> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • The Evolution of Race in Admissions
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
The Review
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

I, Donald

How narcissism explains the presumptive GOP nominee’s rise.

By  Matthew Meyer
June 19, 2016
Trump-Meyer
Photo Illustration by Mark Abramson

Much has been made of Donald Trump’s narcissism. Dana Milbank at The Washington Post speaks of a “festival of narcissism”; David Brooks of The New York Times refers to Trump’s “ego as ideology”; the clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis claims that Trump suffers from “textbook narcissistic personality disorder.” The list could go on. Indeed, Trump’s rise seems to be part of a broader cultural phenomenon that the scholars Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell have dubbed “the narcissism epidemic.”

If Trump really is a narcissist, we have to ask what a “narcissist in chief” would mean for our democracy. The Emory University psychologists Scott O. Lilienfeld and Ashley L. Watts paint an ambivalent picture. Although narcissists are “gifted stage performers who are persuasive and decisive,” they wrote in the Times, voters may also “get a good deal more than they bargained for” because narcissists often overestimate their abilities and accumulate “resources for themselves at others’ expense.”

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

Much has been made of Donald Trump’s narcissism. Dana Milbank at The Washington Post speaks of a “festival of narcissism”; David Brooks of The New York Times refers to Trump’s “ego as ideology”; the clinical psychologist Ben Michaelis claims that Trump suffers from “textbook narcissistic personality disorder.” The list could go on. Indeed, Trump’s rise seems to be part of a broader cultural phenomenon that the scholars Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell have dubbed “the narcissism epidemic.”

If Trump really is a narcissist, we have to ask what a “narcissist in chief” would mean for our democracy. The Emory University psychologists Scott O. Lilienfeld and Ashley L. Watts paint an ambivalent picture. Although narcissists are “gifted stage performers who are persuasive and decisive,” they wrote in the Times, voters may also “get a good deal more than they bargained for” because narcissists often overestimate their abilities and accumulate “resources for themselves at others’ expense.”

TRUMP-cover
The Trump Issue
How did Donald Trump’s candidacy happen? What ideas has he upended? How is academe responding? What does his candidacy mean for the future of democracy? We asked scholars from a variety of disciplines to weigh in.
  • ‘Trump Syllabus’ Is as White as the Man Himself
  • The Clickbait Candidate
  • Make America America Again
  • Pox Populi
  • The Politics of Resentment
  • Poor White Politics

The ancient Greeks, however, were less ambivalent about the threat narcissism poses to democracy — and one figure in particular deserves close comparison with Trump. In The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides narrates the decline of Athenian democracy at the hands of Alcibiades, the Athenian general and playboy. In Plato’s Republic, a regime ruled by benevolent philosopher kings undergoes a steady decline until democracy finally breeds a narcissistic tyrant — left unnamed in the text, though the allusions throughout suggest that it is Alcibiades.

Robert Garland, a classicist at Colgate University, has recently argued that Trump and Alcibiades are a lot alike. Both were born into positions of privilege and power — Trump the son of a wealthy businessman, Alcibiades the nephew and ward of Pericles, the ruler of Athens. As children, both loved to fight and win. As an adult, Alcibiades excelled as a military general, while Trump supposedly mastered the art of the deal. Both are known for boasting of their sexual exploits, and both show little loyalty to anything beyond themselves. Indeed, Alcibiades is said to have wanted his name and influence to extend to everything. The parallel to Trump — with his Trump Plaza, Trump Tower, Trump Entertainment Resorts — could not be more evident.

In his account of the Peloponnesian war, Thucydides contrasts the statesmanship of Pericles, which contributed to Athenian greatness, with the narcissism of Alcibiades, which led to Athenian demise. Thucydides, however, suggests that Pericles’ regime planted the seeds for the emergence of a figure like Alcibiades. Just as Ronald Reagan arguably furthered American empire by unleashing the greed of the Gordon Gekko ’80s, Pericles prudently excited and then channeled the private ambitions of the populace toward Athenian greatness. When it came time to rule, Alcibiades, animated by the same self-regard that characterized the people under Pericles, used politics not as a means to advance Athenian greatness but rather to further his own. According to Thucydides, Alcibiades’ insatiable lust for glory drove him to persuade the Athenians to undertake a risky invasion of Sicily that ultimately led to the downfall of Athens.

ADVERTISEMENT

The narcissistic tyrant of Plato’s Republic is no less ambitious and no less in love with himself. Although Andrew Sullivan has recently appealed to Plato’s Republic to argue that democracy has precipitated the rise of a tyrant like Trump, a more careful reading of the text shows that a self-regarding eros — not democracy — effects the transition to tyranny. For Plato, democracy merely creates the conditions for tyranny. The cause of democracy’s downfall, however, is a narcissism that animates figures like Alcibiades or Trump.

Those concerned about the fate of our own democracy ought to be worried about the narcissism Trump embodies — and that our culture has increasingly embraced. This gospel of self-love has many of us falling for ourselves. It could, in turn, have many of us falling for another Alcibiades.

Matthew Meyer is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Scranton.

A version of this article appeared in the June 24, 2016, issue.
Read other items in this The Trump Issue package.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Opinion
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Blogs
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2023 The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin