What Donald Trump Can Teach Us

If we only listen to his demented, relentlessly reflexive way of speaking, we can hear something of importance: is this a politician?

I don't mean the ridiculous difference Trump likes to make between himself and other politicians - implying (to the credulous) that he is sincere when he speaks, as if, he may intend, a businessman like himself is anymore honest than the politicians he accuses of being liars.

Donald Trump is the individualistic imagination to the extreme. A man who interfaces with his "products" - by which I mean, his swagger, his "selling quality". This is a primarily non-verbal art that Donald Trump has a veritable grasp upon. To the uneducated eye, his manner of communicating and the power he almost always intends to convey, pulls you in and leaves you enraptured by his oratory prowess. But this 'entrancement' with his rhetoric is a profound deception, as his incessant inconsistencies bear witness: Donald Trump is the cult-image par-excellant of a narcissistic, dissociative culture.

To be dissociative essentially means to deny reality. Making claims like "Mexico will build it" when there is no possibility of getting it done, and even less possibility of getting it done since you've publicly offended the pride of the Mexican people by authoritatively (here, again, remind yourself that this is just Donald Trump living out his ultimate fantasy of being 'the most powerful man in the world' - a position I'm sure he abhors not having) demanding that they fork over billions of dollars for something that benefits you more than them.

This depressing, cynical, mindless and unscrupulous display were being exposed to, I hope, can lead us to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a democratic representative of another person, and peoples, and why what we see "at the top", is little nothing more than how we entertain ourselves, speak about ourselves, and organize ourselves in our day to day doings.

When pop star Hailee Seinfeld sings

Gonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else
(Hey)
Gonna love myself, no, I don't need anybody else
(I love me)
Can't help myself, no, I don't need anybody else
Anytime, day or night

And one can't find one article or paper criticizing the obscene falsity of "I don't need anybody else", yes, we lived in a #ed up world, and its only this way because we live in a world that dissociates its dissociativeness; that denies that it deliberately avoids the reasons for its actions. As a social species, were naturally very sensitive to social cues and social evaluations. Ergo, Donald Trump, being human just like the rest of us, has evolved a personality that "corresponds" to the meanings that his environment (his mother, father, siblings, etc) gave to him. The mind (brain), just like the ecology of the natural world, is constructed based upon the 'meanings' the interacted with systems imposes on you. In a certain sense, the newborn (already influenced by its intrauterine stage) acclimates itself, at its primitive level, to the quality of the emotional life - and the implied cognitive regulatory capacity - of the primary caregiver. This interactive process is entirely one ruled by important non-verbal communicative cues that organize both parties in a way that has been described as "musical", in terms of it's contingent nature, and dependency on subtle state shifts in phenomenology.

Donald Trump appeals to the simple mind, built by its early life to 'correspond' to a weltanschauung that accepts Trump as a 'good' candidate. Trump, it must be understood, is a "selfobject" for people who like him; his projection of strength is a strength the admire wishes to have. His general business manner and way of speaking, and his emphasis on toughness - these are things which can be thought to be wishes that an admirer of Trump is bound to have. At root, its a sharing of a similar fantasy about self, itself a dissociative process that keep certain uncomfortable psychodynamic realities from being acknowledged (shame, a feeling of worthlessness, depression, anxiety, fear) and its brought upwards, and the rhetoric of a single human being comes to express this common ''energy".

This notion of energy, and the representation of it in a particular individual, is what this post is ultimately groping for. A representative is fundamentally, especially in todays day and age, a vortex of energy with a very wide arc. In terms of psychodynamic functioning, the words of a Donald Trump has a frightful potency on the thinking of people who are similarly constructed as he is (sharing basic fantasies,insecurities).

A politician. A senator, Congressman, Minister. Secretary. President. etc. Your post is granted to you by people who trust you. feeling stressed and needy, and so going for whatevers available, and marketed, and so being dragged into a particlar cultural habit ----> finding Donald Trump appealing because hes rich, funny, intelligent sounding, and "tough". Because all these assessments of Trump are shallow and superficial (rich: utterly irrelevant; he's funny: again, irrelevant; intelligent sounding: misleading; tough: betrays an immature insecurity with feminine emotions like empathy) it'll probably lead to policies that simply add to or make worse the present-day workaholic-playaholic- and ignore larger societal consequences because your mind is fixated on external things, and away from things of the heart.

But its these 'things from the heart' that ultimately matters, as it takes self-control, or more correctly, the capacity to regulate your breathing and visceral affects, that allows you to perceive more correctly - and thus more intelligently (because emotional intelligence is a basic part of intelligence proper).

We need a fundamental cultural reorientation towards a dialogue centered in empathy, compassion, and most of all, science. This is not just mushy-hearted thinking, but being given the facts of the situation of our common human condition, and deciding how we would like to proceed, and also making clear the probable consequences if we persist in our dissociative habits.

a reply to: Astrocyte

I dont mean to offend as that was actually VERY well written. I just think you fell into the age old trap of intellectualizing for substance.

I take issue with the premise that he is this inconsistent con man. He is a business man, and in business you do need to sell a half of yourself and keep the other half private, hidden.

The half you do show and sell with /sell is either honest or it is not sincere.

In so much as that, the half we see is VERY sincere to a point of detriment.

I just cant see the hidden part being anything beyond human nature and self preservation. Something his other half seems to have overcome since it is launching him into territory that will ultimately end his life as it was.

After this election, Trump will no longer be able to do business. That is not the private half preserving the whole.

That is the private half committing to an all in bet his public half he sells with is placing.

Is it altruistic and benign in its entirety? No. Of coarse not. Thats the beauty of Trump. Its simple to see.

Does he speak simply for a simple audience? Sure. He also speaks simply to himself. His ideas are founded on a deep truth that, again, his private side looking for self preservation should have silenced like every other mover and shaker at his level.

He is no Titan, but he is trying to do something before he dies.

He may be acting like a terminally ill Cancer patient. I would not be surprised if he is even on set time.

Once you reach those years after having it all, you seek something more. He never cared to fit in with the other big boys as far as power and legacy. He has reveled in the world he alone created. When you become really good at making your world, you reach a point that you wish to share it with the greater world at large because you see its merit and feel THAT is something you can do like no other. Sell your world and mind in the hope of leaving something behind of you. A dose of immortality if you will.

The reason we have kids. The reason we scratch our names into trees and rocks.

We always want to leave the best of us behind in the hopes that something of our worthiness will live on BECAUSE it is worthy.

I dont see a nefarious mind. I see an honest one, growing old and , if I can borrow some vernacular from my generation, not giving a F anymore.

a reply to: Astrocyte

I just smoked then read this.
...mind = mush

originally posted by: tadaman
a reply to: Astrocyte

I dont mean to offend as that was actually VERY well written. I just think you fell into the age old trap of intellectualizing for substance.

I take issue with the premise that he is this inconsistent con man. He is a business man, and in business you do need to sell a half of yourself and keep the other half private, hidden.

The half you do show and sell with /sell is either honest or it is not sincere.

In so much as that, the half we see is VERY sincere to a point of detriment.

I just cant see the hidden part being anything beyond human nature and self preservation. Something his other half seems to have overcome since it is launching him into territory that will ultimately end his life as it was.

After this election, Trump will no longer be able to do business. That is not the private half preserving the whole.

That is the private half committing to an all in bet his public half he sells with is placing.

Is it altruistic and benign in its entirety? No. Of coarse not. Thats the beauty of Trump. Its simple to see.

Does he speak simply for a simple audience? Sure. He also speaks simply to himself. His ideas are founded on a deep truth that, again, his private side looking for self preservation should have silenced like every other mover and shaker at his level.

He is no Titan, but he is trying to do something before he dies.

He may be acting like a terminally ill Cancer patient. I would not be surprised if he is even on set time.

Once you reach those years after having it all, you seek something more. He never cared to fit in with the other big boys as far as power and legacy. He has reveled in the world he alone created. When you become really good at making your world, you reach a point that you wish to share it with the greater world at large because you see its merit and feel THAT is something you can do like no other. Sell your world and mind in the hope of leaving something behind of you. A dose of immortality if you will.

The reason we have kids. The reason we scratch our names into trees and rocks.

We always want to leave the best of us behind in the hopes that something of our worthiness will live on BECAUSE it is worthy.

I dont see a nefarious mind. I see an honest one, growing old and , if I can borrow some vernacular from my generation, not giving a F anymore.

So well said tadaman.
Star for you. You nailed it. Your insight is astonishingly right-on.

I agree with your commentary on the OP's well-written assessment of Trump. I don't believe he is a nefarious con-man either.

If folks would read his book, "Crippled America - How To Make America Great Again" they would come to a wider and broader understanding of the facts regarding Trump's interesting background and his stance on the issues.

I picked up his book at the public library (because it was just laying there). I thought why not...might as well....
I finished it easily in a day as it's concise and simple to comprehend. I found myself realizing that most of the people who disagree with Trump haven't a clue what he is really all about. Inside the book is a look at part of that "other" side of Trump which the greater public generally does not see.

When I put the book down my man asked me, "Well...?"

I said, "Truthfully...I think he'll make a great president."

My man's jaw dropped. (In 15 years, I'd never literally seen that happen with him.) Obviously he was floored by my response. I think he expected giggles and scoffing as we hadn't been Trump supporters.... So he was forced to read the book too - as he said he values my opinion and intuition too much to dismiss my response.

He seemed a bit dazed when he finished reading it. I felt as if he felt the rug had just been pulled out from under all he thought he believed about Trump. Then he chimed agreement: Trump could be just what America needs right now.

Perhaps the clincher for me came with the photos in the book's inset. By now almost everyone knows about Trump's business empire: the buildings, the towers, the golf courses, etc. But when I started to flip through the pictures of these "creations", the enormity of such accomplishments "hit me". Wow. All this he's done under budget, under deadline; a completely micro-managed business enterprise with 1000's upon 1000's of employees.

Among those 1000's do not seem to be any disgruntled employees. (Don't you know the MSM would have already exploited their "stories"...right?) All have exceptional healthcare, benefits and respectable salaries.

If anyone is ever going to rebuild our country, including the seriously crumbling infrastructure, this is the one man I would trust to get it done. But that's only part of it. There's a lot more that would be gotten done in Washington under this man's leadership...which is why the old guard is trembling at the thought of a Trump presidency.

His book is worth a read if anyone is on the fence about voting for Trump. Just sayin'.

Hope I didn't stray too far off subject, as I just wanted to say I appreciated your commentary here tadaman.