1/ How, after four years of this, can many Americans keep finding themselves shocked by Donald Trump’s behavior?

A psychoanalyst friend Dr. Michael Levin helped me explain.

“This disconnect exists because we’re living in a world that is grounded and checked by reason…

2/ His is grounded only in his emotional needs and fantasies. I think this is a useful framework to understand why we all have repeatedly been shocked by his behavior for years. It’s just a bridge too far for most of our psychological imaginations …

3/ Most of the commentary I’m seeing in the press about his narcissism seems not to get that, deep down, it’s not about feeling good. It’s about psychic survival. I think this is the case with most of his base too…

4/ It’s not the garden variety narcissism of someone like Elon Musk or Bill Clinton. It’s much more desperate and psychotic.”

Indeed, we keep applying strategic goals to what is a narcissistic sociopath’s emotionally disturbed reaction to a fear of shame and humiliation…

5/ Trump truly believes he’s being cheated because the alternative is too brutal and painful to accept; even if democracy has to be destroyed so his fantasy, and thus his psychic existence, can survive…

6/ When we see mental illness play out in public or celebrity spheres, we often view it as a sideshow. When we encounter it in real life, we know it’s "the whole show." That’s why so many of his advisors are horrified right now. Mental illness can be scary as hell up close.

7/ The politicians who cynically use Trump as a battering ram for their own ends will be able to let go of him when his usefulness goes away. For his true believers, the relationship is less transactional and operates more like a religion…

8/ And a religion is a lot to ask someone to give up because of the small reality of a few million votes. The psychic frenzy this has stirred up among millions of Americans cannot be turned off with a switch. An addiction to falsehoods is not easy to relinquish…

9/ But for Trump it’s much more than this.

It ... is ... everything.

The walls of the false world he’s built throughout his life are closing in. It’s a threat he feels is in some ways greater than physical death.

A breakdown is likely. Something more dramatic is possible.

10/ Trump was never capable of being president. Voters shouldn't have elected him. He's a bad guy, yes. But he's also a wholly pathetic and sad character who was an easy mark for our adversaries—both abroad and in the GOP. He'll be viewed in part as a tragedy, as will his tenure.