But given the media’s open obsession with Obama—some have called him “the pet rock of the white liberal elite”—it shouldn’t be surprising to hear CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin call Hillary Clinton a “disordered narcissist.” But it was surprising (even to his fellow anchors, who reacted with genuine shock). It got me thinking about a lot of things—the recklessness and irresponsibility of the commentators who fill the airwaves with nonsense, the bizarre hatred of all things Clinton, and so on. Is Hillary disturbed? No. Is she a narcissist? I doubt it. There may be a certain amount of entitlement, as is often found in narcissists, but anyone who has the audacity to run for the most powerful office in the land must have a strong sense of self-love. They must feel as if they “deserve” the job. But for other members of the narcissistic spectrum…
Narcissists don’t listen. Indeed, Hillary does, as many on the campaign trail have noted.
Narcissists lack empathy. Hillary doesn’t. She has spent her adult life, as she has repeatedly said, working on behalf of the working poor, on things like universal health care for those who lack the money to find coverage themselves. Let’s face it: Narcissists don’t care much about public service. They serve themselves, not others.
Narcissists are hypersensitive to criticism and prone to “narcissistic injury.” Clinton is the opposite. She just gets up, shrugs it off, and moves on.
Of course, Tobin is not a psychologist, and he used the term narcissism loosely. However, as I wrote in a previous post—my first—descriptions get us nowhere if our goal is to truly understand someone. They can be a form of insult, an accusation, rather than a diagnosis. And that’s what Tobin was doing: insulting.
