John Kerry, Malignant Narcissist

Today World Magazine's blog has a powerful post with some astute psychological insight from an airborne ranger infantry veteran of Viet Nam:

John Kerry needed no recovery time from his three “wounds.” How does one get “wounded” and yet not need to recover from those “wounds”? John Kerry did not earn his purple hearts; he wrangled them from the system through deception so he could go home early and get out of eight months of combat. That is despicable and shameless. I’ve heard commentators and even veterans say that they respect John Kerry’s service in Viet Nam. I have no respect whatsoever for his service in Viet Nam, or for him. John Kerry exhibits the characteristics of a Narcissist. Narcissus, for whom this malignant character flaw is named, fell in love with his image in a pool of water. The image replaces the self as the center of concern. The main problem is that the image is two dimensional: it has breadth and width, but lacks depth. Further, while the image may appear grand and heroic on the surface, there is no substance to it. My high school friend, a true hero, didn’t take a camera with him to Viet Nam, but Kerry did—with the express purpose of recording his imaginary exploits and feeding his grandiose image of himself. Narcissists cannot be trusted; and they can be very dangerous: especially when they become paranoid about protecting their image, especially when they occupy positions of great authority and consequence. A man without depth and substance—a man who stands for anything and everything depending on how it affects his image—is not fit to be president. We need truthfulness and character in the White House, and John Kerry lacks both.

And yet 45 percent or thereabouts of the US population wants this turncoat in the White House. The post-1960s rise of narcissism among the general population has normalized the behavior of a John Kerry. Scary.