Politicians, Arrogance, Intelligence and the Media
Usually, no facts are presented when the media are speaking of a politician's IQ...and quite often, just the opposite is revealed of how a person is portrayed in the media as to howthey really are. |
Ernie Hooker
On a daily basis the news media describe certain politicians as narcissists and/or arrogant. In quite a few cases there is a consensus of agreement by the media, the public, and sometimes psychiatrists. I don’t doubt that they are often right.
What detracts from their analysis is how frequently they equate these descriptions with being synonymous with extremely high self-confidence. How can our journalists be that ignorant of a fairly obvious human fault?
Also, there are significant dangers in having politicians making major decisions for the nation when they have a serious personality disorder. Does it really take a psychiatrist to point out the obvious dangers?When the condition is quite advanced (which is usually the case when the media notice) an average person can easily identify the pathology and see the dangers. Is the press pretending they don’t see it or are they actually that ignorant?
Counselor Sandy Hotchkiss, LCSW, is a teacher in a Master's Program at the University of Southern California and she has a private practice for individual, couples, and family therapy. Hotchkiss wrote a book, Why is it Always About You? In her book, she identified what she called the seven deadly sins of narcissism, seven of which is shared below.
Brief Information on Narcissism:
1. Shamelessness - Shame is the feeling that lurks beneath all unhealthy narcissism and the inability to process shame in healthy ways.
2. Magical Thinking - Narcissists see themselves as perfect using distortion and illusion known as magical thinking. They also use projection to dump shame onto others.
3. Arrogance - A narcissist who is feeling deflated may reinflate by diminishing, debasing, or degrading somebody else.
4. Envy - A narcissist may secure a sense of superiority in the face of another person's ability by using contempt to minimize the other person.
5. Entitlement - Narcissists hold unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable treatment and automatic compliance because they consider themselves uniquely special. Any failure to comply will be considered an attack on their superiority and the perpetrator is considered to be an "awkward" or "difficult" person. Defiance of their will is a narcissistic injury that can trigger narcissistic rage.
6. Exploitation - can take many forms but always involves the using of others without regards for their feelings or interests. Often the other is in a subservient position where resistance would be difficult or even impossible. Sometimes the subservience is not so much real as assumed.
7. Bad Boundaries - narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all. Those who provide narcissistic supply to the narcissist will be treated as if they are part of the narcissist and be expected to live up to those expectations. In the mind of a narcissist, there is no boundary between self and other.
An excerpt of a post from Vernon D. Dennis, Jr's Blog wondering why the media is constantly telling us how smart Barrack Obama is and how inept George W. Bush is. Of course, the media doesn't show us IQ test scores...but of course Obama's records are sealed...we cannot have access to this information. But, that's another story... |
Attribution
Another matter is attributing intelligence or lack thereof to politicians and well known personalities without any factual support. On a daily basis we are bombarded with the news media claiming certain people are highly intelligent and others lacking intelligence. If someone is really that bright why do we need to be told that several times a day?
The same is true if they lack intelligence; let us know and back it up with some factual information, then shut up. Most of the time the supporting information is anecdotes that tell us nothing about the persons actual intelligence. We have all encountered the parent who has grave doubts about a child’s intellectual abilities and continually bores others with their reassurance that he or she is very bright. Is there a parallel here? The humorous part is that long after the fact if we get information that tells us something about that persons intellectual abilities and we find out it is frequently opposite from what the news media considered “common knowledge.”
Don’t journalists ever take any basic psychology classes or at least use plain common sense?
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An excerpt of a post from Vernon D. Dennis, Jr's Blog wondering why the media is constantly telling us how smart Barrack Obama is and how inept George W. Bush is. Of course, the media doesn't show us IQ test scores...but of course Obama's records are sealed...we cannot have access to this information. But, that's another story... |
Buy Why is it Always
About You?: The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism
by Sandy Hotchkiss today.