Denis Smith has noticed that some of his acquaintances have been pulling out their old psychology textbooks to try to understand Donald Trump. But he thinks we can learn more about Trump by remembering old films and classic literature.
There is, for example, George Orwell’s 1984, which recently hit the top of the charts on amazon, which explains how a powerful government with a Ministry of Truth can manipulate the news and shape reality and facts to fit the government’s needs.
He also recommends the classic Hitchcock thriller “Gaslight,” in which a smooth Charles Boyer distorts reality for a frightened Ingrid Bergmann.
In the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, Gaslight, the vulnerable Bergmann is manipulated by – guess who – Charles Boyer, who does not invite her to the Casbah but, instead, masterfully controls his wife through questioning her memory, firm beliefs, and the otherwise mundane things in her home environment. The result is predictable. She becomes confused and questions her sanity and beliefs.
Again, while no sane person would compare the smooth Boyer with the Inspector Clouseau-like Trump, both achieve the same results in their gaslighting methods: Control the conscious environment, sow doubt on alternative explanations, and make receivers of the messages vulnerable as a result.
Perhaps you have some other suggestions. What have you read or seen that helps you make sense of this upside-down political environment?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Again, while no sane person would compare the smooth Boyer with the Inspector Clouseau-like Trump….”
I’d argue that smooth is worse. I’d even go further to say that that’s what makes it gaslighting. Precisely because some people are so smooth and seemless, it makes it hard to see the lies and evil that lie beneath. That’s what psychopaths are – “charming” people who can get away with remorseless evil precisely because their charm blunts people’s critical reactions.
Trump, on the other hand, is pretty hard to mistake for anything other than a lying, arrogant, controlling snake oil salesmen (his rabid core of devoted followers notwithstanding – it’s not that they don’t see through him, it’s that they like what they see). It’s really hard to look at Trump and not think, hmm, something’s wrong with this picture….
Trump has one important quality: he is a demagogue who knows how to appeal to people’s basest emotions.
Absolutely, but that’s entirely different than gaslighting.
dienne77 AND . . . Trump has finally waked up the democratic spirit in the country–a spirit that had drifted into complacency and even denial. He also exposed how political ignorance can become so pervasive under the floorboards of American democracy and, I must say, its educational system.
Diane FILMS to watch that relate to today: (and btw I just heard the news that Bannon is out.)
“Judgment at Nuremberg” — earlier and later versions are stunning in their depiction of the same issues of power and freedom. “Farenheit 451.” “The Verdict.” “Brazil.” And if you like the long-running series of the original “Law and Order,” many of those episodes deal with these same serious issues in all sorts of ways.
CBK,
“BRAZIL” is strangely prescient.
Dianeravitch I think of the film “Brazil” every time I see Kim Kardashian or, often, advertisements and shows that appeal to the shallowest aspects of our consciousness. As you say, the film is “prescient.” Someone in Hollywood needs to remake it. They could even do cameos of some the original actors.
And then there is this from poet Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), written before Trump was born —-
“Don poor at bed and worse at Table
Don stuttering [tweeting?], Don with roving eyes,
Don nervous, Don of crudities,
Don dull, Don brutish
Don hypocritical, Don bad,
Don furtive, Don three-quarters mad,
Don that will never be my friend.”
Edd Doerr
Cabaret, The Pianist, SAW, 1984, Elm Street, Alien, Aliens, Apocalypto, etc. Also heard that Bannon has been deleted. Hopefully the next to go will be Miller, Gorka, DeVos, Rick Perry, Price, Carson, Sessions, Pence, Trump, Trump, Trump, Kushner, the DEP guy whose name escapes me, Gorsuch, et cetera.
Scott Pruitt needs to go, go, go, pretty please.
Joe Then there’s “Fiddler on the Roof,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and “Schindler’s List.”
Whoops, Scott Pruitt is in charge of decimating the EPA.
from the DSM:
Diagnostic criteria for 301.81 Narcissistic Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
(3) believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
(4) requires excessive admiration
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
(8) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
A good selection. Here is different way to look at Trump’s reliance the media, loving it, and using it while sowing distrust of it and then playing up that distrust so it also makes news.
This is an excerpt from one of my favorite books about spin….https://www.media-studies.ca/articles/pr.htm
Ironic, isn’t it?
As we speak, the alt right media is busily feeding Mr. Trump more of the story he tried to spin in his sickening remarks on Charlottesville, e.g., that good, decent protectors of our national identity and heritage encountered Antifa baddies, and only Mr. Trump had the courage to tell it as it was because he, unlike the fake news media, watched the footage from Charlottesville carefully. Sigh. There’s no possibility of having rational or moral discussion with people who can believe that stuff. Completely delusional. From some sort of alt-mental state. See this, today, from not-so-breitbart news:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/16/mccain-romney-rubio-join-republicans-antifa-club/
Bob Shepherd Oh, those awful antifascist baddies. Here’s the thing: Trump and the people who think like him, and who think, for instance, that the fascists and antifascists are on the same moral and political footing, have lost their connection with their own moral and political footing–the one they grew up in, or rejected it outright. For most of us, that footing concerns what we learned about living in the USA when we were children and young adults and what we take advantage of every day that we live in a democracy. Or if a person has actually lived in a fascist-like political environment, and then move here, they commonly understand what it means to breathe the fresh air of political freedom that is offered in the United States and many other similar political cultures. Ask most first generation immigrants. They know the difference down to their bone marrow.
For Trump, however, it’s also that early understanding that has gone missing; but it’s also a total misunderstanding and/or disregard for the OATH he took so recently as President of the United States. When Trump puts fascists and antifascists on the same moral and political footing, he is literally talking out of both sides of his mouth–because these are two completely opposed ideas–one is stated in the Oath, then other is directly opposed to it. We cannot be both for fascism and anti-fascist at the same time without splitting our political soul down the middle–and making ourselves into worst kind of hypocrite that ever was, as Trump did when he took that stance in the Charlottesville incident.
My guess is that his saturation with his particular brand of socio-pathetics doesn’t allow him to see the calling and demands of his either being a patriot or taking the Oath of office. What he seems to see is that everyone else–those who “pretend” to think other wise–are just trying to fool everyone–like he would. Only HE is at least “telling the truth.” Unfortunately, the real truth is: that’s how he really does see it.
“first generation immigrants . . . know the difference down to their bone marrow”
Yes, indeed, they do
Gaslight was NOT directed by Hitchcock. It was directed by George Cukor.
DO NOT MISS SEVEN DAYS ON MAY.
Fredrick March makes to speeches in this stunning and ironic movie, where he is the President and the fascist is the head of the joint chief of staff, who is planning coup.
Visually excellent (Rod Serling knows how to handle blackened white) and not a boring moment… spent on! TRUST ME!
I was going to start the year reading The Count of Monte Cristo with my upper level French students. But now I’m changing to my French Beauty and the Beast stories and films and V for Vendetta (a dystopian film) is one of my favorites. I can’t wait for the discussion!
The literary genre that best describes the psychological state of the clown president and his effect on the rest of us is horror. Horror! Any Edgar Allen Poe or Steven King will do. The killer in Cask of Amontillado was a bit too cunning, though. I’d say the perfect piece is Cujo. Trump is a foaming at the mouth dog. (No offense, Mitzi.) The only problem with that reference is that Cujo had bigger paws.
“Citizen Kane” provides an eerie comparison. Both Kane and Trump manipulate people as a child manipulates toy soldiers — seeing little difference between objects and people — both mere extensions of egocentric personalities. Also, both Trump and Kane emerge in similar situations: great disparity of wealth, rise of fascism, isolationism and a general loss of idealism among citizenry.
Also small details (“Citizen Kane”/Trump): Mara-Lago/Shangri-La, multiple marriages, firing “friends,” wealth created by way of media.. One could go on and on. As I said, eerie…
Just finished re-reading “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, which exposes some undeniably prescient predictions about how life in the future will have changed across the globe. The book portrays technology as supreme in terms of controlling the population through a caste system begun at pseudo-conception, the overarching importance of consumerism, the “hypnopaedic” methods of constant slogan repetitions to create “groupthink.”, the use of soma (a type of opioid?) for relief/vacations from reality, the incompatibility of happiness and truth, the decoupling of emotion from sex, and the automatic expulsion of those who deviate even slightly from required norms through constant monitoring of the population by the authorities. The countervailing role of “the Savage,” an outcast from a “reservation” who learned in great part about the world through reading only Shakespeare’s works, underscores the importance of independent thought, authentic emotion, and indeed, our essential humanity. (Of course, he loses…) Unfortunately, Huxley would not be terribly surprised by the turn of social and political events over the last few decades.