Essays

Donald Trump Is not a Shameless Toddler: The Problems with Psychological Analyses of the 45th US President

Authors

  • Jill Locke Gustavus Adolphus College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21827/krisis.39.1.37196

Keywords:

Donald Trump, Shame, Shameless, Child, Populism

Abstract

This essay critically analyzes two dominant narratives that explain and lament the rise of Donald Trump in the United States. First, I extend Jill Locke’s (2016) concept of “The Lament that Shame is Dead" to show the limitations of criticizing Trump in terms of the “death of shame.” I then turn my attention to the problems inerent in recent characterizations of Trump as a petulant child. Drawing from Locke (2016) on shame and Freud (1914) and Lee Edelman (2004) on the politics of “the child,” I argue that characterizing Trump as shameless, childish, or as a shameless child only affirms, rather than deposes, Trump’s right-wing populist strategy and keeps the focus on him as a personality rather than on the broader social and political context in which he emerged. I argue this has implications for the rise of right-wing populism in the West, more broadly.

Author Biography

Jill Locke, Gustavus Adolphus College

Jill Locke is professor of political science and director of the gender, women, and sexuality studies programme at Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota, USA). She is the author of Democracy and the Death of Shame (Cambridge, 2016) and has lectured about shame and shamelessness as they relate to democracy throughout North America and Europe.

Published

2019-10-18

How to Cite

Locke, Jill. 2019. “Donald Trump Is Not a Shameless Toddler: The Problems With Psychological Analyses of the 45th US President”. Krisis | Journal for Contemporary Philosophy 39 (1):37-45. https://doi.org/10.21827/krisis.39.1.37196.

Issue

Section

Essays