Is There a Cure for Narcissistic Alexithymia?

photograph: Juliana Lopes, Rio de Janeiro

In a column entitled “Trump’s Sad, Lonely Life,” (NYT, 10/11/16) David Brooks writes the following, “Trump continues to display the symptoms of narcissistic alexithymia, the inability to understand or describe the emotions in the self. Unable to know themselves, sufferers are unable to understand, relate or attach to others.” Unfortunately this particular illness appears to be contagious since it’s spawned so many conversations that are characterized by the kind of bulldozing that’s the result of people trying to force their will on those with whom they're speaking. Those who are opposed to Trump won’t listen to those who are for him and when you’re watching CNN Trump surrogates and their critics constantly interrupt each other in exasperation. But what about support groups for narcissistic alexithymia sufferers. If there were a 12 step program, the first step would be “We admitted that we were powerless over narcissistic alexithymia and that our lives had become unmanageable.” But who else would qualify for Brooks’ analysis? Is Kim Jong-un a victim of narcissistic alexithymia? Are admirers of Trump like Putin, who display narcissistic tendencies, possibly suffering from this ailment? What is the prognosis and what are the possible treatments? It’s doubtful you are going to find narcissistic alexithymia on the WebMD or Mayo Clinic sites, but is there any hope for both the victims and the victims of the victims of this malady? One final question, is the inability to apologize a recurrent symptom of those suffering from narcissistic alexithymia ("Donald Trump's Apology That Wasn't," NYT, 10/8/16)?

Analysis of the Taste Effect and Olfactory Sensations of Mint M&Ms

The company that produced M&Ms (pronounced Eminem) famously advertised that their product “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” If there had been M&Ms in Weimar Germany would there have been a Third Reich? Many epigones and Herr Hitler himself would have been put out of business both because of their mouths being full and from the debilitating blast produced by the sugar high. The title of Francis Fukuyama’s book is The End of History and the Last Man and one would similarly wonder what effect mint flavored M&Ms would have had on both regime change and the prospect of millenarian ideologies. As anyone who has tried this relatively new addition to the M&M family will testify, the mint taste begins to assert itself at the event horizon of the M&M, ie that point where the hard shell melts and gives way to the soft center. M&Ms are guaranteed to melt in a dictator’s mouth, but the mint M&M which is hair's breath larger produces a set of taste and olfactory sensations whose net effect is to mollify and cool down even the most obdurate and headstrong sensibility. Would Uganda have had it’s bloody history if Idi Amin had been introduced to these delightfully medicated menthol pebbles? And what about Franco, Mussolini and even Pol Pot? Should the United States partner with its allies and bombard the North Korea with mint M&Ms in order to induce that countries famed film critic, Kim Jong-un, to cease cyber attacking companies who release movies he doesn’t like? What if mint M&Ms were put in Bill O’Reilly’s soup? Would he finally admit his misrepresentations? What if Brian Williams had taken a bag of mint M&M’s with him when he got on the chopper in Iraq? And let’s not forget Lance Armstrong. Will mint M&Ms someday change the course of history and eventually free us from terrorism, global warming and the endemic inequities of our economic system? Nay or yea? Hopefully posterity will answer in the affirmative.

North Korean Diplomacy and ED

                                                           David Guttenfelder/Associated Press

Who ever thought that ED would ever become a factor in North Korean diplomacy or that Dr. Ruth might be suggested as a special envoy to the newly chosen successor to Kim Jong-il, his son Kim Jong-un? This was the substance of New York Times science reporter William Broad’s recent piece in the Sunday Review section of the paper (“North Korea’s Performance Anxiety,” NYT, 5/5/12). “Today, the psychosexual lens helps explain why North Korea, in addition to dire poverty and other crippling woes, faces international giggles over it inability to ‘get it up,’” Broad comments about North Korea’s recent failed missile launch. Later he writes, “A psychoanalyst might see the shift from a blast off to a blast as weird kind of substitute gratification.” Plainly the North Koreans are not practicing the kind of sensate focus techniques that Masters and Johnson proposed in response to impotence problems. Under the theory that the naked will is useless in sexual matters, the Masters and Johnson approach involves taking the focus off the erection. Then there are the drugs like Viagra and Cialis which are used to take care of the physiological aspect of ED. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that psychology alone may not explain the problems the North Korean’s have been experiencing. “A move to highly enriched uranium—or a mixture of the two bomb fuels known as a composite core—would let North Korea expand its ways of shaking the earth and perhaps, one day, of mounting warheads atop missiles to intimidate neighbors.” Kinsey was the Clausewitz of sexology and were he still alive today Harvard professor Samuel Huntington could easily have been called the Masters and Johnson of international affairs. But it’s unclear if either Clausewitz or Masters and Johnson, more or less Brezezinski or Shere Hite could find a solution to North Korea’s particular brand of dysfunction.