Letters to the Editor
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Hillary the gasbag posted by Alex Lawyer
There is a pattern here. Hillary Clinton plays up her role on the Senate Watergate Committee but leaves out that she was fired for unethical behavior. She plays up her role as First Lady in Arkansas and leaves out her role on the Wal-Mart board creating low wage, no-benefit jobs and using unfair tactics to destroy competitors now that she is posing as a friend to the working person. She mentions the Clinton Administration's economic record but leaves out that almost all of the gains went to the top quintile, now that she's portraying Obama as an elitist. She plays up her role as a peacemaking heroine in Kosovo, arriving to sniper fire, when the peace had already been made and she had a cordial reception.
Below are the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, a serious form of psychopathology. To my assessment she meets all nine criteria, while only 5 are needed to make the diagnosis.
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