I watched a YouTube video someone posted on here last night, where he is making a speech wearing a yellow top. What he said certainly lacked substance and he clearly wasn’t professor material but he was obviously a charismatic person and passionate about what he believed. He could have had success in an alternative way - as others have said. I find it really sad and I feel like he was set on this trajectory from a young age - of achieving the impossible. I would be interested to know what his parents’ narrative of his childhood was. Were his limitations exaggerated to make their success in advocating for him (and his later achievements)seem greater.
On serious reflection of your post, I have highlighted this sentence because I find it curious. What was his REAL ambition?
Nothing is a humble brag. He’s not just good at academia, he’s a Cambridge professor. He doesn’t just excel in sport, he’s the level of an elite athlete. He doesn’t just raise a couple of hundred quid, he raises millions of pounds. He’s extraordinary in every way. Was his great ambition to be an academic or was he looking to get in the history books as a luminary?
I am a regular on the Meghan Markle (and Harry) thread, and I observe the same behaviour with her. There is no clear ambition but just a desire to be lauded and adored. She has her finger in lots of pies but doesn’t necessarily want to do the hard work involved in becoming great at something, she just wants the residual benefits from it. Really, she expected to be adored, be the new Queen, a fashion model, an Oscar winner, and to change the world, just by being her fabulous self. Nothing too outlandish.
My belief is strong that they both display/displayed narcissistic traits. HG Tudor is a YouTuber who does a good analysis of narcissism, and is a narsisstist himself:
H.G. Tudor’s framework on narcissism, the "prime aims" are the core objectives that drive every action, manipulation, and interaction a narcissist has with other people. The narcissist treats individuals as functional appliances necessary to secure four fundamental resources: control, fuel, character traits, and residual benefits. [1, 2]
The Four Prime Aims
- Control: The absolute foundation. The narcissist's first law dictates that all people in their sphere must be brought and kept under control.
- Fuel: The emotional reaction or supply extracted from another person through positive praise or negative upset.
- Character Traits: The borrowing or absorbing of another person's skills, hobbies, or traits to enhance the narcissist's facade.
- Residual Benefits: Practical perks like money, sex, social access, or professional status. [1]