Many things have been written and said in the media, both pro and con, about perhaps the most polarizing individual in America today. Opinions and emotions are very strong concerning the current President, and even some well known mental health professionals as recently as last Tuesday held a panel discussion in Washington D.C. titled “The Increasingly Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” [1]. It was claimed that the President’s “mental instability” was supported by now well-known examples of exaggeration, lying, and personal vanity. Although many politicians and public figures are controversial because of these behaviors, I thought it would be interesting to examine and explain Donald Trump’s personality using two different perspectives: Freud’s …show more content…
Since the id is impulsive and frequently unaware of its consequences, Psychoanalytic theory could well describe Trump’s repeated claims of having or being the best in everything – the best people, the best victory, the best tax bill, the best supporters, the richest developer, the best attorneys, etc. When these claims are objectively demonstrated to be blatant lies, repeated denials and assertions of “fake news” come from his press conferences and twitter account. It is clear he wants to avoid pain (embarrassment) and seek pleasure (approval), but the consequences of impulsive statements to the public very often result in ridicule and rejection from the majority of the American people. His vague responses of “We’ll see what happens” allow him to avoid personal responsibility (pain) for the moment while giving him the pleasure of leaving everyone else in the dark, supporters as well as opponents, still controlling, if barely, the …show more content…
Despite having previous losses in Congress on various measures, most notably the failed repeal of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), he recognized reality and worked hard with Congress to pass the Tax bill, thus achieving the id's drive in the most realistic ways over the long term. The superego is driven by the morality of higher thought and action [6], but except for bombing a Syrian airbase for their use of nerve gas against civilians, Donald Trump has rarely acted in socially-acceptable ways due to guilt and a sense of right and wrong. Rare exceptions might be his defense of immediate family members, but those seem offset by his buying the silence of participants in previous