The Malignant Narcissism of U.S. Government Officials

Dangerous personality traits in officials who possess the power to wage war.

Carl Jung offered the best model of narcissism that I have read. The narcissist is someone who has, in an extreme way, failed to grow up and achieve individuation. Achieving individuation is a painful process in which you must confront your own Shadow—that is, your selfishness, lust, greed, resentment, envy, jealousy, laziness, and various failures that have hindered you from achieving your full moral potential.

Examining you Shadow and fully incorporating it into your self awareness is the only way one can become a mature and moral man or woman. Doing so requires the ability to be alone with yourself, free of distractions and mind-altering substances, and to develop habits that enable you to become a genuinely good and authentic person, and not merely someone who seems like a nice guy.

Most people never fully undergo this process, but persist in harboring a host of comforting illusions about themselves. When I lived in Vienna I occasionally talked with young journalists and writers who implied that — had they been young men in the autumn of 1938 when Hitler annexed Austria — they would have protested. Sure you would have, I thought to myself.

We all think we have the discernment and courage to do the right thing when tyranny arrives. However, as we saw during the Covid pandemic, only a minority of people are sufficiently individuated to do this.

All of his have some narcissistic qualities, and walk around nursing some comforting illusions about ourselves. However, in the case of the narcissist, the problem is extreme and dangerous.

In order to avoid facing his Shadow and processing the shame that doing so entails, the narcissist develops and projects an image of success, status, wealth, beauty, and achievement. He or she feels most comfortable surrounded by people who validate this image. Politics is therefore an extremely attractive arena for him.

All of us frequently indulge in what Jung called “shadow projection”—that is, avoid facing our own shameful inadequacies and failures by noticing and relishing their manifestation in others.

Long before Jung developed his theory, the 17th century French writer and diplomat, François de La Rochefoucauld, made the following observations about human nature.

• We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.”

• We confess small faults only to convince people that we have no greater ones.

• We are strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others.

• We would frequently be ashamed of our good deeds if people saw all the motives that produced them.

• No people are more often wrong than those who will not allow themselves to be wrong.

• If we had no faults we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.

• Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

• One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger.

In 2010, Dr. Jean Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, PhD published The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, about the way in which narcissistic traits and habits have become pervasive in American society. Obviously, social media has accentuated the trend.

In the U.S. political arena, our ranking politicians are constantly projecting their own Shadows onto their opponents, both at home and abroad. Observe Lyndsey Graham’s affect when he fulminates about the evil of Vladimir Putin or the now deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. I suspect he knows nothing about either man and that his entire conception of them is a shadow-projected cartoon.

The narcissist with power becomes extremely dangerous in circumstances in which he is at risk of failing, for failure will expose the inadequacies of which he is ashamed in a way that he cannot conceal from himself and others. For this reason, the narcissist may be exceptionally susceptible to blackmail.

And while the narcissist feels comfortable when he is surrounded by people who validate him, he becomes enraged when people oppose him. If they cause him to fail—which is itself a form of exposure—they will trigger his extreme rage.

I have long known that President Trump is suffering from narcissism, but I didn’t perceive it to be dangerous because of his repeated assurances that he would keep the United States out of perilous foreign wars. I mistakenly believed his personality would find expression in positive channels such as bombastic business deals, grand infrastructure projects, and ambitious commercial enterprises. These are the arenas in which his enormous energy and talent may yield excellent results.

Unfortunately, war is is a completely different arena, and the business of war lies far beyond his understanding and competence. I suspect he knows little about Iran, but listened to people who told him that his adventure would be the same cakewalk he enjoyed when a U.S. special forces team captured Maduro.

As for the people who persuaded him to embark on this adventure: I fear that only someone seeking Armageddon would make the decision to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who made no attempt to avoid his death. Why didn’t he? A quick Google search for “What is the significance of martyrdom in the Shia faith?” yields a probable answer.

Martyrdom is central to Shia Islam as the ultimate sacrifice for justice, inspired by the Battle of Karbala where Imam Husayn was killed. It represents a profound spiritual commitment to God, acting as a model of resistance against oppression, a source of spiritual consolation, and a means for intercession, often summarized by the saying, "Every day is Ashura, and every place is Karbala.”

None of this is to defend Khamenei. I regard him—just as I regard the nation of Iran and its 92 million inhabitants—as facts that have nothing to do with how I want them to be or how I think they should be. Another key feature of growing up is accepting the impossibility of changing and controlling other people.

If millions of Iranian people prove to be as defiant to aerial bombardment as the German and Japanese were in World War II, the North Koreans were during the Korean War, and the Vietnamese were during the Vietnam War, they will soon be on the receiving end of terrifying narcissistic rage expressed through air power.

Our preening Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, openly expressed this—with a distinct tone of sadism—in his recent tirade that the Iranians are soon going to be pounded 24/7 by U.S. and Israeli air power. Trump expressed it this morning with his exultant Tweet that he will only accept Unconditional Surrender.

If this war drags on, I would not be surprised if the United States or Israel resorts to dropping nuclear weapons on Iran, just as the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This would be not only terrible for the Iranians, it would likely open a Pandora’s Box with incalculably terrible consequences for the entire world.

Author’s Note: I know that this post is not going to make me popular with many of my readers, but I feel compelled to speak in accordance with my conscience. If you happen to be a reader who finds my perception and argument persuasive, please like this post and share it with your friends.