Charles Clarke has just recently criticised Gordon Brown in psychological terms. This blog has speculated before on Tony Blair being manic. We now bring you a better analysis.
It is suggested that Tony Blair suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder incorporating mania.
Individuals with NPD do not respond well to treatment since they do not accept they have a problem since they do not complete a course of treatment
Therefore it is usually untreated. Blair may take medication which leads to weight gain or bloating. Dosage is difficult because the condition is not stable. Medication will take approx. 6 weeks to become effective.
NPD involves emotional problems empathy / emotions generally, aloofness and superiority, poor grasp of reality, because a self-image is created – it is the self-image that is important and protected. The self-image is often far removed from reality or any rational basis. Consider Blair's recent comments in the States re: inner-certainty, Lies – this is protecting the self-image, absolute need for adoration and respect (called Narcissistic supply), sensitivity to criticism, NPD individuals often chose odd people to respect. In Blair's case, he respects fame e.g. rockstars, because that's a source of adoration.
NPD individuals crave adoration – consider Blair's visits to the States. If that adoration is absent, they'll go off and do something else which provides that adoration e.g. The lecture circuit.
When challenged, sensitivity to criticism can cause withdrawal and depression. They have a certainty that they are superior to everyone else simply by existing.
Suggestions:
Personal criticism should be directed at the self-image which changes over time – it's as if it has to do gymnastics to survive. You are able to recognise this because it strikes you as deluded or far-fetched although you can sense that it's worse than you think, he really does believe it e.g.
“It's worse than you think. I really do believe it”,
"We will not win the battle against this global extremism unless we win it at the level of values as much as force, unless we show we are even handed, fair and just in our application of those values to the world.” in the States Aug 2006
The following quotes are from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tony_Blair
"A day like today is not a day for soundbites, really - we can leave them at home - but I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders, I really do."
8 April 1998, Belfast - On the Good Friday agreement.
"We are asked now seriously to accept that in the last few years-contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence-Saddam decided unilaterally to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd." 18 March 2003, House of Commons
"Do I know I'm right? Judgements aren't the same as facts. Instinct is not science. I'm like any other human being, as fallible and as capable of being wrong. I only know what I believe."
2004 Labour Party Conference, referring to the fact that no WMDs had been found in Iraq.
"He may want to pose as the nice Dr. Jekyll, but we know that, deep down, he is still the same old Mr. Howard."
Commons Hansard (26 Nov 2003)
"The spirit of our age is one in which the prejudices of the past are put behind us, where our diversity is our strength. It is this which is under attack. Moderates are not moderate through weakness but through strength. Now is the time to show it in defence of our common values."
16 July 2005, at the Labour Party national conference. "Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing."
9 November 2005, in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions
"This is not a clash between civilisations. It is a clash about civilisation." 21st March 2006 - Foreign Policy speech at Reuters Headquarters, London, England
Wow, I can't believe we just met Mr. Bean! I believe Tony Blair is an out-and-out rascal, terminally untrustworthy and close to being unhinged. I said from the start that there was something wrong in his head, and each passing year convinces me more strongly that this man is a pathological confidence-trickster. To the extent that he ever believes what he says, he is delusional. To the extent that he does not, he is an actor whose first invention — himself — has been his only interesting role.
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