Whenever a person makes a statement, we can always ask, “What did that person appear to say, and what did that person actually say?” Even when a person seems to be being very explicit and straightforward, it is not always obvious that what they “actually said” means the same as the words that came out of their mouth. This pseudo-reality is particularly important in political speeches, where every word carries weight and implications far beyond its surface meaning.
Typically, we rely on experts and pundits to dissect and interpret these nuanced communications. However, even the most professional assessment is inevitably tinged with the personal biases and interpretations of the individual making it; an alternative is to ask ChatGPT for its unbiased analysis.
This post shows ChatGPT taking a psychoanalytical deep dive into Donald Trump’s inaugural speech, using Transactional Analysis as the analytical medium. (For an introduction to the principles of Transactional Analysis see A short introduction to Transactional Analysis and Meaningful opinions and Transactional Analysis).
Trump’s Inaugural Speech
Donald Trump’s inaugural speech was a masterpiece of oratory in which he made a clear declaration of his administration’s guiding principles. This forthright speech encapsulated the ethos of ‘America First’, which combines a profound emphasis on the nation’s internal social and economic vitality, and a transactional approach to international relations. In his speech, Trump appears to communicate directly and explicitly, a rarity in the weird and wonderful world of politics.
Trump’s entire inaugural speech can be rephrased as, “Americans are being taken for a ride, and I’m going to set things right again.” By making this simple and powerful “statement of fact”, he carved out an image of no-nonsense talking and pragmatic accomplishment.
Crafting Indispensability
The question remains, however, did Trump present a perfectly rational point-of-view, standing on its own merits, or did he present a point-of-view that was only compelling when contextualised within his own persona and leadership style?
This is an extremely important question, because if Trump presented his point-of-view as factual, whereas in reality that point-of-view could only make sense when taking Trump into account, then by getting the audience to accept his speech as pure fact, he effectively “hard-wired himself into the system”; the system could henceforth no longer exist without him.
Let’s see what ChatGPT makes of this question.
Psychoanalytical Assessment of Trump’s Inaugural Speech by ChatGPT
The full text of Donald Trump’s inaugural speech is available here: The Inaugural Address – The White House (archives.gov). ChatGPT’s psychoanalysis of this speech (from a Transactional Analysis perspective) is available here.
The following YouTube video shows an animation of ChatGPT’s TA psychoanalysis:
Facts and Opinion
Typically in Transactional Analysis, the Adult (rational) ego state is the purveyor of facts, the Parent (authority figure) ego state is the purveyor of opinion.
Bearing this in mind, we can identify two types of communication in Trump’s inaugural speech:
- Adult to Adult: In some sentences, Trump is in the Adult ego state, and addresses the audience’s Adult ego state (i.e. Trump addresses the audience from a rational perspective).
- Parent to Child: In other sentences, Trump is in the Parent ego state (representing an authority figure), and addresses the audience’s Child ego state (i.e. the propensity of the audience to “need” a parental, authority figure.)
If we look at a table of which audience ego states Trump was in during the course of his inaugural speech, we see a very skillful glissando from the Adult (factual) ego state, to the Parent (authority figure) ego state.
Green: Trump’s Adult addressing the audience’s Adult ego state
Orange: Trump addressing the audience’s Adult + Child ego states
Red: Trump addressing the audience’s Child ego state
| Sentence | Ego State Spoken From | Ego State Addressed |
| Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world, thank you. | Adult | Adult |
| We the citizens of America are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people. | Adult | Adult |
| Together we will determine the course of America, and the world, for many, many years to come. | Adult | Adult |
| We will face challenges. | Adult | Adult |
| We will confront hardships, but we will get the job done. | Adult | Adult |
| Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. | Adult | Adult |
| They have been magnificent. Thank you. | Adult | Adult |
| Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning, because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people. | Adult | Adult |
| What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. | Adult | Adult |
| At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction, that a nation exists to serve its citizens. | Adult | Adult |
| Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. | Adult | Adult |
| These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public. | Adult | Adult |
| The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans. | Adult | Adult |
| We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. | Adult | Adult |
| Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. | Adult | Adult |
| Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. | Adult | Adult |
| We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels, and railways, all across our wonderful nation. | Adult | Adult |
| We will follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American. | Adult | Adult |
| We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. | Adult | Adult |
| We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. | Adult | Adult |
| We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth. | Adult | Adult |
| We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements, but always pursue solidarity. | Adult | Adult |
| In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. | Adult | Adult |
| The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action. | Adult | Adult |
| We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the industries and technologies of tomorrow. | Adult | Adult |
| For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost. | Adult / Critical Parent | Adult / Child |
| Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. | Adult / Critical Parent | Adult / Child |
| Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. | Critical Parent | Child |
| The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. | Critical Parent | Child |
| Their victories have not been your victories. | Critical Parent | Child |
| Their triumphs have not been your triumphs, and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. | Critical Parent | Child |
| That all changes, starting right here and right now, because this moment is your moment — it belongs to you. | Nurturing Parent / Adult | Child |
| It belongs to everyone gathered here today, and everyone watching, all across America. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| This is your day. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| This is your celebration, and this, the United States of America, is your country. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| Everyone is listening to you now. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists. | Adult / Critical Parent | Adult / Child |
| Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation. | Critical Parent | Child |
| An education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. | Critical Parent | Child |
| And the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. | Critical Parent | Child |
| This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We are one nation and their pain is our pain. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| Their dreams are our dreams and their success will be our success. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry. | Critical Parent | Child |
| Subsidized the armies of other countries, while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. | Critical Parent | Child |
| We’ve defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own. | Critical Parent | Child |
| And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas, while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. | Critical Parent | Child |
| We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon. | Critical Parent | Child |
| One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. | Critical Parent | Child |
| The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world. | Critical Parent | Child |
| But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land, from this day forward, it’s going to be only America first. America first. | Adult | Adult / Child |
| We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. | Critical Parent | Child |
| I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never, ever let you down. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| America will start winning again, winning like never before. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor. | Adult | Adult / Child |
| We will shine for everyone to follow. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| The Bible tells us, how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by God. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it. | Critical Parent | Child |
| Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same, great American flag. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| You will never be ignored again. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American destiny. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| And your courage and goodness and love, will forever guide us along the way. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| Together, we will make America strong again. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will make America wealthy again. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will make America proud again. | Nurturing Parent | Child |
| We will make America safe again. | Adult / Nurturing Parent | Child |
Interpreting the Shift in Communication
ChatGPT’s TA analysis reveals a sophisticated use of ego states. The early parts of the speech, rooted in Adult-Adult interaction, establish a foundation of trust and credibility. Trump presents himself as a rational, level-headed leader who acknowledges the realities facing the nation. This is a strategic move that lays the groundwork for the more emotive and persuasive elements that follow.
As the speech moves into the Parent-Child dynamic, Trump taps into deeper, more emotional currents. His rhetoric becomes more about instilling a sense of protection, guidance, and even admonishment. This is evident in statements where he criticizes the current state of affairs and promises change. In doing so, Trump positions himself as a guardian figure, promising to rectify the perceived wrongs and lead the nation towards a better future.
The psychological impact of this shift cannot be understated. In the Parent-Child dynamic, the audience is not just being informed; they are being influenced at a more subconscious level. They are led to feel cared for, understood, and part of a larger movement, whose leader is Donald Trump. By alternating between presenting facts and appealing to emotion, Trump blends rational arguments with emotive rhetoric, making himself guardian of the nation and the sole possible solution to the problems that have been presented.
In other words, Trump positions himself as an indispensable part of the systemic solution to the problems he outlines. By blending factual Adult communication with the protective and directive Parent stance, Trump ensures that his audience perceives not just the message, but Trump himself, as a necessary component of any solution. In doing so, he creates a scenario where the system, as proposed in his speech, seems unable to function without his leadership and direction.
Parent Contamination of the Adult
In Transactional Analysis, the concept of “Parent contamination of the Adult” refers to a situation where the Adult ego state – typically rational, factual, and objective – is influenced or ‘contaminated’ by the Parent ego state, which is more authoritative, protective, and opinionated. In this situation, the Adult “believes” that the Parent constitutes a rational component of reality, instead of just providing a guiding and authoritarian perspective.
In the context of Trump’s inaugural speech, this contamination of the Adult with the Parent is evident in how he blends factual communication (Adult state) with a directive, protective approach (Parent state). By doing this, Trump positions himself, the guiding parental figure, as an essential part of the solution to the issues he addresses. This technique ensures that the audience perceives not just the facts and plans he presents, but also Trump’s authority itself, as an indispensable factor for implementing the required solutions.
Conclusion
The analysis of Donald Trump’s inaugural speech through the lens of Transactional Analysis by ChatGPT provides a profound insight into the power of political narratives. The strategic interplay between the Adult and Parent ego states in Trump’s speech is not merely a communication technique; it is a tool for crafting a narrative in which he becomes an indispensable element of the national agenda.
This analysis has significant implications for understanding political discourse. It highlights how leaders can use language and communication styles to position themselves as central to the resolution of issues, thereby cementing their authority and influence. It also underscores the need for a critical analysis of political speeches to discern the underlying strategies that shape public perception and opinion.
ChatGPT’s role in this analysis exemplifies the potential of AI in deconstructing and understanding complex political rhetoric. By providing an unbiased, psychoanalytical perspective, AI tools like ChatGPT can help in discerning the subtleties of political communication, offering insights that might be overlooked in traditional analyses.
