Donald J. Trump: Psychohistorical Perspectives on Our 45th President

Review of Michael Maccoby and Ken Fuchsman, eds., Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives on the Leadership of Donald Trump: Narcissism and Marketing in an Age of Anxiety and Distrust (London and New York: Routledge, the Taylor & Francis Group, 2020), ISBN 978-0-367-89712-3 (hardback, $155), 978-9-367-42648-4 (paperback, $38.95), 978-1-003-02068-4 (ebook, $38.95), pages 190

Editors Maccoby and Fuchsman have assembled an interdisciplinary and renowned group of scholars to provide rather deep insight into the impact of Donald J. Trump’s childhood and adolescence. Topics include his personality development, his style of leadership, the strategies he uses to win and maintain the loyalty of his base, and whether his public behavior is compatible with the presidency. Also addressed by this team of psychoanalysts, historians, psychohistorians, and a sociologist, is how Trump got elected in 2016. That is, what sociological, economic, cultural, and psychological factors coalesced during that election, which led to an individual with no political experience and a host of character

Page 264

flaws winning the electoral college and garnering 63 million American votes (46.1% of the popular vote tally)?

Structurally, this book is organized into four major parts and 14 chapters. Part I includes four chapters focused around “Who is Donald Trump and why do people follow him?” In Part II, six chapters explore “How Trump leads.” Part III includes three chapters that turn to “Social and historical factors in the rise of Trump.” Finally, Part IV includes three chapters that focus on “Presidential personality and performance.”

Collectively, the contributors to Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives provide a clear conceptual map of how the U.S. got to where it is today politically and socially. Sociologist Charles Heckscher (Chapter 11) provides an insightful socio-cultural-historical roadmap (as do David Lotto, chapter 9, and Ken Fuchsman, chapter 10) of factors leading up to the 2016 election. In a nutshell, Heckscher contends that the postwar period, from the mid-1940s through the 1980s, was a period of industrial and economic prosperity in which the populous was generally approving of, and confident in, large corporate and political leadership. A secure, optimistic sense of inclusion was the American zeitgeist.

However, beginning with the tumult of the 1960s, inspired primarily by a young, liberal, and progressive cohort, the trust in political leadership and large corporations began to shatter. Nevertheless, general positive support for the government and corporate leadership remained strong in some segments of the population. Yet, a second challenge to tradition, this time inspired by the ultra-conservative and populist tea party in the early 2000s, solidified the rupture of confidence that had prevailed in previous decades.

As a social justice push by progressives continued, accompanied by a transition from an industrial society to a more technical (e.g., the Internet and social networking) economy, millions of Americans began to feel left out. Thus, the emerging multicultural-oriented, environmentally conscious, Internet-savvy progressive movement of the last three decades left a large segment of the population behind financially, politically, and socially. Growing numbers of Americans experienced a loss of confidence and optimism about their future, as well as a diminished sense of personal identity and empowerment. This fear and uncertainty led to existential anxiety and defensive reactions, creating a socially regressive group and a “culture of grievance” (using Seth Allcorn’s 2020 conception in “Culture of Grievance: Creating Polarization from Chosen Traumas,” Journal of Psychohistory,Vol. 48, No. 1,23-40).

As a defense mechanism, millions of Americans looked for a new heroic figure, a rescuer who could bring America back to a former more secure, conservative, stable, and familiar society. This culture of grievance set the stage for the embrace of an outspoken, charismatic, “drain the swamp” and “build the wall” leader who could return America to its post-

Page 265

war glory and “make America great again.” Donald J. Trump, a master “marketing narcissist” (Maccoby, Chapters 1 and 12) and “disruptive narcissist” (Paul H. Elovitz, chapter 4) was in the right place at exactly the right time in U.S. history to don the rescuer mantle.

We will briefly examine how some of the authors illuminate Heckscher’s framework. For example, Trump’s psychogenesis is explored most deeply by presidential psychobiographer Elovitz (Chapter 4), who characterizes Trump as a “disruptive narcissistic personality.” He traces Trump’s disruptiveness to his early childhood when his mother was very ill over a long period of time and therefore emotionally unavailable to him. In addition, his father Fred Trump was working continuously while also sending clear messages to his children that emotional weakness was not to be tolerated. Hence Trump’s first metaphor for his defense mechanism was an emotional “wall” set by both of his parents. Further, the Trump mansion was completely walled off from the neighborhood and the family was intolerant of any incursions by non-family members. We can infer that the metaphor of the wall remained very salient to Trump as he started his political career. Interestingly, revelations by Dr. Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and the niece of the President, in her blockbuster new book, Too Much and Never Enough (2020), are consistent with many of Elovitz’ early childhood insights and interpretations.

Maccoby (Ch. 1) and Otto Kernberg (interviewed for Ch. 2 by Fuchsman and Molly Castelloe) clarify the origins and meaning of the concept or construct of narcissism. Building off of the earlier work of Sigmund Freud and Erich Fromm, narcissism is discussed in an accurate historical perspective as one of four normal components of personality, along with erotic, obsessive, and marketing. Each component has good and bad aspects depending on the extent to which the individual identifies or overidentifies with the personality trait. Maccoby presents an insightful profile of Trump by systematically integrating the elevated marketing and narcissistic personality aspects that characterize Trump.

The attraction to Trump is addressed thoroughly and thoughtfully in many chapters that delineate how his marketing and disruptive narcissism, in the present socio-cultural-economic context, appealed to anxious, vulnerable, and left-behind segments of the electorate. These segments of the population turned to a more populist, nativistic, and authoritarian mentality, what psychoanalyst Lotto describes as “American exceptionalism on steroids” (Chapter 9, 110). Conditions were now in place to embrace a demagogue like Trump (Michael Signer, chapter 7). Historian Elizabeth Lunbeck (Chapter 3) clearly breaks down the allure of Trump’s narcissism, while psychoanalysts Stern and Logue provide vivid descriptions of his mastery of gaslighting used to strip a vulnerable population of its own sense of reality.

Though we were not able to touch upon every one of the excel-

Page 266

lent chapters in the book, we would like to highlight some particular strengths of Maccoby and Fuchsman’s integrative contribution, as follows:

One, the individual chapters are well-researched and referenced across a deep and interdisciplinary literature. Two, we were pleased that all the authors, particularly those clinically trained, adhered to the Goldwater rule by not attempting to diagnose Trump with a specific mental illness, an opinion echoed by Kernberg (chapter 2). He strongly advises that the question an informed citizenry should be asking is not whether Donald Trump is mentally ill, but whether his public behavior is compatible with responsible leadership. This question is tackled directly and thoughtfully by Fuchsman, who in the end concludes that Trump “is unfit to be President of the United States” (Ch. 5, 67).

Three, the authors were able to maintain their scholarly objectivity as much as possible. Thus, Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives is certainly not a Trump-bashing volume, but is instead thoughtful, extremely well-researched, and supported a candid assessment of his personality, his leadership style, and his public behavior. We found several chapters in which the authors admonish both the extreme political left and right. For example, Paul Gottfried’s (Ch. 8) deeply informed political history review serves to dismantle the left’s naïve and ill-informed association of Trump to fascism in the Nazi era. Lotto (Ch. 9) also calls both political parties to task when he carefully documents that not only Trump’s administration promoted American exceptionalism, but prior Obama and Clinton administrations did as well, albeit more subtly.

Four, importantly, the authors do not just provide readers with a window to see who Donald Trump is and how we arrived at our current polarizing state of politics, but they also provide a path forward. Addressing a more personality and leadership trait perspective, Maccoby (Chapter 13) outlines that what the U.S. needs is a President with the right policies and the ability to explain them; a person with patriotism who places national interests before those of self and family; and honesty. On a broader sociological level, Heckscher outlines paths to bridging the divide in our polarized community, and these include enhancing understanding and empathy, building a shared vision of a desirable future, and learning to collaborate and work together to solve problems with a shared purpose. These traits of humanism seem so basic and obvious, yet we are far from them as we approach the 2020 presidential election.

In conclusion, Maccoby, Fuchsman, and their team of authors have done more than an admirable job of covering a controversial, yet essential and timely topic, in a scholarly and balanced manner. Will this integrative masterpiece sell as well as Mary Trump’s new memoir? Well, the answer is no. However, we believe that this multi- and inter-disciplinary compendium has a wide and broad market well beyond our

Page 267

psychohistorical community.

Page 268