Wednesday, September 20, 2017

An Ouroboros of Delusion: Why Cults and Other Extremist Groups are Often Lead by Narcissists.

Greetings gentle reader, my name is Prester Jane. I am a reformed authoritarian cultist who has written a detailed guide for understanding how extremist groups function, operate, spread their ideas, and radicalize- called the "Narrativist Framework". Although familiarity with the Narrativist Framework is not required to understand the following blog entry, it is strongly suggested. While most of this article will be a discussion of a novel way to understand narcissists it presumes a familiarity on the part of the reader when discussing some of the finer points of how narcissists interact with Narrativism. (For the convenience of readers new to this material I have included a link to the definition of each concept from the Narrativist Framework the first time it appears in this article.)

This blog entry will address one of the more common topics I am asked about by readers- the relationship between narcissists like Donald Trump and Narrativists. Many readers have noted the similarities between the delusional self-image that a narcissist projects and the delusional reality that a Narrativist experiences and query me about various aspects of how they relate- as a result I have addressed aspects of this topic in a sort of piecemeal fashion across a variety of platforms (reddit, FB, SomethingAwful, etc). Naturally this state of affairs is proving quite unsatisfactory as my readership grows, so I am making this blog entry as a way of providing a centralized resource for the specifics of my thinking on how narcissists and Narrativists interact.

Presuming one is already familiar with my definition of a Narrativist I must define specifically what I mean by a narcissist. I am not speaking of someone who merely has a few narcissistic traits or very low empathy in conjunction with very high self image- I am talking about an individual who has a combination of two very specific psychological traits which I will describe in detail below. As I do so I ask the reader to keep Donald Trump in their mind, as he is by far the clearest example of an individual with these two traits that exists in the public sphere.


As regards this discussion a narcissist is an individual who has a personality disorder that results from the combination of two distinct psychological conditions:

1.) They are in a more-or-less permanent state of disassociation, a psychological state which is most frequently caused by severe childhood abuse. (It can occur naturally in certain rare individuals, but the majority of Narcissists are created by their parents/caretakers during childhood.) As a result of this a narcissist has literally no internal dialogue and is functionally incapable of processing information from a first person perspective. This is not an exaggeration, a narcissist cannot process information from a first person perspective and must rely on the reactions of those around them to process any information about themselves at all. A narcissist can only recognize their own existence within the reactions of other human beings. Without human beings to get reactions from a narcissist is quite literally unable to recognize any sense of themselves and experience a tremendous existential dread. Much of their moment-to-moment existence is premised upon first and foremost avoiding the experience of this dread by constantly getting reactions from those around them.


2.) The Narcissist has developed a literal psychological addiction to what I will call here "Narcissistic Supply", hereafter just "Supply" for short. A Narcissist creates a false self image that they use to constantly force reactions from those around them. The Narcissist will actually have multiple false self-images but will have a few that represent unrealistic fantasies that the Narcissist has of themselves. When these particular false self-images are validated by the reactions of those around them, the Narcissist experiences a massive rush of the brains natural feel-good chemicals. This results in an almost heroin-like euphoria that can last far far far longer than heroin ever can. (Once a developing narcissist makes the connection between validating a particular false self and experiencing a rush of bliss the the onset of addiction is rapid.) However- like any other addiction the pleasure of Supply is subject to the hedonic treadmill. Greater and greater Supply are always needed to maintain ever diminishing results. Also like a heroin addict a Narcissist can "binge" on Supply. Under the right circumstances they can sustain a binge for months or years- however this will take a massive toll on their cognitive abilities and a narcissist will noticeably deteriorate during a prolonged Supply binge. (e.g. the rapid degeneration of Donald Trump from his performances during the first GOP Primary debates compared to his public conduct at present- Trump has been on one long Supply binge the entire time and is now starting to deteriorate before our very eyes.)


With these two factors understood I can elaborate a little bit on the behavior of a Narcissist. Their primary goal is to avoid experiencing the empty sense of dread that is the result of their lack of an inner dialogue, so first and foremost they must generate any reaction from anyone around them. However, they will always have a preference for having their idealized fantasies of themselves validated, as this results in a drug like euphoria that is literally on par with heroin.

Unlike heroin however this drug-like euphoria can crash within moments, and the narcissist can switch from experiencing this euphoria (which they will believe is their default "true" state) into experiencing the existential dread that is their true existence. This switch can cause them to lash out at the slightest thing that interrupts their delusions of themselves. Although they often understand enough to restrain these impulses in public, in private they will unleash their full fury on those they have control over.

Broadly speaking Supply can either be Positive (worshipful praise) or Negative (hatred and scorn), and each Narcissist generally acquires a taste for their own particular mix. In the case of Donald Trump he seeks purely positive Supply, in the case of Martin Shkrelli purely negative, and in the case of Milo Yiannapolis he prefers a mix of being adored by his fans and hated by his enemies. To the narcissist what matters is the euphoric rush of brain chemicals- how they get it and what they have to do (or how badly they have to hurt someone) are completely irrelevant concerns.

The narcissists' need for constant validation is where they interact with Narrativists. Narcissists naturally learn how to be incredibly manipulative people- as a result they become experts at detecting individuals whom they can potentially manipulative. A Narrativists' need for constant validation/reinforcement of their Inner narrative drives them to seek social authority figures who will provide that validation/reinforcement. As a result many a narcissist has figured out how to appeal to Inner narratives in order to gain Supply- and in the course of history more than a few well-positioned narcissists have been able to convert Narrativist movements/organizations into their personal Supply dealers.

The relationship is entirely transactional: The narcissist receives constant Supply by spouting whatever nonsense his Narrativist supporters desire him to, and the Narrativists get the ability to (at least psychologically and temporarily) live in the delusional world of their Inner narrative. Once a narcissist gains power within a Narrativist group they can be exceedingly difficult to remove or impede- the regular tactics of a narcissist (such as smear campaigns) make them natural masters of the Compaction cycle, and they often become quite adept at using Compaction cycles to both eliminate rivals and deflect consequences for their personal failures.

An example of the above playing out would be the firing of Reince Preibus- a textbook Compaction cycle if there ever was one. Trump (a clear example of a narcissist as discussed above) was successful in pinning the blame for the Narrative dysphoria his supporters were experiencing (resulting from the leaks to the press) on Reince Priebus. Trump then arranged in grand fashion to have Priebus compacted out of the group in what amounted to a public ritual. The result shortly thereafter was that Trump's inner circle became noticeably more radicalized and extreme.*.


*Thankfully that trend has been reversed now that Kelly has become White House Chief of Staff, but it is still rather concerning that a military low-compaction Narrativist (which Kelly demonstrably is) is so influential within the halls of power.)