Blasey Ford Testifies

Christine Blasey Ford.

I was able to watch the Senate testimony yesterday from Christine Blasey Ford. I have not seen Brett Kavanaugh's testimony. Saw a clip of Lindsay Graham; looked impressive.

To me, Blasey Ford came across as utterly sincere. But she came across as well as something else: utterly mad. Look in her eyes: there is madness there. It seems obvious to me she is what used to be generally recognized, before it became politically incorrect to see it, as a hysterical woman.

We used to know a lot more about human psychology than we seem to today. Two hundred years ago, the issue would probably have been understood immediately.

The fact that she is a psychology professor tends to reinforce my diagnosis. One common reason people go into psychology is in hopes of finding a cure for themselves. Her life, by her own account, has been one of intimate association with analysts. Is it so implausible that she might be capable of delusions?

Someone who is hysterical is capable of believing anything. They can be convinced they are blind, for example, even though their sight is physically 20/20. They can believe they have been abducted by aliens.

Part of the problem, it is plain, is that Ford is self-absorbed. This makes anyone inherently fragile. Flying in a plane is a problem. Having only one door in her home is a problem, requiring marital counselling. Being interrogated by a professional instead of the senators is a problem. Everything for her is an emotional crisis—with the implicit emphasis on “for her.” Some or all of these anxieties might be entirely real; mental suffering is nothing trivial. But they also seem to serve always to draw the attention of both herself and those around her to her. She demanded all sorts of special treatment in return for testifying to the committee; as though she were a princess. This strongly implies narcissism.

A narcissist, sadly, is not going to see Kavanaugh as a fellow human being, Kavanaugh, after all, is not her, and so of no significance in himself. She is not going to be concerned with what any of this is doing to him, if she is mistaken. Because only she is important.

One can visualise how she got to this point. It is an old story, old as time. Little girls are frequently put on a pedestal growing up, told they are perfect princesses and everything about them is awesome. They are thus tempted to primary narcissism, self-absorption. Some can resist, some bite down hard on the apple.

Then, inevitably, most likely at about age fifteen, younger if they are less sheltered, they discover the realities of sex. Suddenly it is no longer possible to be inherently good; there are moral issues and moral choices. They have no experience with such things. If they have sex, some will condemn them for it. If they refuse sex, others will condemn them for it. Either way, they are no longer perfect beings whom everyone adores.

For someone who has fully swallowed the poisoned apple of narcissism, this is devastating. They are their own entire world. If they are now damaged goods, their entire world seems to have come to an end.

Now comes second-stage narcissism. Forced now to choose between cold reality and staying perfect, some no doubt will wake up and grow up. Others are liable to reject unpleasant reality now and for the rest of their lives. From this point on, and increasingly as lie piles upon lie, to protect their perfect fantasy self-image, they are capable of sincerely believing anything, no matter how madly untrue. They live permanently in a world of self-delusion, always under siege by imagined evil forces from outside. Rapists, say.

Men too, of course, can be narcissists, and can become hysterical. Boys too can be spoiled. But it happens less often, and the moral crisis is more likely to come at an earlier age: a failing mark, for example, or not making the basketball team. And it is likely to involve less of a double bind. Being younger, they are also likely to be more resilient.

Now along comes Brett Kavanaugh. Ford knows him, he is suddenly on the front pages, and of course this really ought to be all about her, not someone else. She should be getting this attention. He is stealing it from her.

Now, by pinning her own guilt feelings over sex, whatever they are, on him, Ford gets not only to absolve herself of blame for her sexuality, in her own eyes and in the eyes of the world, but also gets the eyes of the entire world focused on her. She appears both as morally pure and an irresistably desirable being. She can be a real princess again.

It is, incidentally, the same motive usually behind political assassinations.

You have to feel sorry for her. Her suffering is very great and very real. But far sorrier for the victim, Brett Kavanaugh. Ford is ultimately responsible for her own suffering, and is suffering because she cannot accept and admit that. What happened here to Kavanaugh could happen to anyone.

Ah, you reply, doesn't it still matter that there are now two or maybe three other female accusers? No, it does not. Numbers mean nothing if each charge is independent, and no one charge can be corroborated or substantiated. More accusations at this point are inevitable; just as one political assassination inevitably prompts more assassination attempts, one terrorist attack or airplane hijacking prompts more terrorist attacks or hijackings, until it stops being such big news, and then they tend to abate. Even when there is some spectacular murder in the news, police departments must deal with a spate of false confessions. For many, the temptation for fame is that great; a really serious narcissist is prepared to die for it.

More accusers are certain to come out of the woodwork at this point to copy Ford and share her sudden fame. Just as she could not bear Kavanaugh getting all the attention instead of her, they cannot bear Ford getting all the attention instead of them.

Rumour is that Kavanaugh now has the votes to be confirmed. I hope so. Anything else would be both a grave injustice and a catastrophic precedent. American civil society might never recover.

It is hard even now to see the Democratic senators supporting Ford's accusations against Kavanaugh as anything but intentionally evil. One hopes they are instead profoundly naive. One clings as so often to the old saying, “never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence.”