WALKING WITH NARCISSAURS

The 1^st of July saw the death of American ‘televangelist’ Jimmy Swaggart, surely a contender for a podium place in the All-Time Nominative Determinist Championships.  During the 1980s, Swaggart’s TV audience reached millions of worshippers, and netted hundreds of millions of dollars between donations and merch. A tireless villifier of church leaders ensnared by Satan-inspired scandals, in 1988 Swaggart was photographed with a ‘sex worker’ (in New Orleans, just one hour’s drive from his 7,000 seater ‘Family Worship Center’ in Baton Rouge*) which triggered a tearful act of TV contrition:

“To the hundreds I have stood before… I have sinned against you, and I beg you to forgive me.  I have sinned against you, my Lord.”

While Swaggart was (hopefully) meeting his maker, two of his more colourful compatriots were battling it out once again on social media over what Trump has called his ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’:

TRUMP:  “ Elon may get more subsidy than any human in history, by far. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!! ”

MUSK: “I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now.”

Now I’m not suggesting that that these arch-capitalists (and CAPITALIZERS) would claim, like Swaggart, to be GOD’s representative on Earth, as well as GOP’s, but some keen-eyed (and possibly green-eyed) commentators have detected character traits which, if discovered among us mere mortals, might be thought of as Narcissistic.

While generally thought of negatively as part of the Dark Triad or ‘DT’ (more Nominative Determinism?) alongside Machiavellianism and Psychopathy, ‘a healthy dose of narcissism is essential for human development and helps to form the basis of self-esteem and personal identity’ according to one recent paper** which also suggests that:

‘Hitler, Putin and Trump grew up in similar families. When these three leaders are compared on the axis of familial causes of narcissism it is seen that all three leaders were traumatized, experienced frustrations in their childhood that were not appropriate for their age, and grew up with an over-authoritarian father figure in addition to a mother who approached them with compassion. The fact that Hitler and Putin grew up as replacement children*** and were physically violated by their fathers, whereas Trump was placed in a boarding and disciplined military school at a precisely narcissistic development stage, triggered these three leaders to become narcissistic political leaders.’

Be that as it may, you could probably add a whole regiment of narcissistic leaders  to this list, from Julius Caesar to Winston Churchill, and including the vast majority of European Monarchy from Rollo**** onwards.  But here we need to take a look at the two sides of the narcissistic ‘double-edged sword,’ Constructive Narcissism and Reactive Narcissism:

Suggested Constructive Narcissism Attributes:

Healthy self-esteem

Self Confidence without arrogance

Ability to take pride in achievements

Ambition and motivation to succeed

Can accept criticism without falling apart

Show empathy and respect for others, even while pursuing personal goals

Suggested Reactive Narcissism Attributes:

Fragile self-esteem masked by grandiosity

Overreacts to criticism

Needs constant validation

Lacks empathy

Displays manipulation, gaslighting or aggression when threatened

Often highly competitive, even destructively so

At this point I would like to propose a truly self-destructive trait of Reactive Narcissists: 

...The Reactive Narcissist's Unconscious Desire For Humiliation.

With all his many millions of dollars, Jimmy Swaggart could have sourced totally discreet sexual encounters anywhere in the world ...but he was compelled to 'do-the-dirty' just one hour from his own church door.  It’s almost as if the constant pressure of maintaining a life of Reactive Narcissism (also known as ‘Defensive Narcissism’) just becomes too great after a while and they are drawn to risk a venture that will bring the house down around them.  Quite possibly literally so in the case of Rollo’s descendent, Richard III, who made a ‘bold’ and strategically nonsensical charge at the future Henry VII and so consigned the Plantagenet dynasty to the foundations of a municipal carpark in Leicester.

Of course, the Business of Pleasure is a fertile breeding ground for both types of narcissism, Constructive and Reactive. Indeed, early success in our business (as in many others) may not be possible without a healthy portion of Constructive Narcissism, the self-belief needed to put yourself, or your work, in front of an audience.  To actively court the judgment of the public, and peers, eight shows a week, or in front of an area hosting 80,000 fans, or tens of millions of TV and Cinema viewers.  And when things go less than great, it may well produce a spiralling down from Constructive Narcissism to Reactive. Or, quite possibly, in the case of a long and chequered career, both types of narcissism, Constructive and Reactive, may serve like the flippers on a pinball machine, keeping the game alive in a world where you’re frequently judged (or misjudged) as being ‘only as good as your last performance.’

DT 3 Jul 2025

*When caught with another sex-worker, this time in California, three years later, Swaggart’s TV response was “The Lord told me it’s flat none of your business.”

**Child, family and narcissistic political leadership: a comparison of Hitler, Putin and Trump, Yusuf Çifci, 21 May, 2025.

***Hitler was born in 1889 after his parents had lost three children, including a son named Edmund who died in 1900 aged 6.  Putin’s parents had two older sons who died in childhood, one during infancy and one during the Siege of Leningrad, and Putin, born 1952, was their sole surviving child.

****King Rollo of Normandy c. 860 – c.930 was the forefather of several European dynasties including the English royal family

IMAGE:  The Man Who Would Be King, John Huston, 1975