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So: its not so confusing what Trump supporters see in him. As well as feeling supported by his supremacist beliefs, they see him as a patriarch who approves of them and who they can receive narcissistic supplies from by positioning themselves as an extension of his grandiosity
For the @45dreamsblog Trump dream collection- dreams of explicit approval of 45 often involve him popping in and shoring up the dreamees self-esteem:
“Best job ever!”
“Made me feel better than the people who had been bullying me”
“Gave me a huge tip for my hard work”
“Best job ever!”
“Made me feel better than the people who had been bullying me”
“Gave me a huge tip for my hard work”
People do this all the time with idealized powerful objects, individuals and institutions.
“I’m important because I got into Harvard”
“My art teacher said I have real promise!”
“My therapist says Im doing really well”
“I’m important because I got into Harvard”
“My art teacher said I have real promise!”
“My therapist says Im doing really well”
These are childhood self-object needs - feelings of safety and vicarious power and expansiveness that come from attaching to an object, person, institution that is perceived to be powerful.
It’s an incredibly common, usual psychological phenomenon.
It’s an incredibly common, usual psychological phenomenon.
When we dont have “healthy self-feeling” we turn to others to shore up our sense of value and power.
This is the feeback loop 45 and his cult members are living in.
The same transaction happens in every cult, every moment of hero worship and projected idealization.
This is the feeback loop 45 and his cult members are living in.
The same transaction happens in every cult, every moment of hero worship and projected idealization.
Sometimes this mechanism can be used to heal people. To raise children. To guide mentees. To initiate people professions.
Sometimes it is used to exploit and control people.
Same mechanism.
Sometimes it is used to exploit and control people.
Same mechanism.
To “comprehend” his followers simply imagine any time you have taken comfort, during a vulnerable moment or from a wounded part of your psyche, in the admiration or elevation offered to you by someone you saw as powerful.
“Ignore them, they are just jealous”
“Ignore them, they are just jealous”
White supremacy and white nationalism are just the most toxic extreme that exploit a universal psychological phenomenon.
Jesus and Buddha themselves were tempted by the same lure of hubris and inflation. It isn’t “alien”. It is omnipresent in “good” relationships and organizations and “bad” ones. It has just emerged here in an extreme, exploitable, dangerous and dehumanizing “movement”.
The “pro-Trump” dreams I’ve been reading are not some hellscape of twisted humanity no matter the actual dangers the movement presents.
The justifications for destructive acts are usually so simple and common that we overlook that we utilize the same psychological processes.
The justifications for destructive acts are usually so simple and common that we overlook that we utilize the same psychological processes.
A man struggles to set up a Christmas tee. Trump appears and says “Best tree ever!”
Dreamer wakes feeling great.
Just that.
Dreamer wakes feeling great.
Just that.
I don’t think the outcomes aee simple or excused by these projections and justifications - just that the processes ans needs leading up to it are so common as to be universal.
This should not relieve anyone.
This should not relieve anyone.
Last year I had a conversation with psychoanalyst/self-psychologist, Holocaust survivor Anna Ornstein - (some kind of cousin to my husband me by marriage) who studied medicine in Germany after surviving Auschwitz (with my mother in law.)
And she emphasized after knowing MANY people who had been Nazis in many different ways- that they were normal, healthy people. That it was not “sickness” that had filled them with hope for a “Fatherland”-
That they were the same hopes that most humans have for connection and security- the same terrors that most humans have - profoundly destructively, dangerously misplaced and projected on to innocent “Others” and manipulative “leaders”
None of this makes anyone “innocent”.
It just means that if you think you are in no way susceptible to similar manipulation you better look more closely at yourself
It just means that if you think you are in no way susceptible to similar manipulation you better look more closely at yourself
It is a human susceptibility thay can be exploited for good or ill.
Actually at best, good and ill. There is always some cost.
Actually at best, good and ill. There is always some cost.
The real horror underlying the process which leads to blind loyalty and the dehumanization of others is how benign and ubiquitous its origins are.
Anna Ornstein knows Nazism intimately. She was a teenager in Auchwitz. She went to medical school in Germany after the war. Her peers, classmates, and psychoanalytic patients were Nazis.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Ornstein
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Ornstein
She is an extraordinarily respected psychoanalytic practitioner and teacher. She has spent her life traveling the world and studying genocide.
And the dreams I saw in the Trump dream collection said exactly the same thing https://45dreamsproject.com/2020/03/24/chapter-14-dreams-of-admiration-and-identification/
And the dreams I saw in the Trump dream collection said exactly the same thing https://45dreamsproject.com/2020/03/24/chapter-14-dreams-of-admiration-and-identification/
