Shenzhen Satellite TV senior writer Wan Xia Dialogue columnist and psychological counselor Xiao Ti explains how the personality of politicians will affect this year's general election?
01
Why does Trump’s appeal last?
The secret behind the followers of 40% of the “iron fans”
Wanxia: Let’s assume that if Trump were a person around you, would you become friends with him?
Teacher Xiaoti: Trump is a person who has a strong emotional impact on people. It may be very expensive to make friends with him. I really hope that there can be such a person in my life, because some extreme things in his personality will stimulate you, and it may even be your stress reaction that will be stimulated by him. This is quite interesting!
Wanxia: Suppose Trump comes face to face with you and he conflicts with you, how will you behave?
Teacher Xiaoti: I think of his impact, I will be afraid that he has no bottom line, and I will try my best to avoid it. Do you want to see what you really want? If this conflict really comes, the other party may have no bottom line, and it may bring out some of the evil things in you. I think it is better to avoid it.
Wanxia: But it is different in the United States, where 40% of his loyal fans have been following him. Moreover, four years later, he returned to this election stage and still has so many die-hard fans. This is very strange.
Teacher Xiaoti: This is indeed a phenomenon worth studying. After Trump came down, he kept talking about it. In fact, he talked about more topics when he was not in office than when he was in office. The degree of connection between him and voters It is very high and occupies the psychological space of many voters. Now we can also look at the psychological connection between Trump and his supporters. Trump is a person who is very confident about everything, that is, "I can make America great again." He has many expressions, such as "I want to build a wall." In a particularly uncertain era, he gives many definite answers to others. Regardless of whether he can do it or not, some people are confused or have doubts about the present. A person who is in a confused world will have a sense of attachment and feel that he is a strong person, and there will be a kind of psychological stickiness with him. So he's provocative, probably right here.
Wanxia: It is said that his speech was very provocative, and the people present were as excited as if they were hypnotized.
Teacher Xiaoti: There was a section just after reading . He asked the audience on the spot, should we name Biden "Sleepy Joe"? Or "Liar Joe"? good! I'm taking a free poll! Then he said "Sleepy Joe" and everyone cheered. He is good at inciting, which is reflected in the fact that I give you some very simple questions, and then the answers you shout out in a group are very simple, giving everyone the illusion of joining a very powerful being, and a feeling of finding a team.
I think Trump has been able to maintain a strong appeal to his die-hard fans for so many years. To a certain extent, he is their spokesperson. These 40% of voters are actually people working in traditional industries in the United States. They have not had a good life in the past many years, so Trump used an extremely barbaric and extremely vulgar way to release their anger. It releases their fear. They feel that just because these immigrants have come, the good times are no longer here, and they are giving birth to many children, and the United States will no longer be my America. They feel very angry and afraid. Therefore, the more vulgar Trump behaves, the more he can shout out the pain in their hearts.
A particularly typical example recently is that the Texas National Guard and the federal government have had an armed confrontation because of the immigration issue. Then the governors of 26 states came out to oppose Biden's immigration policy. What does this mean? This shows that the ethnic groups in the United States are divided on immigration issues and economic issues. After the division, they have become two completely opposing factions. In fact, Trump represents this faction, and they also need their spokesperson.
02
Trump overthrows "political correctness"
Only without scruples can he be aggressive?
Wanxia: What I’m curious about is, why would they choose a person like Trump who lies all the time and makes jokes every day as their spokesperson? This makes me feel that it is really difficult to understand the psychology of voters. I can only say that they are too arrogant.
Teacher Xiaoti: is often the lesser of two evils. It may be that the American elite, or the attitude of the skilled, slick and sophisticated politicians, has begun to weaken. Voters don’t want to fall for that trick either. Among those who support Trump, they sometimes ignore the unreliable elements in Trump and then look at the certain and useful qualities in Trump. Vibrant, but also the kind that keeps telling them, I can make America great again, people sometimes brainwash themselves.
Wanxia: In fact, there is another characteristic of Trump that I have always felt is more likely to bring freshness to people, that is, he is particularly outspoken, and he has broken the so-called politics of American society over the past many years. correct. Assuming he wasn't such an unscrupulous person, it might be really hard to break. So this is also where his energy lies.
Teacher Xiaoti: People may also secretly hope for the so-called neither destruction nor establishment. In terms of judging Trump, in terms of personality, although Trump is defined by many people as a narcissistic personality, The so-called narcissistic personality is also two sides of the coin. It has its destructive side, but it also has its good side.
When some people question Trump as a person, some people will give the example that he once helped a child suffering from cancer. The kid liked watching Trump's show "The Apprentice", and then he wanted Trump to tell him personally, "You are fired." Later, Trump opened a $7,000 program for him. Cheque.
Some people say that if you look at him, he will have a kind side. Of course, in fact, everyone's personality is multi-faceted. He also has a relatively relaxed side politically. He can shake hands with Kim Jong-un and talk and laugh happily.
Sometimes, when people see that traditional politicians have disappointed them again and again, their inner anti-traditional side may have reared its head, and then they will turn their attention to some anti-traditional people. This kind of overlap is very interesting. .
Wanxia: Yes, what you said is very interesting! They are already very dissatisfied. If someone comes with a hammer and hits them hard, they will find it very satisfying. Is this aggression, this lack of scruple, also a strength in a way?
Teacher Xiaoti: is a kind of power, there is nothing wrong with it! But this power is like an axe. As a tool, it can chop mountains and chop firewood, but it can also commit murder. It is indeed a kind of power. Why do some media also comment that if Trump is really elected, the United States will become more dangerous? That is because they see that Trump is powerful, but his power may also be very powerful. Great destruction. Is
03
powerful just for show?
Trump is living in his own illusion
Wanxia: Recently I also saw that Trump has a famous scene, that is, he started to bring goods and sell shoes, a pair of so-called Trump brand golden sports shoes Shoes, some people at the scene cheered, and some just booed. Trump behaved calmly and then triumphantly at the scene, and it felt like he had that expression at all times.In fact, if you think about it, his situation is not good. It is said that his current statutory debt cash has to be paid out to 500 million. Many people say that he may go bankrupt. Under this kind of pressure, he has shown great In that state, is he mentally strong, or is he really just a person with low self-esteem? He doesn't care about anything?
Teacher Xiaoti: Trump should be a narcissistic personality. This is not a label given to him out of thin air, because many of his examples are enough to prove this. Just like when his father passed away, at his father's funeral, everyone was remembering his father. He started to say, the most amazing thing about my father is that he raised such an outstanding son like me. He will always be "me, me, me" , his speech is always "me, me, me".
Wanxia: did not forget to brag about herself at the funeral.
Teacher Xiaoti: In fact, for a person with a narcissistic personality like him, he is not actually that deeply connected to reality. He often lives in his own illusions. From a psychological perspective, the so-called narcissism is actually a defense against inferiority. He must be dissatisfied with himself and have inferiority complex.
Adler, the author of the book "Inferiority and Transcendence" said: "If you don't transcend in cooperation, you will sink in inferiority." Then you will become narcissistic. In fact, narcissism is pathological narcissism, and the psychological mechanism behind it is basically inferiority complex.
Wanxia: Why does become narcissistic when it has low self-esteem?
Teacher Xiaoti: In fact, one solution to low self-esteem is to open your mind and find yourself, because we are all born with low self-esteem. We don’t have enough energy, so we have to rely on our caregivers, and we have a lot of traumatic experiences. In fact, many times in a person's life, he is constantly trying to repair and transcend his inferiority complex. However, if he does not find a suitable path, he will have a rigid expression: I am just like God, I am omnipotent.
Wanxia: is like the almighty narcissism of children. The world rotates with me. When I turn around, the world turns around. Is this what it means? Still in infancy.
Teacher Xiaoti: is yes. Then many people said, do you think Trump cares about the world? So he has money and still runs for president. In fact, running for president gives him something that so much money cannot give: desire for power, which means that he will feel closer to God and that I am almighty. In fact, such a person has nothing to do with reality. A real link.
So you can neither say that he is mentally strong nor that he has low self-esteem. An obvious feature of narcissism is that he lives in his own imagination.
Wanxia: So that is to say, he did not feel more deeply the pressure of 500 million debt on him.
What does it mean? Even his business empire went bankrupt and collapsed. Ordinary people would have this sense of crisis, wouldn't he?
Teacher Xiaoti: Maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to answer this for him, but Trump is indeed a narcissistic person. He has no effective link with reality. Most of the time, he lives in In my own imagination.
04
Has Trump been playing Trump?
The endless cycle of pathological narcissists
Wanxia: I think Trump is really a weirdo in the history of the United States. He is the first former president to be formally prosecuted by the court since the founding of the United States, and he is also the only one who can A man who, while being elected president, was also sentenced to prison.
If Trump is really sentenced, can a criminal be allowed to be president? This may be a constitutional dilemma for the United States. From a psychological point of view, are the crimes he committed somehow related to the narcissistic personality you just mentioned, and his arrogance or self-centeredness?
Teacher Xiaoti: There should be . Narcissistic personality is actually an endless loop. Once you expose me, or my narcissism fails, and the result of my narcissism fails to be achieved, I will have to do more. There are so many things to do to prove myself.As you just said, one thing after another happens, you burst my bubble, and I will create a bigger bubble next time.
Wanxia: is like saying that I lost the election at that time. I can’t admit that I lost the election. I should have won, then I have to create something to prove that I won, so the Capitol Hill riots occurred. .
Teacher Xiaoti: is constantly superimposing his illusions. When he is not connected to reality, he does not respect reality. People with narcissistic personality, we say that all human beings have narcissism, but there are healthy narcissism and sick narcissism. When we say Trump is narcissistic now, I think it is from the perspective of pathological narcissism.
For a person with a pathological narcissistic personality, there is no way for him to use a tower to observe himself. People say that a relatively clear personality or a relatively healthy personality must first have the ability to self-awareness, and secondly, open your mind to meet different objects and intentions. A person with a narcissistic personality has no real relationship with the outside world. He is in his own world.
Also, a narcissistic personality needs some psychological treatment or psychoanalysis, which I guess Trump is not willing to do. In fact, the fatal point for him is that as the president of a country, if you have a very obvious narcissistic personality and you are unable to extend a tower to observe yourself, you have no ability to solve real problems, so Just keep creating problems. Like Einstein said: You can never solve problems with the same thinking that creates them, unless you upgrade your thinking, but Trump refuses.
Wanxia: It turns out that Mr. Confucius taught us that we should examine ourselves three times a day, which means that people have a self-awareness. This self-awareness is to always be aware of "I am here, what am I doing? Should I do this?" thing?" Do you mean that he has no such awareness at all?
Teacher Xiaoti: You can’t say that he doesn’t have at all, but he may not have it in most cases.
I remember that an American psychologist was writing an article on Trump’s personality analysis. He believed that Trump has been playing Trump, playing a strong and successful role, and he will use his assets to To put it very seriously, when he participated in variety shows, it was okay for others to tease him about many things. It was no problem and he was not angry. But if it is said that your property is not as much as you said, he will be very angry because you exposed him.
The psychologist said, I really want to ask Trump, when you don't need to play Trump, what are you thinking about when you are alone in front of the mirror shaving? I think this is a very interesting question.
Wanxia: Is a super narcissistic person? When he faces the mirror, he still doesn’t know who he is?
Teacher Xiaoti: Of course I am not Trump, so it is difficult to answer for him, but he is indeed a super narcissistic person, or a pathological narcissist. He is a person who is vague about himself and himself. Where is the real Trump? have no idea.
05
The family of origin is like the Colosseum
Trump “I can’t live without being strong”
Wanxia: In fact, I have also seen it. Trump’s niece Mary revealed his family of origin, saying that Trump’s father is For a person who is extremely cruel to his children, the entire family environment is like an unbearable colosseum. Children have no way to express their vulnerability and no way to ask for help. She said Trump grew up in this environment, so he became an egomaniac. The various strange behaviors we talked about are all related to the status of his native family. Do you agree with Mary’s analysis?
Teacher Xiaoti: I will also pay attention to Trump’s family of origin. His father did teach him from a young age that you must be as tough as a killer, saying that you should be a "killer".When his father went to the apartment to collect rent, he often hid next to the door. He said that because you have to face the door directly, a gun or a knife may stick out, so Trump was influenced by his father since he was a child. : If you are not strong, you cannot live!
A person is definitely inseparable from the influence of his original family, but some people may amplify this kind of thing. Some people can survive the mire without getting infected, but some people will intensify it. It is said that his mother is a person with a relatively performative personality. In fact, you can really feel from Trump that if he has a strong, cold father and a mother with a performative personality, it is quite difficult to avoid the influence of this kind of native family on him. It is said that Trump's brother also became depressed very early because he couldn't stand the oppression his father imposed on him, and then died of alcohol poisoning.
Wanxia: Originally, his brother was trained as the heir, but his brother's heart was relatively soft. Therefore, his father often humiliated his eldest son in various ways. Trump is eight years younger than his brother, so he has learned well. He follows his father's expectations to please his father, and is very aggressive towards others according to his father's requirements. When he shows these traits, his father is very Acknowledge him. Now, if this kind of aggression is still so obvious in Trump, is it valuable, or is it really more destructive?
Teacher Xiaoti: is a person with a narcissistic personality. In fact, his offense is defense. So if you look at his habitual expressions, he is always a liar or disgusting. He has no middle ground. For him, if narcissism is his defense against inferiority, then attacking him is weakness. a kind of defense.
06
Why are “Little Trumps” popping up in many countries?
Anxious people and the "savior" hit it off
Wanxia: It is not just the United States that has a Trump. In fact, many similar figures have appeared in Latin American countries, including Europe. For example, Milai, who just took office in Argentina, also said "Make Argentina great again". That slogan is exactly the same as Trump's, including the former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, who is Trump Jr. Everyone thinks that a kind of populism, or extreme populism, is on the rise. Is there a psychological factor here?
Teacher Xiaoti: There should be , it must be there. Of course, Trump may also set a certain example. At the same time, whether it is Argentina or Brazil, the political dynamics of these countries are indeed relatively turbulent. In fact, why is it said that it has a certain psychological foundation among the people? Just like Hitler back then, it was impossible for him to launch such a cruel war on his own.
Wanxia: Hitler was also chosen to some extent.
Teacher Xiaoti: In different historical periods, the state of public sentiment will indeed be triggering. Nowadays, the world is constantly facing various challenges and tests, both in terms of economy and natural ecology. Most people are actually unwilling to pay more attention to understanding complex things and just stick to the established route.
If you look at Owen Yalom, a psychology expert that I like very much, he mentioned in the book "Existential Psychotherapy" that if we look at the four dimensions of existentialism, such as loneliness, death, and meaning, , freedom, in terms of these four dimensions, human beings are pretty much the same, not too different, because no one can escape these four things. He said that actually everyone has death anxiety when they are born, because we are certain to die, so this anxiety is innate to us.
A lot of anxiety is actually a derivative of death anxiety. To deal with death anxiety, people have two defense mechanisms. One is: I am unique, I stand out, and I can get a privilege from the God of Death. , this is the kind of arrogant and narcissistic person. What are other people's defenses against death anxiety? I want to cling to a strong person who can be my ultimate savior.
Author丨Wan Xia, senior editor of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News "Slow Down·Observation"
Editor丨Guo Jinchi, Chief Editor of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News
Typesetting丨Su Ruixue, Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News Editor
