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Paul Ryan spoke to a doctor and extensively researched how to deal with someone with narcissistic personality disorder after Trump won: book

  • Paul Ryan studied up on how to deal with someone with narcissistic personality disorder after Trump won the 2016 election.

  • According to a new book, Ryan also spoke with a New York doctor about it and read about it "for weeks."

  • Ryan, then the House Speaker, was reportedly caught off guard when Trump defeated Clinton.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Then-House Speaker Paul Ryan started studying how to interact with people with narcissistic personality disorder after Donald Trump won the 2016 election, according to a new book by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

Insider obtained an early copy of "Peril," which is set to be released next week.

According to the book, Ryan was caught off guard when Trump won the election in an enormous upset over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Republicans controlled the House and Senate, and Ryan, realizing that he would have to work with Trump, started researching how to deal with someone who is "amoral and transactional," the book says.

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A wealthy doctor in New York, who was also a Republican donor, contacted Ryan later and told him, "You need to understand what narcissistic personality disorder is," according to the book.

"What?" Ryan asked, at which point the doctor sent the Wisconsin Republican an email detailing his "thoughts on how to best deal with a person with anti-social personality disorder," Woodward and Costa reported. The email also included links to articles about the topic in The New England Journal of Medicine, and information from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th edition.

The book said that "Ryan studied them for weeks, convinced Trump had the personality disorder."

Trump and Ryan's relationship was fraught with tension throughout the latter's tenure as speaker of the House. Among other things, Ryan butted heads with Trump after he publicly defended the neo-Nazis who sparked a deadly riot in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.