About 5,786 years ago, according to the Old Testament , Moses wrote God’s 10 commandments. In Exodus or the second book, written in stone ,were Commandment V111 'You shall not steal "'and Commandment 1X “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. " Both commandments clearly and concretely describe negative, inappropriate interpersonal interactions according to God's moral precepts for righteous living. Yet, turning to today's politics and culture, it is obvious that those two commandments seem irrelevant at times . A few synonyms for lie to consider include deceive, fool,trick, mislead ,delude,fabricate and falsehood Also, synonyms for steal include theft, larceny, thievery, pilfer, loot, embezzle,cheat, and take.The following provides some of the motivations concerning both lying and stealing .
In Sigmund Freud's model, in a condensed version, conscience is formed in the superego early on and is related to both the Oedipal complex and the development of the ego ideal.And specifically, initial helplessness of the child leads to feelings of inferiority and compensatory strivings for power.
Parents are the main sources for gratification of needs ,safety and love resulting in dependence for the young child. The loss of affection ,love and safety results in significant fear that’s associated with the parental behaviors .Inherently, it’s all about the child’s identification as he incorporates the wishes and demands of his parents.
This lays the groundwork for the development of a conscience which becomes the super ego’s inner voice of the parents and cultures moral values . Essentially, the young child learns and incorporates ,with internalization, the means of how to gain approval and love as well as how to avoid disapproval and the loss of love based on his actions .Doing what the parents dictates for right and wrong generally leads to affection, safety and belonging .
Fundamentally, it’s about the interpersonal interactions between child and parent that superego(conscience) . And, depending on a history of consequential experiences , is the voice of one’s conscience gentle and friendly when it comes to right and wrong or does the conscience become severe and cruel ? In other words, there can be a serious failure -irrationality in superego development, especially with an internal image of a troubled parent , parents or others that’s associated with antisocial character tendencies. And as an adult, that's usually coupled with inadequate inner controls which leads to destructive , deplorable and narcissistic behavior .
Anna Freud categorized three types of lying. First, delinquent lying was a deliberate attempt to gain advantage and to avoid punishment. Second, innocent lying was being unable to separate inner and outer reality which is objective untruth, but valid from an individual's viewpoint, perhaps from ignorance. Third, fantasy lying was a wish to believe in one's own fabrication. Obviously there is some connection between the three categorizations.
In the conscience ( right & wrong) is learned ,developed and highly related to the family dynamics For instance, 1. Is there an accomplice in the lies? When the phone rings and asks for dad,and dad tells his son "tell him I'm not here ? “ Does mother say regarding spending money , "don't tell your father." 2. Do the rules for truthfulness differ between what's told in the family versus what's told outside the family? Lying also requires an audience.3. Are the lies a cover up for not knowing - a fear of failure exposing inadequacy ?
Psychologically, the superego’s, right from wrong, can be easily overridden or ignored with intoxication from drugs , alcohol, internal desires , peer group pressure , some code or belief , group consensus or because it comes from a powerful flamboyant narcissist.
Extensive lying is associated with a sense of personal weakness , fear of loss of control and/or personal sense of inadequacy. Trump’s history of lying ,his individual experiences , and his lack of discomfort with his untruthfulness.Is well documented. He shows no remorse and doesn’t accept any responsibility for all of his lies,misinformation and deceit .Many of his lies seem related to his lack of knowledge .
Trump , however, when emotionally disturbed, aggressively attacks, avoids or walks out, from the “fake media “ reporters especially questions regarding Epstein,tariffs,Iran , Biden . stolen elections and his grift .He denies and does not take any responsibility for his deceitful behavior.
Trump is a master at deceiving himself as he believes in his fabrications and provides emotionally unimportant statements which are not factually true. Pseudologia means that he goes to considerable trouble to make his stories plausible, including facts and inferences which lend a surface ferocity to it. His election lies are just one example .
With his excessive lying , he employs an extensive use of denial which interferes with logical thinking and is a predisposition for his aggressively verbally acting out behaviors and his constant flip flopping responses. He’s full of contradictions and difficult to follow But, behaviorally he’ s accumulated more money since 2025 ( last 18 months) than in his entire lifetime of deceit .
With television and social media technology, the code of untruthfulness is internalized in the political attitude. Constantly, so-called news programs conduct interviews with politicians. Rarely does the politician answer the question but instead presents his own talking points irrespective of the truth or question . George Orwell's 1984 novel brilliantly described the doubletalk by their Ministry of Truth with 3 party slogans - War Is Peace; Freedom Is Slavery and Ignorance Is Strength. Orwell’s relevance is paramount to today.And that “prediction” was written as recently as 1949.
A few comments about stealing . Our society places a tremendous value on money and the wealthy are easily able to protect their own from the consequences. Again, right and wrong begins with the superego in early childhood. What behaviors do the parents consistently reinforce ?
From a developmental point of view:1. What is the extent of emotional deprivation for the child ? Stealing can be an “equalization” and/ or a substitution for affection-"I'm entitled." Stealing behavior maintains the fiction of being loved 2.Does the stolen object provide security or meet some other ego need? 3. Is stealing an act of revenge and easy because the enemy may be regarded as weak? 4. Does stealing curry favor from the peer group or group at large ? 5. Is stealing an act of bravado or some initiation ritual ? 6. Is stealing an act of moral conduct ? Stealing from another is not ok but stealing or cheating the government ,insurance company is ok. 7. Is stealing associated with a getting even behavior ,with parents 8. Is stealing a projection of one's own hostility onto others in which they view others as exploitive, unreliable, or just not worthy? 9. Is stealing an act to deprive,humiliate and dominate ?
Generally, stealing behavior is often related to underlying depression and/or emptiness ;of impotent fantasies which leads to alienation of and toward others. It appears that Trump and his governmental cohorts are in fact rigid, empty , hostile and exploitative. Therefore , it’s not surprising that they would project on to others as being inferior, not worthy aliens and not deserving. Their stealing policies result in excessive discrimination and not caring about the consequences, as long as they hold the power.
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables tells the story of Jean Valjean and his experience with the law because he stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister's seven starving children. Today's story with Trump and the billionaires demonstrates their toxicity and their inhumanity toward so many and how the powerful avoid negative consequences.
Trump, his family, his cabinet, his senators, his congressmen, his Supreme Court , his billionaires and Musk all have a basic personality of emotional characterological tendencies and actions associated consciously or unconsciously with passions of greed, exploitation, mendaciousness and thievery. At this juncture, conscience, commandments, hell, incarceration, fines, and the rule of law have been inconsequential or moot . Will any form of righteous justice ever occur for these repugnant sycophants in our galaxy ?
During Trump's first term as president, he’s made over 30,573 false or misleading statements .Since 2025, Trump made over 21,000 security trades valuing between $600million - to 1.86 billion dollars according to Chat GPT.
.Reference
Disturbance of Development. Basic Handbook of Child Psychiatry.
Thom Darden and I have been invited by the University of Michigan Alumni to host a webinar regarding Bo's Warriors. The event is scheduled for August 16, a Sunday, at 1 PM Pacific coast time. To register for the event
https://umalumni.my.site.com/s/lt-event?id=a1QUS00000C3rAX2AZ
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