Soon we will discover if Sarah Palin's shocking move to abruptly resign as governor of Alaska was for political or personal gain. Regardless of the answer, we can confirm that this decision is one of self-interest, not the dominion of a leader concerned with supporting and sustaining the people she represents.
In clinical language we refer to Palin's move as narcissistic -- self-promoting regardless of her impact on others. Like a true narcissist, Palin once again acted with a grandiose sense of self-importance, claiming that while she "promised efficiencies and effectiveness... that's not how I'm wired. I'm not wired to operate under the same old politics as usual." Correct, she's not. She, like most other narcissists, are above the standard for reasonable behavior, important enough that she gets to make her own rules -- rules that serve her, in spite of how they affect others. Palin categorizes herself as a maverick, thereby framing any of her actions in a positive light. But that needs to be questioned rather than merely accepted.
It is quintessential for a narcissist to be self-assured, and full of herself, and for that fullness to be filled with hot air, compensating for a deeper sense of shame. Yes, I know that it may seem difficult to comprehend how someone who seems so arrogantly confident can have an internal structure of insecurity and fear of being inadequate, but that's the way it is for those whose personas are built on distortion and illusion, on smoke and mirrors.
It is worth noting that Sarah delivered her news at the end of a week in which a Vanity Fair article reported about how several Republican advisors to Senator John McCain questioned her competency. Todd Purdum, author of the Vanity Fair article, reports that "several told him independently of one another that they had consulted the definition of 'narcissistic personality disorder' in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS IV) -- 'a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy'-- and thought it fit her perfectly."
"The persona that many narcissists present to the world often comes across to others as a "superiority complex," describes Sandy Hotchkiss, author of Why Is It Always About You? A mask of arrogance disguises the narcissist's deep sense of worthlessness. Often bossy, judgmental, perfectionistic, and power hungry, they strive to secure a status that will protect them against their personal defects. In asserting her plan to leave the governorship now, rather than wait out her term, Palin reaffirms her feeling of superiority, again under the auspices of being a maverick who gets to make her own rules. It doesn't matter that she is giving three weeks notice, what matters is that she is moving on -- to the beat of her own drummer -- maverick style.
What competent leader abandons the people who rely upon her? What kind of leader gives three weeks' notice before leaving a job at the top post? Palin said that she would "fight for all our children's future from outside the governor's office," while abandoning the children of Alaska without planning for her departure. As Hotchkiss so well describes, endemic to narcissists is "the motto that 'my feelings and thoughts are all that matter, and whatever I want, I should get.' Mutuality and reciprocity are entirely alien concepts, because others exist only to agree, obey, flatter, and comfort -- in short, to anticipate and meet my every need." The conviction of entitlement holds it all in place.
In the long run, Sarah Palin may secure her political base with hard-core conservatives who see her as a standard-bearer for their values, and she may even make an enormous amount of money as a talk show host or a public speaker. Regardless of her professional future, we need to be cautious and interpret her actions so that the public doesn't mistake them for authentic leadership.
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I wasn't even notified that it was rejected, let alone the reason why it was rejected. Am I invisible? Was there a technical difficulty? Was I supposed to use colorful and offensive language so that more readers would follow this page?
-Linda
But, unfortunately for those at Huffpo and for people like David Letterman and Shannyn Moore, the American public, according to Gallup and other polls, do not share the overwhelming hostility and gotcha politics that they do towards Palin...first of all, it seems a majority of Americans don't find her move shocking, nor do they see it as an impediment...they also overwhelmingly are not pleased with the stupid attacks on her...so Huffpoers can b--tch, moan, whine, rant and rave about her to one another all they like...preach to the choir, go ahead...seems the rest of the nation isn't caring or listening to any of you.
If teh polls you're watching are Gallup and Rasmussen... consider who owns them and how they're targeted. Those were the same polls that said McCain would win...
In Palin's case, she has such a huge fan club and is being endorsed with mega bucks that she is not in a position to be suffering. She is the poster child for the conservative movement in the moment.
In clinical treatment, narcissists don't come for therapy. They are not open to looking at themselves and their defense structure protects such an early level of wounding, that they are compelled to maintain a false belief system about who they are in the world.
Is it possible for me to feel compassion for her, though she's not obviously suffering and mightn't even believe she is, herself?
I hope it's possible.
A while ago, I saw a story about a child who could not feel pain. Among other things, she needed to wear goggles so she wouldn't scratch her own eyes out. If she'd broken any bones, she would not know it. I felt very saddened and moved by this child who couldn't even tell she was hurting herself.
I believe Sarah is in this sort of imbalance, but no one can see, hear or feel her wounds because they're not on a physical level. There's no way to measure them. But, they're there. If I could see her as I saw that child, a human being creating her own illness, yet unaware of it, then perhaps I will find a way to feel empathy for her. However, it's a challenge.
Perhaps those who are least able to ask for help are the ones who need it the most.
-Linda
Check it out:
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The Dunning-Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which "...people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it"[1]. They therefore suffer an illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average. This leads to a perverse result where people with less competence will rate their ability more highly than people with relatively more competence. It also explains why competence may weaken the projection of confidence because competent individuals falsely assume others are of equivalent understanding "Thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others."