Richard Nixon, as depicted in Oliver Stone's 1995 biopic Nixon, displays many characteristics typical of narcissism. His childhood is one that caused an "Injured Self" which led to a desperate need to be admired, envy, a lack of empathy, risk-seeking behavior, paranoia, and a distorted perception of reality in adulthood. Nixon was raised in Whittier, California. He was the son of Quakers, Frank and Hannah Nixon. Frank Nixon once owned a poor lemon ranch that was sold before oil was found on the property. His son likes to relate this story in speeches and does so often enough that those who know him can tell it word-for-word along with him. The anecdote always gets a laugh, but Nixon himself doesn't seem to be telling it with much of a sense of humor. Instead, he seems to feel as if this is just one of many injustices that he and his poor family endured. After the lemon ranch, Frank Nixon became a grocer, and it is this era that is depicted in Nixon.
             Richard and his younger brother, Arthur, and older brother, Harold, help out at the store, working from a young age. Richard respects his parents almost to the point of fearing them. He seems to think of his mother as almost otherworldly, often referring to her as "a saint". It's easy to see why he thinks this as a child, because his mother is extremely religious, to the point of using the Biblical pronouns "thee" and "thou" in her speech. When Hannah Nixon confronts young Richard about smoking with his older brother, he begs her not to tell his father about the infraction, as if he very afraid of what his father might do to him. The mother and son have an intense relationship. She tells him, "You can never fool me. I can see into your soul." The pressure he feels to please his mother becomes even stronger when both Arthur and Harold die from tuberculosis. Harold's death enables Richard to afford to go to law school, which his mother tells him he must do. She says, "Law school is a gift...