Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man - A Comprehensive Summary
“Donald has always needed to perpetuate the fiction my grandfather started that he is strong, smart, and otherwise extraordinary, because facing the truth - that he is none of those things - is too terrifying to contemplate.”
The title of Mary Trump’s book comes from the concept that child abuse is an experience of “too much” or “not enough.” Donald Trump, as well as nearly all the members of the Trump family, experienced both. The Trumps’ enormous wealth and influence has come at the expense of genuine emotional connection, compassion, and empathy.
For the past three years, Mary Trump has watched countless people informally diagnose her uncle with “malignant narcissism” and “narcissistic personality disorder.” The author doesn’t disagree - but she says these diagnoses don’t go far enough.
Mary Trump has a PhD in clinical psychology. In the prologue, she discusses the various psychiatric diagnoses that could be used to describe Donald. Along with narcissistic personality disorder, he also fits many of criteria for antisocial personality disorder and dependent personality disorder. She speculates that he could also have an undiagnosed learning disability that interferes with his ability to process information. She notes that he also allegedly drinks a dozen Diet Cokes a day, eats a horrible diet, does not exercise, and sleeps very little, all of which could be impairing his cognitive function.
However, ultimately, Mary Trump’s years of working with patients have taught her that psychiatric diagnoses require context. In Donald Trump’s case, the context is a family history filled with fear, cruelty, greed, staggering egotism, and betrayal. The worst of Donald Trump’s flaws are a result of his father Fred Trump’s manipulations. Fred Trump was a sociopath who only took interest in his family when they were of use to him. When Fred’s first son, Freddy (Mary Trump’s father), failed to meet his needs, Fred cruelly discarded him and focused on Donald. Fred exploited Donald’s talents - showboating, lying, bullying, and cheating - and used his wealth and connections to cover up the fact that Donald has never been a competent businessman.
Too Much and Not Enough is a memoir of the Trump family, written from the perspective of someone who is both an insider and an expert in the psychiatric issues at play. It is the most comprehensive resource we have on the making of the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric.
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