Me, Myself, and I!

Those are the pronouns that a narcissist would generally use to the exclusion of all others. The term narcissism is defined as the trait of excessive self-love, based on self-image or ego. We have a famous politician today who seems to meet the criteria of how a narcissist conducts himself in public. His name is President Barack Hussein Obama. If you notice, in most all of President Obama’s speeches, everything is about him and what he will do for and by himself for the country. Very seldom does the word “we” or “our” appear in his verbiage as he pontificates on high from his teleprompter assisted speeches.

People in the field of training public speakers and salesmen, most always emphasize that to be successful and have empathy for your audience or customer and to gain credibility, you should always use the words “we” and “our” instead of me, myself and I.

The people who have an advanced case of narcissism, constantly use the words me, myself and I, mainly because they have an over inflated opinion of themselves and they are in dire need of attention to feed their ego and self-image. With all his excellent skills as an orator, I’m surprised his speechwriters or image handlers don’t clue him in on the proper technique of using words that do not over-hype himself and his minimal grasp of the workings of the presidency and the challenges he faces in a volatile world.

All of us, to some extent, have a certain amount of narcissism within us, but when a persons own self-importance takes over his whole life, that person has a problem relating to others around him and he tries extra hard to get approval and to have others love and accept him.

The U.S. government is too big to be run by one person with a big ego problem. Ronald Reagan was a perfect example of a president that who didn’t take himself to be all that important. He delegated many duties to his trusted underlings, but he always maintained that he was in charge and responsible for what went on around him as the president.

If you look at Reagan’s speeches, he very seldom used the words “me”, “myself” or “I” in getting across his points across to his listeners. Maybe it was his training as an actor, but whatever it was, he knew how to make a speech to get an audience enraptured into what he was saying. He didn’t have an over inflated ego like former President Clinton and President Obama seem to have. Both Clinton and Obama are considered excellent public speakers, but both used the words “me”, “myself”, and “I” excessively in their public oratory.

Charles Krauthammer, esteemed columnist and a licensed psychiatrist, said the following; “Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself. There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, have there ever been a presidential nominee and eventually a president with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements”? I guess from this evaluation you could say that President Obama is a narcissist in an empty Armani suit.

I’ll leave it at that!

Written by Chuck Lehmann