Important note: This episode includes a frank discussion of suicide.

In this episode, Nick Carmody and John Cole have a wide-ranging discussion about the psychology of politics. He and John discuss dopamine hits and conspiracy theories and cult-like behavior, narcissistic personality traits in Trump and others, and how Nick’s personal history brought him to his realizations about the role of narcissism in today’s politics.

Nick Carmody, M.S., J.D., is a psychotherapist and lawyer in Denver, Colorado. He has appeared on close to two dozen podcasts to speak about political psychology. In April 2022, he was invited to speak as a guest on TEDx about the “Psychology of Dictatorship” after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. In April 2024, he was part of a multidisciplinary project analyzing why young men are increasingly attracted to political violence. Nick has written over 140 articles about political psychology. Since June 2022, he has served on the Executive Board of the World Mental Health Coalition.

In 2010, Nick experienced two life-changing Traumatic Brain Injuries (eight months apart). The changes in brain functioning, personality, and emotional processing (along with other intense personal experiences such as childhood sexual abuse, exposure to Cluster B Personality Disorders) created an obsession-like need to understand and confirm these experiences, and served as motivation to go back to school and work in the field of psychology. Nick’s experiences with trauma have shaped a very unique life experience that created an unconventional path to a career helping people who have similar lived-experiences.

Nick has a substack: https://nickcarmody.substack.com/ He also has a Patreon with more of his articles: https://www.patreon.com/NickCarmody

Here are some of Nick’s work relevant to what we talked about today:

Applying addiction models to help explain tribalism, confirmation bias, and even conspiracy theories/Qanon | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Is Qanon morphing into a religion? | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Dissecting the Anti-vax "depopulation" conspiracy theory... | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Dissecting the Fraudulence of Steve Bannon's "America First".... | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Dealing with disordered people as society and in our personal lives.... | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Analyzing the neuropsychology of the "hedonic reward" of revenge politics... | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Analyzing Why Kids Struggle with Device Dependency/Addiction | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

Elon Musk's Desperate Need for Validation... | Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych