Words have power, consequences

Can words incite and inflame? Can they result in conflict and destruction? Leaders and their followers who deny the power of words delude themselves, willfully failing to acknowledge the consequences of disordered minds. To which disorder do psychologists and psychiatrists refer when they observe our president? Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), a condition mental health experts ascribe to our nation’s leader, has recently been classified as grandiose or overt, fragile or vulnerable, and exhibitionist.

These toxic personalities — those with NPD — engage in behaviors and words that manipulate others, including gaslighting, projection, “word salad,” blanket statements and generalizations, misrepresentation, evasion of accountability, name-calling, smear campaigns, condescending sarcasm and patronizing, and others.

GASLIGHTING

Those with NPD try to erode and distort reality by making others question their own reality. They say, “You imagined that,” or “Are you crazy?” Their victims question themselves, Is this person right or can I trust what I experienced? When narcissists, sociopaths, or psychopaths gaslight others, they try to convince us that they have the truth and that we are dysfunctional.

PROJECTION

Persons with NPD are “chronically unwilling to acknowledge their own shortcomings and use everything in their power to avoid being held accountable for them.” “Projection, a defense mechanism used to displace responsibility for one’s negative behavior by attributing them to someone else, acts as a digression that avoids ownership and accountability.” It is a “blame-shifting game” so that the toxic personality wins, and we lose. Narcissists usually have no interest in self-insight or change.

NONSENSICAL TALK OR “WORD SALAD”

Experts define “word salad” as “circular conversations, arguments that attack the person (ad hominem), illogical conclusions, repetition, blanket statements with no evidence to undergird them, generalizations, boasts, paranoia, and name-calling. The goal of the narcissistic personality is to confuse, distort, and frustrate others by distracting them from the true issues. Intellectually lazy, those with NPD ignore nuances and other perspectives. They like the drama of their one-sided monologue and the stereotypes of society used to maintain the status quo. They believe in their own omnipotence and omniscience thereby disliking anything or anyone who presents a threat to their superiority. They are always right, and opinions to the contrary might send them into a narcissistic rage because their self-entitlement and perceived superiority are challenged. “Name-calling is a quick and easy way to put you down, degrade you, and insult your intelligence, appearance, or behavior, invalidating your right to your own opinion or perspective.”

Here are excerpts from Donald Trump’s speech on Wednesday, Jan. 6, before the assault on the Capitol:

“For years, Democrats have gotten away with election fraud and weak Republicans, and that’s what they are. There’s so many weak Republicans. We have great ones, Jim Jordan, and some of these guys. They’re out there fighting the House. Guys are fighting, but it’s incredible. Many of the Republicans, I helped them get in. I helped them get elected. I helped Mitch get elected. I could name 24 of them, let’s say. I won’t bore you with it, and then all of a sudden you have something like this. It’s like, ‘Gee, maybe I’ll talk to the president sometime later.’ No, it’s amazing.

“Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault (the recent election) on our democracy. After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.

“But it used to be that they’d argue with me, I’d fight. So I’d fight, they’d fight. I’d fight, they’d fight. Boop-boop. You’d believe me, you’d believe them. Somebody comes out. They had their point of view, I had my point of view. But you’d have an argument. Now what they do is they go silent. It’s called suppression. And that’s what happens in a communist country. That’s what they do. They suppress. You don’t fight with them anymore, unless it’s a bad. They have a little bad story about me, they’ll make it 10 times worse and it’s a major headline. (paranoia)

“So we’ve taken care of things. We’ve done things like nobody’s ever thought possible. And that’s part of the reason that many people don’t like us, because we’ve done too much, but we’ve done it quickly. And we were going to sit home and watch a big victory. And everybody had us down for a victory. It was going to be great. And now we’re out here fighting. I said to somebody, I was going to take a few days and relax after our big electoral victory. Ten o’clock, it was over. But I was going to take a few days.” (boasts, non sequitur)

The claims in the paragraphs of a “stolen election” were debated in the Congress where we learned that the same Republican judges Trump appointed found no election fraud. The ego of those with NPD will not allow failure or loss.

On one hand, the president says he believes in “the rule of law,” yet the word “fight” occurs throughout this speech. Note the boasting, the repetition, the nonsensical connections.

As I write, I am listening to the debates in Congress for and against impeachment, the only time in our history when a president potentially can be impeached twice. Surely this president didn’t want this legacy.

Liz Meador is a retired English instructor from Wayne Community College and an adjunct at North Carolina Wesleyan College.