Hasta La Creative!

He embodies a narcissistic fantasy and defense against anxiety that is present in Traditional Christian White Males, especially those who are disaffected.

A central root of this dynamic can be located in the loss of power and prestige associated with Traditional Christian White Maleness/Masculinity. Since the 1960s, the United States has experienced a sea change in power and dominance. Throughout the history of our nation (and Western Europe more broadly), the power structures have been dominated by Traditional Heterosexual Christian White Males.

But the hegemony of TCWMs has been chipped away, over the past 50 years, from the Civil Rights movements in the 60s to the Feminist movement in the 70s to the GLBT and secular/nonreligious movements of today. Although these forces have moved our society toward justice, they have also come with a loss of relative power and prestige for TCWMs, likely fosters anxiety and resentment especially in those who are disaffected.

There are other forces driving the unrest as well. Males are not achieving nearly as well as females across a wide variety of educational measures, including for example, having a notably higher rate of dropping out of high school and notably lower rate of graduating from college. In addition, although our economy has definitely picked up over the past few years, we are coming through one of the worst slumps ever for lower to middle income male workers. Moreover, there is a good evidence for high degrees of economic uncertainty, which generate heightened levels of insecurity, perhaps especially associated with the TCWM demographic. Finally, as traditional roles around gender and sexuality continue to become more amorphous and fluid, this likely creates much uncertainty for many regarding how to be a “man”. (Interestingly, there is some evidence that biological changes are taking place, as sperm levels and perhaps testosterone levels have dropped as well).

Trump’s narcissism plays right into these dynamics. By identifying with someone who has enormous money, power, influence, access to beautiful women and other powerful people and who unabashedly promotes it as a function of his personal attributes and skill, individuals who are feeling threatened and who long for that sort of power can vicariously connect with the life Trump leads via supporting him. The bottom line is that many TWCM are anxious and disappointed about their lives and the direction the country is taking and see additional threats in a multicultural diverse world. As such, there is a yearning to “the good old days” when American White Males embraced their exceptionalism and power and did not have to be shy about it.

— Gregg Henriques, Trump: A Psychosocial Analysis

The post The Narcissist appeared first on Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment.

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