My Quick Foray Into Psycho-Babble

The American Narcissus has been my guilty pleasure of the weekend (and who among us does not enjoy a good Obama-basher?), and now I see there have been follow-ups.

Let me offer the following contribution - here is the WaPo description of Obama's changed tone in Presidential humor:

Barack Obama, the Insult Comic President, was up to his old shtick Saturday night.

Breaking with presidential punch line tradition for the second consecutive year, Obama dropped zinger after zinger on his opponents and allies alike at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner [transcript]. Obama went all Don Rickles on a broad range of topics and individuals: Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, presidential advisers David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, the news media, Jay Leno, and Republicans Michael Steele, Scott Brown, John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Except for a mild joke pegged to his falling approval ratings, Obama mostly spared Obama during his 14-minute stand-up routine.

Big Snip, and:

The outer-directed tone of the material, which was credited to Axelrod, White House speechwriter Jon Favreau and ex-Hillary Clinton speechwriter Jon Lovett, was in keeping with Obama's inaugural voyage as presidential joker last year. Making the rounds of the traditional spring dinners, the president cracked wise on just about everyone but himself.

...

Obama's derisive tone surprises and dismays some of the people who've written jokes for presidents past.

"With these dinners you want the audience to like you more when you sit down than when you stood up," says Landon Parvin, an author and speechwriter for politicians in both parties, and a gag writer for three Republican presidents (Reagan and Bushes I and II). "Something in [Obama's] humor didn't do that," he said Sunday.

Parvin advises his political clients to practice a little partisan self-deprecation when they make lighthearted remarks: "If you're a Democrat, you make fun of Democrats and go easy on the Republicans; if you're a Republican, you do the opposite," he says.

Presidents past have generally hewed to that tradition, even when they were under intense criticism or were deeply unpopular.

At the height of the media frenzy over Bill and Hillary Clinton's involvement in the Whitewater real estate deal, Clinton opened his remarks at one of the press dinners by saying: "I am delighted to be here tonight. And if you believe that, I have some land in northwest Arkansas I'd like to sell you."

So, is that consistent with narcissistic behavior?  I don't know, but based on this quick Mayo Clinic overview, let me ask a different question - what behavior is not consistent with narcissistic personality disorder?

I especially like this, from the symptoms:

Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by dramatic, emotional behavior, in the same category as antisocial and borderline personality disorders.

Unless the person makes an effort to:

[Appear] as tough-minded or unemotional.

So either a total drama queen, or Mr. Spock.  Or in-between.  Got it.

I think the symptoms they list would apply to most politicians.  However, it is pretty easy to look at this list and think of Barack:

Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include:

• Believing that you're better than others
• Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
• Exaggerating your achievements or talents
• Expecting constant praise and admiration
• Believing that you're special and acting accordingly
• Failing to recognize other people's emotions and feelings
• Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
• Taking advantage of others
• Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
• Being jealous of others
• Believing that others are jealous of you
• Trouble keeping healthy relationships
• Setting unrealistic goals
• Being easily hurt and rejected
• Having a fragile self-esteem
• Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional

AS AN ASIDE:  The symptom that made me laugh is "Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness".  I suspect I am not alone in remembering Michael Jordan's appearance on Saturday Night Live with Al Franken as Stuart Smalley, the self-affirming shrink.  A highlights:

Stuart Smalley: Well, good for you! Good for you! Um, Michael.. I know there must be a lot of pressure for you to play very well, and I can imagine that the night before a game, you must lie awake thinking, "I'm not good enough.. everybody's better than me.. I'm not going to score any points.. I have no business playing this game.."

Michael Jordan: Well.. not really.

Stuart Smalley: Michael, denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Enough already.  We'll be here all week.

 

Comments

[Terry Gain]

Do Muslims do self-deprecation?

[Jack is Back!]

Can't remember who in a prior thread reminded us of another narcissism perpetrated by The Won: "the difference between 1994 and now is that you have me".

Back in 08, I posted this Psychology Today article in the JOM comments and it is now more relevant than back then since we have had 2 years of a "mirror, mirror on the wall" Presidency. Read the article and just substitute Obama for he/she. LUN

[narciso]

I did JiB,

[Pofarmer]

"Do Muslims do self-deprecation? "

That'd be self decapitation.

[NK]

Listen-- all elected presidents (Gerald Ford was never elected) are all narcissists. The issue is to what degree and what damage does it cause? That said, BHO is off of the charts, beyond Clinton territory. But more importantly, because he is an 'effin Muppet, BHO's narcissism is incredibly destructive. He has no idea of the damage he is causing.

[Captain Hate]

The story of him doodling himself just creeps me out. I know that to believe in yourself as qualified to be President calls for a very outsized ego with which most people would be uncomfortable; but to reveal such an obvious self-fixation is off the charts.

[Captain Hate]

I obviously caught some of NK's brainwaves.

[Danube of Thought]

It's hard for me to think of Ronald Reagan or Harry Truman as narcissists.

[bgates]

He's not a Muppet. You keep saying that, and it keeps being wrong. Muppets are likable and harmless. Obama is neither.

The only narcissistic Muppet is Miss Piggy, and Obama lacks her capacity for violent tantrums. Hillary could be Miss Piggy, so long as she's a figurehead at State and thus harmless.

Perhaps you mean to say "puppet", as apparently the Washington Post did:
Barack Obama, the Insult Comic President

They talk about him like a dog.

[Rick Ballard]

Notice that he has surrounded himself with academics. The same types who coddled and cozened a truly third rate intellect through the moron credentialing process based upon his ability to not doze off as they babbled on. He keeps his distance from people who have achieved success through measurable means, aside from the ability to mouth incoherent pap sufficient only to draw a vote - one time.

They lied, Daffodil, you're not very bright and nothing can change that fact.

[squaredance]

Or Eisenhower.

[Captain Hate]

Obama lacks her capacity for violent tantrums.

I'd bet money that's not true.

O/T I like Neil Young almost as much as anybody does but imo this is hilarious:
The three-alarm blaze that caused $1.1 million in damage to a warehouse filled with rock legend Neil Young's music equipment and memorabilia appears to have started in a one-of-a-kind hybrid car stored at the site, a fire official said Monday.

Flames began in a 1959 Lincoln Continental dubbed LincVolt, which runs on electric batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator, and then spread to the warehouse at 593 Quarry Road in the early morning of Nov. 9, according to Belmont-San Carlos Fire Marshal Jim Palisi and a website devoted to the car.

Young assembled a team of workers in 2008 to convert the 19.5-foot behemoth from gasoline to hybrid power, an effort he chronicled in a four-part film series.

[Clarice]

Right, Rik, but TM is also right these guidelines for describing psychological disorders are so braod you could fir almost anyone you care to into them which is why providing govt paid treatment for them would break the bank.

Every successful person has a certain degree of narcissism--but there are benign and malignant narcissists and I know where I'd place him.

At the moment there's every indication that the Won is so over his head that he's exhibiting signs of disintegration and paranoia.

I shudder to think where this is going.

[DebinNC]

Several of those NPD symptoms are on display in this story about Obama indulging his inner Kobie. This self-indulgence occurred as Michelle Antoinette's Mirabella adventure and the BP oil spill video were leading the news, along with the Obamas' Martha's Vineyard vacation the next week. When Obama arrived and installed the WH basketball court over the then tennis courts, he excitedly mentioned playing there with some pros. Asked if he thought he could do well, Obama said, "Of course. It's my court."

[bgates]

CH - I meant physical capacity. Piggy could knock over another Muppet with one punch. I don't think Obama could manage that.

Deb, that's a brilliant example. You should send it in to the Weekly Standard.

[Porchlight]

Definitely send that in, Deb.

He talks about "my" house all the time in reference to the WH, too.

LOL about Young's li'l car fire. I love the guy's music, but a four-part film documentary on the conversion of his car? Give me a break.

There's got to be a Rust Never Sleeps joke in there somewhere.

[Dave (in MA)]

"It's better to burn out
Than it is to rust"

[DebinNC]

You should send it in to the Weekly Standard

Notice that Obama and the pros are performing before, not playing with, a group (probably very small) of "wounded warriors" while the press are kept waiting outside. The Obama entourage proceeds to the WH for a birthday bbq, but no mention is made of the "warriors" coming along. It's as if they're props only there to provide an excuse for Obama's fantasy game.

[NK]

Bgates; let's define terms, as I previously posted back in the day I use "Muppet" in the regional UK sense, defined by Wiki thusly--
"In Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand,[2][3] the word muppet has come to be used as a mild term of abuse, meaning a stupid, incompetent, or idiotic person, or the obvious interpretation of someone who is inanimated or somehow not there.[4"--

stupid, incompetent, idiotic, 'not there' That's our boy Barry.

DOT/Square Dance-- I agree that Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan and the Bushes are "benign" narcissists. Their self-love was aimed at the positive purpose of leading and saving the USA for which they all had patriotic love. But, their own self-love pushed them to the presidency. In their case it was not a bad thing, just a fact. FDR's, JFK, Nixon, Clinton's and BHO's narcissim is a malignant and downright dangerous sort.

[NK]

Hey TM-- what happened to my Avatar?

[NK]

It's back-- what a relief.

[Captain Hate]

I agree on the nature of the tantrum, bgates; it would be more comedic than anything to watch little Barry flail in impotent rage. I think Bo is too big to be in any sort of danger but any smaller house pets might be targets, as is the case with budding serial killers.

Yeah Porch, the 4 part film makes me think "STFU and play the guitar and sing". Keeping something with gasoline in the middle of a storage area; what could go wrong with that?

[DebinNC]

Obama at health care summit:

"I don't count my time 'cause I'm the President."

[Porchlight]

Still though Cap'n, if I was on a desert island and had the choice of all Neil Young's work or all Bob Dylan's work....I'd have to go with Young.

(I hope TM still lets me post here after typing that)

[NK]

I'm with you Porchlight. I'm no music expert but I like Young's stuff much better. I always had the impression that the smart cool kids must have gotten Dylan better than hapless me.

[MayBee]

Well, then they have friends that tell Michelle things like "Barack doesn't belong to just you." As if he's a gift to the world.

But looking for that quote, I again found the Jodi Kantor piece about their marriage, and a Jezebel synopsis of it.

It talks about how Michelle was more or less a single mother and Barack spent so much time away from home. And I'm wondering why? What did he have to do that brought him away from home before he began running for federal office?

[Jeff]

remember the first meeting between Obama and his future brother in law ?

He told him he was going to be President ... his brother in law to be said, of what ?

[Captain Hate]

Interesting musical Sophie's Choice, Porch; glad I don't have to make that decision but I think I'd go opposite to you. Neil showed up at the Dylan birthday tribute at MSG quite a while ago (probably when he turned 60) and typically referred to it as a "Bob-Fest". Both have huge bodies of work.

[MayBee]

Oh, I guess he had to be in Springfield.

[MayBee]

Here's the quote, by the way. It isn't really evidence of narcissim, but it shows that the Obamas surround themselves with the whole born for greatness stuff:

For the moment, he was enmeshed in writing his memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” He had retreated to Bali for several weeks to work on the manuscript and was still preoccupied with it after his return. “Barack was just really involved in the book. [Michelle] and I would do lots of shopping and movies,” Yvonne Davila, still a close friend, remembered.

“Barack doesn’t belong to you,” she told me she warned Michelle.

[glasater]

I've an old LP buried somewhere of Crosby,Stills,Nash and Young in storage.

Charles Krauthammer is 'way ahead of all of us and he's an official 'shrink'.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm a dreamin' man
I guess that's my problem.

[Porchlight]

There is a great game we play sometimes that is along the lines of desert island choices. You say, for example, "John Coltrane or Miles Davis." And the other person has to choose. And you try to get it close enough to their tastes to make it an incredibly hard decision for them.

So "Neil Young or Bob Dylan" is sort of a classic. I go with Young in that scenario because of his greater range, on the whole.

And then sometimes in the game you make them choose between two levels of wretchedness. Such as "Supertramp or Alan Parsons Project."

[pagar]

Psycho much!

He is Bored To Death And Just Too Talented to do What Ordinary People Do.

Ordinary people find their birth certificate and show it when required. Ordinary people were born in the 1960's have birth info that can be traced. Ordinary people have school records, school mates in America that can remember them etc. Obama doesn't do what ordinary people do. He is too talented.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

I'm sure Daffodil's innate nastiness is on full display to the powerless around him. I'm also sure that he would continue to do as much damage as possible - if he had retained the necessary instrument (control of the legislature) to pursue his myopic agenda. I'm sure he will continue to do what damage he can but first he has to find more academics willing to pet his pointy, empty head. That's not a particularly difficult task but there is a fair possibility that, due to his intellectual limitations and his proclivity towards postponement of all but the most obvious decisions, he will hunker in the bunker rather than risk additional error. We may get lucky - his stupidity may be balanced by his cowardice.

[DebinNC]

In the Oct. Rolling Stone's "Obama in Command" interview, Obama can't understand why Bob Dylan didn't show up before the show to get his autograph,unlike all the other "talent".

On their marriage, Michelle did an interview in which she described her girls loving to jump into bed with her, but not Barack who's too "smelly and snorey". I wouldn't be surprised if they sleep apart.

[Porchlight]

“Barack doesn’t belong to you,” she told me she warned Michelle.

Ugh. No wonder Michelle is so angry. She wants power and glory, knows she doesn't have what it takes, must repeatedly settle for basking in her husband's reflected Messiahdom, knowing all the while he is a total fraud....and now it's all slipping out of her grasp.

[DebinNC]

correction: pic not autograph:

He [Bob Dylan] didn't want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me and Michelle before the show, but he didn't show up to that.

[Captain Hate]

choose between two levels of wretchedness

Bread or Bad Company

[Porchlight]

Bread or Bad Company

Heh. You've got the hang of it, Cap'n.

Seriously, try it at your next gathering. It's super fun. Doesn't have to be music, of course - Paris or London, Joan Crawford or Bette Davis, baseball or football, Chevy or Ford, etc. Great fun, everyone can play, starts a lot of interesting conversations without getting into politics. ;)

[Porchlight]

He [Bob Dylan] didn't want to take a picture with me; usually all the talent is dying to take a picture with me

DebinNC, that's another great one for Last at the Weekly Standard.

"The talent." He is just unbelievable.

[Rob Crawford]

Listen-- all elected presidents (Gerald Ford was never elected) are all narcissists.

George Washington?

Abraham Lincoln?!

I'll give you "extremely sure of themselves", but I know Lincoln was openly racked by self doubt that a narcissist would never admit to himself, let alone others.

I'm not even sure I'd call Grant a narcissist. But, if you restrict the list to the modern "I've planned all my life to be president" types, I think your hit rate would be near 100%.

[centralcal]

Cholly Rangle - guilty of 11 ethics violations. Hhhmm - punishment will be what?

[lyle]

I, for one, admire Barry's self-defecating humor.

[bgates]

NK - for one thing, "Muppet" is trademarked. The quote you give is for a regional use of "muppet". For another thing, the quote is truncated. The next sentence says of the term "muppet", "It is often used mildly affectionately". Leaving both of those points aside, I doubt you could find a hundred people in the country who think Obama deserves mild abuse.

[bgates]

starts a lot of interesting conversations without getting into politics.

Except for Paris v London. Or Chevy v Ford.

You don't exactly have to stretch to get to politics in Neil Yong v Bob Dylan.

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Author of DOJ report targeting NJ Governor Chris Christie has history of using position for political purposes, sources say
LUN via Daily Caller

Her name is Maura Lee. Why does she still have a job?

[Porchlight]

Well, okay, bgates. Maybe those weren't great examples. But typically in my experience politics doesn't come up that readily when playing, and I have spent almost my entire life surrounded by lefties.

[pagar]

"punishment will be what?"

Will not be allowed to run for reelection after the year 2050.

[narciso]

You're kidding right Janet, it's precisely because like like Brenda Morris in Alabama,
and that other denizen of the Stevens fiasco
during national security work, they will do virtually anything

[The Emperor of Wyoming.]

That's so funny, lyle, I feel like a diaper change.
==========

[matt]

Muslims do self-detonation, Terry. Everbody knows that....

[matt]

I like Supertramp, porch...nyah!

[pagar]

Janet,
" Why does she still have a job?"

From your link It sounds like she fits right in to what Holder/the Obama Administration wants:

"
Lee was “one of the most belligerent, unprofessional lawyers” he encountered during his time at the DOJ. “Because of her,” he said, “we had to completely change our security protocol.”

I'm surprised she hasn't been moved much higher.

[NK]

bgates-

rest assured I do not use "muppet" with any affection for Barry O. I shout it much like British soccer fans howl at incompetent team management. If you watch english/scottish soccer, you know that muppet is not a friendly description. Cheers.

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

She was breaking into other employees emails narciso!
Work place laws/rules/regulations ignored.
Voting laws/rules/regulations ignored.

It is like all these things exist to just be selectively applied to conservatives. When libs break them it is all a big joke...who cares...let's not disenfranchise anybody...chill out....give them a reprimand. When conservatives break them it is prosecute to the letter of the law...throw the votes out...fire them.

[narciso]

I know they went after Spakovsky in the same way, going so far as tagging him a Nazi, because he was a Russian emigre who grew up in Huntsville after his family had spent some time in Germany

[Clarice]

I remember well that anytime a chair was moved in the Civil Right Division under Bush, the WaPo had a front page story about how Bush was using DoJ to take us back to slavery. I suppose that was Lee's work , and probably explains why the Post will never criticize her.

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Who wrote the stories at the WaPo? Who was her contact?

[Extraneus]

Bad Company wasn't good?

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Hahaha..that is me Extraneus. I usually like the band everyone is dissing because they are too corny! I'm the pathetic teenie-bopper on American Bandstand that says she likes the song because she can dance to it! My shame..:(

[narciso]

Well this was an offering from my local fishwrapper, in the LUN

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Here is an odd little blog that has a series of posts titled Was A-Political by Maura Lee

The sub head reads - "The latest report from my Washington correspondent, aka Mom."

The posts range....Libby trial, Rove is evil, DOJ firings, "King" George rants...

[jimmyk]

Janet, c'mon, you know that when leftists break the rules it's only because they were confused or distracted (per recent thread). Plus, their hearts are in the right place.

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Yeah jimmyk, maybe Maura Lee is untidy.
untidy = innocent because of slothful cleaning habits/excessive clutter

[Chubby]

Glasater

I watched the Media Matters Krauthammer vid and found Media Matters' addition of twilight zone spooky music at the end funny. I was wondering if by "pacific" Obama originally meant it more in the sense of being the first "peace loving" president, (meaning that all the presidents who preceded him were bloody war mongers)--which would be even more narcissistic than meaning "Pacific" in terms of locale.

[Clarice]

Janet, I do not remember and the parameters of the search would be so large it would take forever for me to track .

[narciso]

For Spakovsky it seems to start here, the earliest piece that the Brennan Center and Right Watch seem to cite from the Post, although Toobin was sounding the alarm a year earlier in the Nyer

[Chubby]

((In the Oct. Rolling Stone's "Obama in Command" interview, Obama can't understand why Bob Dylan didn't show up before the show to get his autograph, unlike all the other "talent".))

for that reason alone I'd pick Dylan. But that isn't the only reason ... I find he has more depth that Young, more understanding of human nature and the human condition. Young seems a bit more rosy spectacled, more gullible. I wonder if Dylan is into hybrids.

"There must be some way out of here" said the joker to the thief
"There's too much confusion", I can't get no relief
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

[Chubby]

Porchlight: ((Ugh. No wonder Michelle is so angry.))

I am sure that his political failure will be severely 'punished' by Michelle (unless she is too insulated to realize there has been failure.)

[lyle]

I'd take Dylan over Young, hands down. Just for writing Neighborhood Bully. Plus, Young is Canadian and a leftie.

[Chubby]

((It is like all these things exist to just be selectively applied to conservatives. When libs break them it is all a big joke...who cares...let's not disenfranchise anybody...chill out....give them a reprimand. When conservatives break them it is prosecute to the letter of the law...throw the votes out...fire them.))

That's because conservatives have standards and one quite effective Alinksy tactic is to make a huge brouhaha whenever conservatives fail to live up to their standards.

By the opposite token, libbies don't have any standards to speak of, so they can't be held up to them.

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Janet, I do not remember and the parameters of the search would be so large it would take forever for me to track .

Oh thanks Clarice. I was just wondering...didn't expect others to search for me.

[Clarice]

Jant, the article narciso linked to indicates the reporters at the Post were Edsall and Eggen. Are they still there?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601717_pf.html>Who was their source?

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Here is a blog post at the WaPo by Ed O'Keefe

Ed'd post is Tues. Nov 9th 6am...the report was released Mon. Nov 8th

[Dave (in MA)]

I'd take Dylan over Young, hands down. Just for writing Neighborhood Bully. Plus, Young is Canadian and a leftie.

I love http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/neighborhood-bully>Neighborhood Bully. It doesn't appear to be on Youtube, so there's a link to the lyrics.

Neil Young as a leftie? Not completely. He wrote "Let's Roll", criticized as "jingoistic" by some of the music press. He was even a somewhat lukewarm http://thrasherswheat.org/ptma/reagan.htm>supporter of Reagan, and probably would have never swung to the left in the 2000's if we'd only gone into Afghanistan and not Iraq.

[Captain Hate]

Yeah it's hard to pigeon-hole either Dylan or Neil, although Bobby D is more outwardly bemused at the huge leaps of faith that the lefties made when they assumed he was "on their side",

[narciso]

Yes and they kept Cornyn at the NRSC.'All is well,' like that fellow Chip in "Animal House'

[BB Key]

Richard B.Cheney at the groundbreaking of the George W. Bush Library....This may be the only shovel ready project in America.... (and the crowd roared)... CSPAN has the entire event and it is worth anyone's time

[lyle]

Thanks for the info, D(iM). No need for me to click on the lyrics link, though. I could probably recite them by rote. Infidels is one of my all-time faves. How could anyone not like Dylan with Mark Knofler on guitar on several tracks and, iirc, co-produced?

[Danube of Thought]

Dylan, slam dunk.

Would you rather have been stranded with Richard Burton (actor, not explorer) or Wm. F. Buckley?

[MarkO]

Buckley. Every time. I loved Firing Line and can't imagine anyone on TV who could do such and elegant and clear program today.

I liked the music of the folk Dylan and the early folk-rock Dylan, then he went crazy. But, I've never liked to see him live. There's a video on You Tube where he sings "Tambourine Man" with the Byrds. Spooky. My son asked if Dylan knew the words.

[maryrose]

I pick Bread. I even saw them in concert at the Blossom Music Center. Also Young for me though Dylan has staying power.

[Porchlight]

I'd have to go with Buckley, but only on the condition that he'd also have a boat and could sail me around the island or wherever we're stranded.

Re: Dylan, don't get me wrong, I love him to bits. It's finding the really difficult choices which makes the game fun.

[Extraneus]

Bad Company or Mott the Hoople?

[Porchlight]

Mott the Hoople, for sure, Ext.