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A lot of the criticism leveled at President Trump from the political "left" has come in the form of ad hominem attacks in which they describe him as a Fascist. One "psychiatrist" from CNN describes him as being "unfit for office."
A picture does say 1000 words! This political hack- who CNN probably bought a lab coat- has been excoriated by the medical community for being irresponsible. However, upon closer examination of both Fascism and Donald Trump himself shows that his predecessor more closely resembles Fascist leaders of the past, both in practice and their malignant narcissism. After a brief look at Fascism, we'll look at the psychological aspects involved in malignant narcissism, the Messiah and God Complexes and apply them where they belong. A psychological profile of Obama closely mirrors those of Hitler and Benito Mussolini- the quintessential Fascist.
First, a brief explanation of what Fascism is in reality rather than the modern interpretation, where Fascism is just another way of saying "I don't like you, so you're a Fascist." Fascism, described by one of its founders, Giovanni Gentile as the state being supreme: "United we are strong." He compares the state to a living organism and each individual to a cell within the organism. As long as the cell serves the organism (state) it is allowed to remain. However, if the cell no longer serves, it must be eradicated like a cancer cell must be removed for the organism to remain healthy.
Fascism at its very root is a soulless, collectivist ideology. This sounds nothing at all like President Trump's individualism- where the state serves the individual- but very much like Obama. Similar to Hitler and Mussolini, Obama saw himself as the ultimate leader- above the mere legislative process, quipping: "I don't need them, I have a pen and a phone." Obama saw himself as a king, a legend in his own mind, the leader of a cult of personality. These are symptoms of malignant narcissism, a term coined by psychologist Erich Fromm to describe Hitler... "describing it as a "severe mental sickness" representing "the quintessence of evil". He characterized the condition as "the most severe pathology and the root of the most vicious destructiveness and inhumanity." (from Wikipedia)
British psychoanalyst Herbert Rosenfeld described it in the same wiki as " "a disturbing form of narcissistic personality where grandiosity is built around aggression and the destructive aspects of the self become idealized". In applying these characteristics to Trump is easy to mistake a healthy, even overactive, ego for narcissism. However, when applying these traits to Hitler, Mussolini and Obama, they fit to a "T". At the root of any narcissist personality is what was described by psychoanalyst Otto Kernberg is "anti-social behavior," which sounds nothing at all like President Trump. If anything, he's the most personable president since Bill Clinton. Obama, on the other hand, surrounded himself with sycophants (which had no problem finding, particularly among the fawning press). Also, in the interest of fairness, I went a bit further in my dime-store psychologizing and looked into the Messiah and God complexes to see if any of the characteristics fit.
An individual suffering from a Messiah complex is driven by an innate urge to save something- usually mankind itself, so, no takers here. A God complex, however... "A person with a God complex is one that has an un-moving mindset that he is infallible and not capable of being wrong or failing at any task no matter how difficult or daunting it might be. The person would most likely disregard the rules of society, and consider himself worthy of doing as he pleases. The God complex is not seen as a diagnosable disorder, and is not present in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Medical Disorders." The thing I find most striking is the last fact, about the "Diagnostic... Manual." This tome has gone from 35 pages to 947 listing 297 disorders (it is good to hear that African-Americans are no longer insane). They have a syndrome to fit every behavior (including "compulsive shopping disorder.")
Although Donald Trump may exude an air of self-confidence, his losing more than one fortune in his lifetime has abundantly proven his fallibility. What is being described is not his behavior. The God complex may or may not apply to Obama, Hitler and Mussolini. It is for certain that the "ubermencsh" aspect of being above the rest of society and doing as one pleases certainly applies to all three.
In summary, none of the charges leveled at President Trump by his detractors apply, either in a political or a psychological analysis... they do, however, most abundantly apply to his predecessor, as well as Hitler and Mussolini.
