Dear David,

I have read many articles by people trying to explain Donald Trump’s “unexplainable” rise and ongoing success. In my opinion your’s is one of the most accurate. Short, simple, right to the point, and mostly, you call a spade a spade, and a narcissist a narcissist. I share your views on Trump’s behavior.

Still, there’s something I just can’t figure out, so I turn to you and my fellow readers for an answer. The American Psychiatric Association has had the classification “Narcissistic Personality Disorder“ in its reguarly updated reference book The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since 1968. It draws on the concept of megalomania. Though having charisma, most narcissists are also pathological liars and cons, and feel no empathy for their fellow human beings. That is why they advocate the world is a “dog eats dog” place. They might use the word empathy, but the concept and feelings of “general willingness to support a suffering neighbor, of decent human relationships or even of the advantages of interdependency” it relates to are not part of the psychological inner sensations, urges and responses they experience (sorry, folks, it might not be a perfect description, but I am not a professional psychology copywriter).

Si here is my question: “How can such a disabled person — he or she misses something, and we are not talking about a limb, but about an essential part of the psyche and decision making process — rise to the point where he or she can run for public office while their testimony would probably not be regarded as 100 % credible in a court of justice should their handicap be known? Beats me.