American Thinker’s Resident Psychiatrist Cites . . . Wikipedia?

Joy Tiz

©2010

 The hardest thing in psychiatry is to keep an open mind while sitting with a patient, who might be trying to provoke and manipulate the doctor, day after day, month after month. We want to understand troubled people, but people are complex. Psychiatric diagnoses are just reasonable guesses. Most human beings are much too mixed, much too complicated, and much too interesting to reduce to just a checklist.

-James Lewis, American Thinker

Who is this “we” of whom Mr. Lewis speaks?  Reading the first paragraph of his recent column on American Thinker  would surely lead one to believe that Lewis is a psychiatrist.  Nothing on the site lists any  type of credentials, academic or otherwise.

In a piece entitled “Obama’s Malignant Narcissism”, Lewis cites that unimpeachable medical authority, Wikipedia, to make his case that Obama is a narcissist. 

The term “malignant narcissism” was developed by Dr. Sam Vaknin who was not even mentioned in Lewis’ article, let alone given proper credit for defining the term. 

After fourteen months of Obama, an advanced degree is no longer required to figure out that the man is a narcissist.  However, to present oneself as a mental health expert on a conservative site while making misstatements and failing to cite credible sources creates fodder for the Left and undermines the credibility of those of us,  such as Dr. Vaknin and myself who have done our homework. 

Dr. Vaknin has written for years about Narcissist Personality Disorder (NPD) and was quick to identify the presenting symptoms in Barack Obama.  I have written extensively about Obama’s mental health in my book, Obamanutz:  A Cult Leader Takes the White House  and have published numerous articles on the topic

Lewis’ manifest lack of academic credentials and clinical experience lead to such cringe worthy commentary as:

“Obama is the exception. Lots of people talk like narcissists — when teenagers get grandiose, or when they start to lie to and manipulate their parents, it might be just a phase they’re going through. Lots of people preen and strut on life’s stage without losing their sense of proportion. But I think Obama just turned all his grandiose talk into irrevocable action. I don’t think we’ve had this extreme and radical a president ever before in American history. Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR took radical actions, but only at a time of huge national crises. We don’t have a national crisis today. Obama is our national crisis.”

In reality, most people erroneously presume that narcissism is something akin to egomania or an unusually high sense of self-esteem. The truth is the reverse. Narcissists suffer from self-loathing, not too much self-love. Having some narcissistic traits does not a narcissist make. However, according to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, grandiosity is the most important single trait in narcissism. Obama’s grandiosity is striking. It’s in his body language and posturing. It’s in his derisive comments about “bitter clingers.” In office, Obama has demonstrated early on his sense of entitlement and his belief that he is above the law. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV-TR) is the diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals.   That would be, presumably, that “checklist” rejected by Professor Lewis in favor of the one provided by the noted medical authorities at Wikipedia.

Lewis completely misunderstands the standard practices in the diagnosis of mental disorders:

“There’s ongoing debate about ‘malignant narcissism’ as a diagnosis, and some people prefer to use the standard DSM-IV version. It doesn’t make much difference in this case. “  The reason “some people” cling to  the DSM-IV is because they are professionals in the mental health field hoping to be paid for their services.  Without proper diagnostic coding from that checklist of which Lewis is so dismissive, insurance companies don’t pay up.

Where is this “ongoing debate”, by the way?  This kind of straw man statement is typical of liberals who have no facts on their side.  Again, the syndrome of malignant narcissism was identified by Dr. Vaknin, who is not acknowledged.

There is nothing inherently improper about a layperson raising concerns about Obama’s mental health.  In fact, it’s a pretty good indication that his pathology has become patently obvious to the general population.

What is irresponsible, however, is to offer up lay opinions while leading readers to believe that the author is a mental health professional.  It is especially egregious to claim the mantle of someone else’s life’s work; in this case malignant narcissist syndrome,  as one’s own with no credit to the original author.  Lewis’ piece is a muddy admixture of notions from dubious sources with no solid grasp of the subject matter: exactly the kind of thing for which liberals are perpetually trolling.

American Thinker has long offered a platform for some of the finest conservative thinkers in the world.  Let’s hope this was a momentary lapse and not a harbinger of slipping editorial standards.