I'm grand. When I go to heaven, I'll hold my hand.”

A contemporary of my grandmother was George Santayana who came up with a similar one-liner, “The highest form of vanity is love of fame.” However, unless a person’s love of fame isn’t controlled, the narcissistic personality disorder will be dangerous to that person and society.

Erich Fromm, a noted psychologist of the 20th century wrote, “Narcissism is the earliest stage of human development, and the person who in later life has returned to this stage is incapable of love; in the extreme case he is insane.” I wonder how Fromm would diagnosis Trump mental health. While we diagnosis Trump, what’s his supporters in Congress and out in the boonies?

The issue is that Trump looks into the pool of water in order to get approval. Nevertheless, Narcissism is like a drug addiction. Trump needs a fix, but the fix doesn’t resolve anything. He wants more praise, but he knows that he is a failure.

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