The contemporary Republican party has no core. Why is testimony like this familiar? Where is its like this most often seen? Among those who curry favor with authoritarian leaders.
Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, told Trump that it was a “great honor traveling with you around the country for the last year, and an even greater honor to be here serving on your cabinet.” Labor secretary Alexander Acosta was also “privileged and honored.” () “We thank you for the opportunity and the blessing to serve your agenda,” said then chief of staff Reince Priebus. The camera panned around the room as cabinet members praised Trump in terms more suited to a religious leader. Consider the remarkable televised meeting of Trump’s first cabinet meeting. It’s not that a large number of people aren’t worrying about something real. This week’s primary elections underscored the striking degree to which President Trump has transformed the Republican Party from a political organization into a cult of personality. In 2018, the New York Times published an editorial, “The Cult of Trump.” If Trump is a cult leader, it won’t be shown by comparisons like these, which are the norm in everyday politics. Finally, Hassan writes “Trump’s campaign was an aggressive recruiting machine, using many of the black-and-white, us- versus-them techniques used by cults.” (p 171) Were his “fireside chats” indoctrination? Hassan continues, “Trump uses all kinds of cult tactics-to confuse, disorient, and ultimately coerce his followers.” (p xiv) What does “ultimately coerce his followers” mean? This is an awfully strange version of coercion, transforming millions of Trump’s followers into zombies. What in the world does “psychological sway” mean? Franklin Delano Roosevelt had great psychological sway. When a leader gains psychological sway over his followers and also over other politicians - members of Congress, the cabinet, and even the judiciary - the checks and balances of healthy democracy can be stripped away. On the other hand, looking at Trump from only this perspective risks ignoring the power of ordinary politics to exploit our anger and fear.Ĭonsider the claims of Steven Hassan in The Cult of Trump. Nevertheless, it makes sense to look at Trump from a psychological and psychoanalytic perspective. However, to refer to “PTSD-like symptoms” that afflict not only soldiers and other victims of terrible trauma, “but many of the rest of us as well” (Tang, p 215), risks trivializing PTSD and misunderstanding Trump. In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 35 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, Jennifer Panning describes what she calls “Trump Anxiety Disorder,” a “unique postelection anxiety syndrome that has emerged as a result of the Trump presidency.” It is characterized by “increased worry, obsessive thought patterns, muscle tension and obsessive preoccupation with the news.” (p 229) In the same volume, Betty Tang (p 215) writes of the “parallels between the anxiety reactions suffered by increasing numbers of concerned Americans and the symptoms of PTSD.”Ĭertainly, there is/was much to worry about with Trump as President indeed, as long as he remains on the national stage. may present with prolonged changes in, or conscious questions of, their identity. Identity disturbance due to prolonged and intense coercive persuasion: Individuals who have been subjected to intense coercive persuasion.
Trumps cult animosity sign up manual#
Submerged deep inside the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) is a category that designates the victims of cults, labeled Other Specified Dissociative Disorders, 300.15. To treat Trump as a cult leader risks mystifying the appeal of authoritarian leaders. He gives voice to what is already out there. Trump is an extremely clever politician, adept at manipulating nativism, racism, and rage. To suggest that Trump has a cult-like following suggests that his appeal is extraordinary in some way. He is a skilled politician who allows others to share in his narcissism and his rage. But he will be with us in one form or another for some time. Author’s note: I could not write this post until after Trump was defeated I’m not sure why.
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