The enigma of Mr.
Putin
Currently the president of the Russian
Federation, Mr. Putin, is more in the spotlight
than ever. “The super tough guy”, “the Russian
macho” – whatever the cliché – is as “enigmatic”
to the West as ever. Judging by the actions of
the overwhelming majority of world politicians
they are still unable to understand with whom
they are dealing.
There are multiple
reasons for that perceived blind spot of course
including rational and conscious reasons, for
instance the temporary benefits their countries
may reap while they remain ‘blind’. Still, even
if one imagines the hypothetical situation when
the political leaders of the whole world
suddenly became free from those temporary
concerns and concentrated on the very real and
big issue of the Third World War starting in
Ukraine they still would not know how to deal
with Mr. Putin. This is not at all surprising
because they think of him as another person.
When someone is
asked to describe their acquaintance they would
probably go for some peculiar features, for
example: a brilliant scientist; loves good wine,
plays guitar; lame as a result of an accident;
deals with disappointment in life by employing
an acidic and somewhat perverted sense of
humour, etc. The more we observe a person the
more accurate is our knowledge of him and the
easier it is for us to predict, to some extent,
his reaction to certain things. This is a broad
rule applicable to a normal person and normal
human relationships. Here lies a mistake that
people make about Mr. Putin; in their attempt to
understand him and to deal with him they apply
to him the normal rule described above. With Mr.
Putin this rule is doomed to fail. Why is this
so? – Mr. Putin long ago ceased to be an
individual but became, so to speak, the shell of
a person which contains a non-personal modus
operandi. Hence, those who attempt to deal
with him as with another person are doomed to
fail because they deal with non-personal
principals; worse even, those principals are
entirely alien to a normal wholesome psyche.
For example, they
sign an agreement with Mr. Putin the person
naturally expecting him to keep his word but he
does not do so and smiles into their faces. They
are stunned, shocked but decide to give him
another chance nevertheless – perhaps he will be
ashamed if he is caught on a lie more definite
than the current one. They express their
“disapproval”, shame him (within the frame of
the accepted political correctness and their own
fears of being viewed as “being too harsh” or of
“dangerously cornering him”); yet another
agreement is signed up but the situation repeats
itself again. And so on. They look at him, they
quietly discuss what is wrong with him and they
feel powerless because they operate within
acceptable limits of normality. They wish Mr.
Putin went away somewhere so they would never
have to deal with him again. They are utterly
powerless. Does not this situation remind one of
a family which has a hopelessly abnormal member
and does not know what to do with him?
Level 1: the psyche of Mr. Putin
The illustration with the family is actually
not a metaphor. The behaviour of a narcissist in
the world is nothing more than an extension of
his behaviour in his family. I am thankfully no
longer the only person who has noticed that the
behaviour of Mr. Putin is a textbook description
of the narcissistic personality disorder. And
the narcissistic features of his behaviour are
so gross and so costly to the world that I take
a liberty to outline them here as I observe them
from afar, without knowing him in person.
Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual-criteria used by
psychiatrists define the narcissistic
personality disorder as:
“A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in
fantasy or behaviour), need for admiration, and
lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood
and present in a variety of contexts, as
indicated by five (or more) of the following:
(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance
(e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents,
expects to be recognized as superior without
commensurate achievements)
(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited
success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal
love
(3) believes that he or she is "special" and
unique and can only be understood by, or should
associate with, other special or high-status
people (or institutions)
(4) requires excessive admiration
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e.,
unreasonable expectations of especially
favourable treatment or automatic compliance with
his or her expectations
(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes
advantage of others to achieve his or her own
ends
(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or
identify with the feelings and needs of others
(8) is often envious of others or believes that
others are envious of him or her
(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviours or
attitudes”
Those symptoms are
somewhat artificially divided; in case of a real
person one symptom is usually the extension of
another one and so on therefore I will speak
about several lines of the modus operandi
in dynamics which are easily observed.
“The need for
admiration” immediately brings to mind the
endless photographs “Mr. Putin with the tiger”,
“Mr. Putin catching the fish (almost of his
height)”, “Mr. Putin [piloting the ultralight
aircraft] leading the birds somewhere” and so
on. Those photos are openly vain and thus
stupid, inappropriate to anyone in the position
of president of a country but entirely
appropriate to a narcissist who wants to be
admired, as an “alpha-male”. The notorious
experiments with botox belong to the same
category. All this looks like a farce but not to
the narcissist himself.
The lack of
empathy” has been noticed and commented by
many. It is the famous answer to the question
“What happened with submarine ‘Kursk’?” – “It
sank” combined with a totally inhumane smile; it
is the so-called “Herod’s Law” that prohibits
foreigners to adopt Russian disabled children
whom no one else wants; it is the deliberate
sadism with which all the opposition was dealt
with (the slow rot in prison, the
disproportionately lengthy sentences); it is the
current Ukrainian war, with its nameless Russian
soldiers denied even a decent funeral; it is if
you like the whole life in the Russian
Federation where the majority of people are
unable to get their most basic (including
medical) needs met, and so on. A telling feature
here is that Mr. Putin is openly empathy-less
i.e. he does not bother to pretend before the
camera. He is as he is, proclaiming to the world
that “we (our army) will stand behind the women
and children and they (Ukrainians) will not dare
to shoot into us”. And the world, including the
Russian nation, swallows it reinforcing his
narcissistic sense of entitlement.
What is quite revealing here is the relationship
between the majority of the Russian nation (a
kind of an extended family) and its leader that
is, of a willing victim and an abuser. This is
like the textbook case, of “the narcissistic
husband and the borderline (personality
disorder) wife”. Being based upon an intricate
system of mutual manipulation, such a
relationship is surprisingly stable because it
meets the pathological needs of both partners
perfectly: the grandiosity of a narcissist is
gratified by the admiration and submission of
the borderline and the need of the borderline to
be protected together with their desperate need,
in a pathological (abusive) attachment gratified
by the narcissist. The children brought up
within such a union know nothing but a toxic,
pathological relationship and relate to others
accordingly.
"A sense of
entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of
especially favourable treatment or automatic
compliance with his or her expectations”.
This is a particularly revealing feature of a
narcissist. There is a term in psychology,
“narcissistic rage” that describes the grossly
disproportional response to the response “no”
from anyone else. “How dare you to not comply, I
will wipe you off the face of earth, I will, I
will… etc” This is nothing else but the rage of
a baby against his mother now being transferred
by the grown narcissist onto various
non-complying others. As any unresolved
childhood drama it carries dreadful psychic
energy – this can be testified by anyone who
ever dared to say “no” to a narcissist. In the
case of Mr. Putin his intolerance of the word
“no” when it comes from someone else lies at the
root of various conflicts, from his dealing with
the members of the opposition to the wars he
began including the current one.
“A sense of
entitlement”, together with “a grandiose
sense of self-importance” is also the source
of Mr. Putin’s pathological lying (“they must
keep their words because they are nothing, but I
don’t have to if I do not want to”). Here also
comes into play the symptom “believes that he
or she is "special" and unique and can only be
understood by, or should associate with, other
special or high-status people” – speaking
plainly, the politicians with whom he has to
deal are perceived by him as a bunch of scum who
deserved to be cheated, mocked, etc. (this
feature is also central for the antisocial
personality disorder)
“A pervasive
pattern of grandiosity”. The need to
perceive himself as grand is a matter of life
and death for the narcissist. As it was
mentioned above, the narcissistic personality
disorder develops as a result of the abnormal
relationship with a parent, mostly a mother who
uses her child as a tool for gratification of
her own emotional needs; she treats him as a
part of her and prevents him from a achieving
normal emotional separation (independence) via
encouraging and inflating his sense of
self-grandiosity (there is no space here to
discourse on this topic in more detail; those
who are interested may refer to the literature
on this disorder. Thus the child fails to
develop his real Self = real person but instead
throws all his energy into creating the mirrors
which would reflect his grandeur. The older is
the narcissist, the more need of the mirrors he
has and the bigger they must be (when he was
small his mother played the role of a mirror,
obviously in an adult world it is not enough). I
am convinced that the various endeavours of Mr.
Putin can be considered as the mirrors which he
has created to support his grandiose self-image.
If one follows his career from the first time he
became president till now one can easily see how
the mirrors grew. Now the world is dealing with
the grandest one – the concept of the so-called
‘Russian World’.
To appreciate its
scale, a few worlds about this concept must be
said. ‘Russian World’ means the civilization of
“compatriots” who are united by the Russian
language, Russian culture and Russian mentality.
“Compatriots” are officially defined as 1)
anyone who speaks Russian; 2) anyone who is
ethnic Russian; 3) anyone who/ whose ancestors
ever lived on the territory of the USSR; 4)
anyone whose ancestors ever lived on the
territory of the Russian empire. This means that
the number of Mr. Putin’s vassals is
considerably more vast than the population of
the Russian Federation. Further more, ‘Russian
World’ implies “the gathering of the divided
Russian nation” and also proclaims the necessity
of defending “the compatriots” and their
interests wherever and whatever they happen to
be. Furthermore, ‘Russian World’ has an
important spiritual component, “Russian
Orthodoxy” about which more will be said
shortly. The concept of ‘Russian World’
considers Byelorussia, Ukraine, and North
Kazakhstan to be “originally Russian
territories”, their populations – Russians and
the first to be joined back; this is one of the
reasons for the current war with Ukraine. But
those are only the first steps towards the
incarnation of the all-embracing concept which,
I repeat includes not only territorial but also
spiritual connotations. ‘Russian World’ is truly
the grandest mirror of all in which Mr. Putin is
reflected as the head of the great empire,
“gatherer of the Russian lands” (a popular
title, stolen from the Russian saint, St Sergius
of Radonezh), and even as potential “Orthodox
ruler”. Actually, why potential? One or two
leaders of Orthodox Churches have already
proclaimed him as such.
I will repeat
several key points. Judging by the symptoms, Mr.
Putin exhibits all the key-features of
narcissistic personality disorder. At the heart
of this disorder lies the arrest of the
development of Self at a very early stage. A
narcissist essentially does not have a true
Self. He is empty inside (this is experienced by
him as non-existence) and his life is an ongoing
attempt to defend against this inner emptiness
constructing various grandiose mirrors which
play the role of his Self. Therefore the worlds’
politicians cannot deal with Mr. Putin the
person because he does not exist. What exists
are only the constellation of the mirrors and
pathological behaviours. From here it follows
that to deal with Mr. Putin effectively one must
deal not with him per se but with the
narcissistic personality disorder which he is
channelling.
It cannot be
stressed enough that behind the mirrors lies
inner emptiness. To lose the mirrors means to
cease to exist; such a loss must be avoided by
all costs. To Mr. Putin it means “building the
ever-expanding empire by all costs”. To the rest
of the world it means that they must think very
carefully what the costs are and what they must
do about it.
Level 2: the enhancement of the
narcissistic psyche by the KGB/FSB ideology
It is a challenge to
describe the “aura” of this organization and its
workers. The word “contempt” comes to mind –
their contempt, not mine. Then follow others
like “condescendence”, “belonging to the elite”
and “intolerance of another’s opinion”;
all-embracing cynicism, somewhat artificial
politeness which suddenly breaks giving way to
the obscenest vulgarity and rudeness if an
opponent does not comply. Generally speaking,
those who work in that organization believe that
they are the elite and other “people” are
swine. It is not necessary stated
straightforwardly (although it often is) but
they radiate this conviction. They are extreme
conservatives of that kind who cannot stand the
avant-garde artists, alternative music, “rotten
intelligentsia”, “opposition”, free thinking –
anything that sticks out. Swine are despised and
mocked but tolerated; those who stick out are
hated. They often employ cynicism and habitual
dismissal to deal with an opponent; it is not
unusual to feel a vague sense of loss,
humiliation, and pollution after an interaction
with them.
The parent of the
KGB/FSB, the CHK (Emergency Commission), was
created in 1917 for the purpose of combating
counter-revolution and sabotage. The members of
CHK had to detect and liquidate anything or
anyone that threatened the communist state, from
the plots against the ruling party to those who
simply thought differently. The views of Felix
Dzerzhinskiy, its first leader, are instructive
for the understanding its ideology that is still
alive now. He qualified any exchange of ideas or
a theoretical argument about possible ways of
building the socialist state or any “special
opinion” as “the enemy’s activity and direct
counterrevolution”. He also stated that “we
have never been the cretins of democracy”
meaning that the State Government and CHK would
never tolerate any deviation from the official
line, in any form. This notion marks an
important feature of the organization, its
tendency to dehumanize any individual who is
labelled as “enemy” or “counterrevolutionary”.
Those who belong to the organization are
labelled
as well; the self-dehumanization is an
inevitable side-effect of dehumanization of
others; all the normal (Christian) humane values
go to the gutter.
From its birth CHK
(and then its successors) were given the
functions of a hunter, an interrogator, a judge
at certain times, and an executioner. The
organization has been feared by people, for good
reason. Hence it is not surprising that the
members of this organization would enjoy
practically an unrestrained power and a sense of
belonging to the superior cast. The degree of
given power would decrease with time but the
ideology or the spirit would remain. The
character of the job – hunting, chasing,
blackmailing into compliance, recruiting etc
forces the usage of the worst human qualities,
in the workers and in their victims likewise.
The human being as an individual with an inborn
dignity does not exist otherwise it is
impossible to carry out the job – he or she is
labelled, their set of weaknesses identified,
their vices are played on.
To conclude with,
the organization (whatever its name is) provides
its workers with powers which are much bigger
than those of an average citizen; it teaches
them not to see a person in a human being but to
see a pathetic shaking creature, a swine by
sheer dent of not-belonging to the organization;
it also gives them the sense of their own
entitlement. Those are narcissistic tendencies
which most likely had enhanced the natural
narcissism of Mr. Putin. Most importantly, they
gave an empty individual the sense of purpose
and the structure he was lacking. His natural
spite for others, his contempt, sense of
entitlement and his inability to relate to
others other than as tools for his own
gratification were not judged but encouraged.
The system provided him with the mirrors he
craved as well and with the possibilities of
obtaining new ones, bigger and grander.
From what has been
said follows that the world is dealing not just
with Mr. Putin the armature narcissist
but with the professional, a narcissist cubed, a
narcissist aided by the training received by him
in an infamous organization that damages or
destroys all the best in a human being to
fortify the worst.
Level 3: opening the door to the darkness
This is going to be
a final part, annoying and “completely
unnecessary” for many. The world politicians
ceased speaking about God and evil long ago
because they are such archaic, medieval notions
in our modern time. Still, I cannot help but
speak this “archaic language” here because Mr.
Putin did not leave the world any chance to
avoid that.
A few days ago
Patriarch Filaret addressed “dear brothers and
sisters, all people of good will”with the message regarding the Mr. Putin
deeds in Ukraine.
Among other things he stated that: “Satan went
into him”. In Christian language this means
exactly that: Mr. Putin is possessed. It is not
a metaphor but the reality of a life: the
metaphysical evil found its home in Mr. Putin
and does what it pleases though him. When I read
this my reaction was “Yes! – at last it is
said”. The process of emptying oneself is over.
The so-called “Orthodox ruler” was empty from
the beginning but emptied himself even more –
not for Christ but for Satan.
Patriarch Filaret
expanded: “For your actions you separate
yourself from the Orthodox Church and God, doom
yourself to an ignominious end of this life and
eternal damnation in hell
– in the life of the
future world. For all the blood that was shed at
your will, and the evil done by your order, your
punishment will be the same as the punishment of
the liar and fratricide Cain
– the curse and
eternal damnation.” Those are the strongest
possible words. One may say that they are just
customary “church” language for expressing
disapproval of one’s deeds or to depict a
certain degree of atrocity. It is not so.
Patriarch Filaret simply knows the spiritual
reality and the fact of the possession of Mr.
Putin. This is plain to see to any practicing
Christian. I am quite surprised that no one said
it before.
I will add a few
more archaic words to expand on the topic of the
possession of Mr. Putin and its consequences for
the modern world. This topic by no means
undermines anything that was said above about
narcissistic personality disorder and its
dynamics. This disorder is the ideal for anyone
who wishes to invite evil into his life because
it is a super fertile ground for the vices and
also because it features the sin which,
according to Christian ascetics, separates a
person from God more surely and speedily than
any other vice. It is called the sin of evil
pride, meaning a pride of unprecedented degree.
This archaic term includes all those clinical
notions of grandiosity, entitlement, a sense of
superiority etc which were discussed above. The
term provides the important additional
information about the nature of the disorder: it
makes a person totally disabled spiritually: he
is unable to see his true condition or even a
small part of his true condition. Because he
sees himself as grandiose, effectively a god
there is neither need nor a place in him for
God. There is a place for Satan though because
Satan is perceived as a mighty extension of his
narcissistic fake self. The fake self is
reflected in the ultimate fake mirror provided
by the perfect gratifier of all narcissistic
needs of this world. This is the nature of
possession explained in terms of psychology.
Stated in terms of Christian theology, such a
person is nothing else but a shell for a
metaphysical evil.
I do not know if
this statement is of any use to the worlds’
politicians. Probably not (though it may be of
use to the remaining people of good will);
regrettably, the language of metaphysics is
employed by fascists but not my liberals,
democrats, socialists or conservatives. The only
thing I will add is that you are not dealing
with Mr. Putin the natural narcissist or Mr.
Putin from the FSB, the professional narcissist
cubed but that you are now dealing with the
ultimate narcissist – Satan. You can call him
The Narcissistic Principal instead if that
comforts you but please remember that it is the
insatiable emptiness that is concerned only with
itself, and cares about the world only as long
as it is able to satisfactorily reflect its
perceived grandeur. Do you wish to continue to
work as its mirrors?
8th of September 2014
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