The Baby Man

Salon: Psychiatrist Justin Frank on Trump, the infant president: “He gives people permission to hate” - Author of “Trump on the Couch” explains that our president is both an authoritarian strongman and a baby - Chauncey DeVega

Whenever somebody criticizes Trump that belief gets challenged, which is why he has to reassert himself through tweets, TV shows, the rallies and other events. Unconsciously, Trump also has a compensatory fantasy of greatness. The fantasy compensates for a loss in early childhood, which was the loss of maternal attention. Trump compensated for this lack of attention from his mother by having a vision of being the greatest person who could do whatever he wanted to do.

The second thing that Trump believes is that he is a victim. He really believes that people are out to get him and criticize him. He's always had the need for an enemy or an adversary, someone he can imagine who's out to get him. In fact, Trump gave a graduation speech at the Air Force Academy and said that he's been more victimized than any other president in history. It's really quite stunning. For a long time -- and we are seeing this now in particular -- it's been the press. He's been angry at the press way before he ever became president.