In the mirror, Obama sees grandeur; in America, not so much

...Obama's modesty is curiously selective. When it comes to himself, modesty is in short supply.

It began with the almost comical self-inflation of his presidential campaign, from the still inexplicable mass rally in Berlin in front of a Prussian victory column to the Greek columns framing him at the Democratic convention. And it carried into his presidency, from his posture of philosopher-king adjudicating between America's sins and the world's to his speeches marked by a spectacularly promiscuous use of the first-person pronoun -- I.

Notice, too, how Obama habitually refers to Cabinet members and other high government officials as "my" -- "my secretary of homeland security," "my national security team," "my ambassador." The more normal -- and respectful -- usage is to say "the," as in "the secretary of state." These are, after all, public officials sworn to serve the nation and the Constitution -- not just the man who appointed them.

It's a stylistic detail, but quite revealing of Obama's exalted view of himself. Not surprising, perhaps, in a man whose major achievement before acceding to the presidency was writing two biographies -- both about himself.

Obama is not the first president with a large streak of narcissism. But the others had equally expansive feelings about their country. Obama's modesty about America would be more understandable if he treated himself with the same reserve. What is odd is to have a president so convinced of his own magnificence -- yet not of his own country's.

Click on this headline for a video assessment of Obama's narcissism

Dr. Ali Sina explores the possibility that Barack Obama suffers from narcissitic personality disorder.

Expert on narcissism needed to cover White House

Washington Examiner: "First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at a mentoring event for girls at the White House today. In her remarks, she told the story of her career as a lawyer and hospital executive. But before that, the First Lady told the girls that they should relate to her, even though she is now living in the White House.

"One of the things that my mom always said -- because people ask her all the time, 'What did you do to create Michelle Obama?'" Mrs. Obama told the audience."

My take: So, is narcissism contageous? Who knew?

Does this remind you of anyone who lives in the White House and is often on television?

The term "narcissistic rage" gets 26,000 citations in Google Scholar. It is a common feature of extreme or pathological narcissism.
While psychiatrists often say they can't do long-distance diagnosis, it really isn't that hard if you have a lot of information about a person and can watch how he operates from day to day. Intelligence agencies around the world have psychiatric staffs for exactly that purpose.

While most people are pretty hard to predict, extreme narcissists are comparatively simple. They constantly hunger for ego gratification, they are immature, constantly need to demonstrate their own superiority, often need endless sexual conquests (like Bill Clinton), are manipulative, constant liars, are completely cold about the human beings they harm (like John Edwards), and they deal with frustration by uncontrollable fits of rage.

I think that's what we saw last week with the White House lashing out at Fox News.

Praise and denunciation; Obama's pleasing payoff

Rebellion is in the air.

Rank and file voters are massing by the thousands to shout down Democrat politicians campaigning on behalf of President Obama's health care overhaul.

His visage appears on the internet dressed up as the Joker, the villain in Batman movies.

Obama does not seem deterred by the mockery.

"Grandiosity, more than anything else, is what characterizes Obama's character and campaign," observes American Thnker. "Grandiosity is also, more than anything else, what characterizes narcissism, and Obama's narcissism has become obvious to many."

Charles Krauthammer, a journalist trained as a physician, asked during last year's campaign, "[H]as there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?"

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, writes that "Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist," and offers a detailed explanation.

I first theorized about Obama and narcissism on June 23 and have followed the online discussion closely. Now, a new perspective is evolving. Although he is being pilloried for his agenda and major parts of it may be headed for the rocks, perhaps Obama has us right where he wants us.

That is to say, we're all watching Obama much of the time, not out of admiration but out of amazement or horror at his egomanical and reckless campaign to overturn the basic values of Americans.

American Thinker observes today, "Obama's entire campaign is nothing more than a demand to be recognized as superior without commensurate accomplishments. For individual instances of the undistinguished senator's grandiosity, please see Barack Obama Audacity Watch.

"Two other very reliable witnesses to Obama's narcissism are Oprah Winfrey and her guru, Eckhart Tolle, both themselves pathological narcissists. Delusions of grandeur interpersonally connect Obama, Oprah, and her guru. All three believe they can, even that they must, change the world for the better, and that means garnering for themselves more and more adulation, what the psychologists call "narcissistic supply."

Here's the dilemma. Narcissism is considered by the medical profession to be a "personality disorder." If that disorder appears to serve the interests of the disordered personality, by attracting worshipful followers and adulation as well as furious denunciation, how can that personality be persuaded to change his ways?

Attention is what he seeks. Attention is what he gets.

A second dilemma lies in the quirky nature of narcissism, which does not insist on praise but only importance, or grandiosity. Even condemnation by thousands of voters can be seen as validation of one's importance.

This raises the question: Does it matter, to a narcissist, whether the audience is applauding or booing?