Adorno yes but also from this period the neglected figure of Willhelm Reich who had an interesting socio-analytical take on authoritarianism

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mass_Psychology_of_Fascism

Later in exile in the US he went weird and was persecuted by Mc Carthy

Trump

Power may induce a sense of entitlement = one of the NP-traits

Narcissistic leaders often express prideful and self-aggrandizing styles of leadership behavior; whether such leadership is related to authoritarian leadership. Because narcissistic leaders are excessively concerned with themselves, the control of power, and the neglect of others, they would use authoritarian methods to stabilize their own power in order to control subordinates or dominate the management of the organization, requiring employees to submit without reservation to express recognition, approval, admiration, and love for them.

http://www.worldresearchlibrary.org/up_proc/pdf/1761-15355270591-4.pdf

I partly agree with this correlation as there may be leaders who dominate in situations that demand collaboration. Autocratic leadership is not a negative term, rather its a style of leadership that may be situation specific, for example in crises management, one needs an authoritative leadership at times where one order needs to be followed from one authority for safety or the only solution to a problem.

I think the authoritarian personality, developed by Adorno (1950) and Altmeyer mentions nothing about narcissism but i wouldn’t discount it. This is worth exploration.

Adorno yes but also from this period the neglected figure of Willhelm Reich who had an interesting socio-analytical take on authoritarianism

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mass_Psychology_of_Fascism

Later in exile in the US he went weird and was persecuted by Mc Carthy

Erich Fromm wrote about this correlation in his book: The Heart of Man. Its Genius for Good and Evil (1964). He found that some people have the "syndrome of decay," that consist in the confluence of malignant narcissism, love of death and symbiotic-incestuos fixation. He found that in leaders like Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler and Stalin were examples of people with that syndrome. I recommend you to read that work.

One obvious character of a narcissist is "me-ism" or "me-first." With this understanding, the correlation between autocratic leadership and narcissistic personality becomes clear. A narcissistic personality is hellbent to do only the things that pleases him/her. This attitude when translates to leadership becomes autocratic because he/she has no idea or has but does not care about others' feeling about the way things should be done.

Based on my 40+ years as a BHC clinician I suggest that there is a strong correlation between the "wild" personality cluster and autocratic leaders. Political and governmental issues are not my strong suit, however. I suggest that the current US president meets the criteria for narcissistic PD w/ prominent antisocial features.

Great question,

Rich, MSW

yes in the famous Meehl Psychology study determining whether a human clinical evaluation was better than a computer evaluation --those who were more authoritarian were more often wrong

this actually has broad political implications the issue is reflected in Baumrind's parenting styles the distinction between authoritarian and authoritative styles

whoops got interrupted and was answering per competency and its negative impact harm on others--of course there is a correlation with NPD tho the autocratic approach is in the service of manipulation and con

however, Michael Maccoby has written extensively about leadership and narcissism and productive narcissism

I think they both have a lack of empathy and compassion mixed with a self-aggrandizing appearance as a result of their low self-esteem.

Observing such autocratic style as Stalin’s and others I should say –no correlation Narcissi personality loves himself/herself ,enjoying looking at the own appearance .Autocratic unconsciously hate the own appearance and it is one of the numerous roots to humiliate and hurt the at others

Other than rejecting the love of Echo, the only criticism of Narcissus was that he fell in love withvhis own reflection in a pool of water. N today's world he could have so many opportunities to see his reflection, he would have no time for anyone else. He might neglect them, but he would not bother to persecute them.

Joe,

He would if he also exhibited prominent antisocial features as well.

Rich, MSW

Rich,

I'm pretty interested in the antisocial side of this whole equation. Putting my armchair psychiatrist hat on, I would agree that Trump shows antisocial features as opposed to a full-fledged personality disorder. Could this serve to explain why his reign has been, to this point non-violent? Perhaps narcissistic personality gets us to an autocratic governance structure, yet stark anti-sociality is required to push a government into violence?

Ben

Ben,

I think that Trump is interpersonally violent when his authority is challenged and he unleashes his narcissistic rage and does his best to psychosocially destroy others. It is very interesting to hear some newscasters refer to "where all the bodies are buried". And often they refer to his company as a "mob". Many mob bosses ordered persons to be killed, and did not kill directly.

Sociologist, Erving Goffman, uses the term "mortification". I have incorporated this idea into what I refer to as the deconstruction of a self or collective selves: invalidations, devaluations, dehuminizations, Mortification (psychosocial death) and ultimately suicide, homicide, and genocide.

If it were not for a few in his administration who contain him, I'm sure we would be at war w/ some country. When I served as an AF medic during Vietnam, my Commander-in Chief was Richard Nixon. In 1972 he froze all promotions and pay raises for federal employees, which included all military members. Nice guy!

Trump is a big time norm violator, is sexually promiscuous and does what he can to destroy anyone who gets in his way.

I appreciate your interest and hope some of this clarifies the antisocial features.

Rich

Ben Jurney

I've submitted this article to Brain Blogger where a lot of my work is published. I now connected this president to violence.

Rich

I look forward to it! Perhaps we were being generous by discounting violence at political rallies and at Charlottesville, but I do think recent attacks solidify the argument that the movement is inherently violent.

That being said, one could make a good counterargument that violence is simply a consequence of the ideology rather than being essential to the movement.

The ideology, I think, is insufficient. The high levels of (-) expressed emotionality

is necessary to activate the amygdala and arouse the genetically primed alarm system. I learned a lot about this in military basic training; tho fortunately I trained as an AF medic and did not have anybody trying to kill me; nor did I have to kill anybody.

This is a great discussion,

Rich