(The Globe & Intelligencer essay is a day early this week, as I’ll be away from home on Sunday, 1/6)

For former President Donald Trump, perpetuating the “big lie”, including his wild-eyed fantasies of being restored to office, is part of a deep-seated psychological need to maintain his ego.  Numerous psychopathologists have insisted that Trump demonstrates symptoms of anti-social personality disorder. Individuals with that disorder have an overwhelming desire to be either feared, or adored. By maintaining his grip on power within the Republican Party, and continuing to string along his supporters with fantasies of returning to office, Trump is perpetuating the on-going fear and worship that his ego craves. Trump supporters also feel an overwhelming need for this on-going fantasy, and Trump reinforces that need and the involvement of his followers by portraying himself as a defender of their interests.

As mentioned in the Unified Theory of Fascism essay, Trump’s supporters have come to require a steady stream of conspiracy theories to support their habit of “ego maintenance”.   Trump reinforces the ego maintenance habit of his audience by feeding them conspiracy theories delivered in a paranoid style of rhetoric, and the use of “ad baculum“; praising his audience as “the best people”, so long as they remain his loyal followers. Trump maintains this stream of rhetoric because if he were to cease,  his followers, eager for the diet of conspiracy theories that support their ego maintenance, would abandon him, and Trump would be left without the sense of power and worship that his ego requires.

Read the remainder of this essay at the Otter Globe and Intelligencer.