I don't know if I can improve on db's explanation submitted here. I also agree with your response. In addition to the many mental health professionals warning us about trump's dangerous MH issues, many current and former WH officials have told us the same thing about him--he is dangerous. Let's not forget the state department and justice department heroes who testified to widespread criminality that failed to result in removal. The information is out there, and I imagine those that work with trump know it better than most.
I suggest the problem is not just with the press. The failure to act, including as you note report regularly on his instability, is widespread. Begin with the complicit enablers formerly known as the republican party, and end with the dishonest lawyers making entirely specious arguments on his behalf. Of equal importance the last 3+ years subjected us to children in cages, Nazis, American soldier bounties, and Covid victims loaded in refrigerated trucks. The consequences of the country's 2016 mistake are completely out of proportion. And exhausting.
Mary Trump's book lands at a time when we are all trying to avoid contracting a deadly virus while figuring out what we will do if we see an July-August Covid spike resulting in schools remaining closed. The book requires widespread coverage. Will MSM do that? I am doubtful.
Which brings me back to Press Run, independent journalism, and our responsibility to promote and support what is needed.
While I appreciate your call to arms, the media is way too late. These same psychopathies have been evident from when Trump walked down the escalator, from when he said he preferred "war heroes who haven't been captured," from when he excoriated the Khan family, from his ET "grab 'em by the pussy" comment ad infinitum. The press has failed the country and similar to the Republican party, it will be impossible to restore its credibility.
The media is using the excuse that most psychologists and psychiatrists hide behind - that they can’t diagnose someone without meeting with them. But the kids of personality disorder that Trump has is diagnosed based on observed behavior and Trump’s behavior has been on public display literally for decades. There can be no doubt that the man fits the diagnosis’s of an extreme narcissist to a “t”. Here are the behaviors listed at the Mayo Clinic’s website:
Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
Exaggerate achievements and talents
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people
Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior
Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations
Take advantage of others to get what they want
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
Be envious of others and believe others envy them
Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious
Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office
At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:
Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special treatment
Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted
React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior
Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior
Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change
Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection
Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation
No one needs to meet Trump in a clinical session to confirm that diagnosis.
But if "The Habes" and company actually reported this way, they might lose their all-important, you know, access, so we wouldn't get the leaks that tell us that there are staffers who are trying to do what they see as "the right thing," when the right thing long has been to go public and demand invocation of the 25th Amendment. Which no republican is going to do, because that would require them to put the United States ahead of Russia.
I'm not a fan of his, but this was a decent clip. I find it ironic though that the same journo's that report on pettiness, and don't report when a major incident has occurred because it's all the ratings, that he lecture anyone on conscience. I am sincerely worried about us. From the lack of people with the ability to think for themselves, to the soulless GOP, to the dem officials that don't say a word to them, or even stand up to tell us that a virus is coming that's going to kick our entire asses if we don't have a decent response, and we don't have one. They are as cowardly as the GOP that bows to the president. It's a crass thought, but I want to say at least the GOP are no longer pretending to stand for anything but wealth, leave God out of their mess, but it would be soooo much better if they did stand for something. Sadly, i don't think Pelosi is quiet because of class as she likes to portray every time i see her on msnbc. She does it for political gain. If your opponent is behaving in such a way that he's destroying his own chances at re-election what better to do that sit back and let him? If she was made of such admirable stuff she would have cut off funding for his atrocities at the border. She's find with a minimum wage that isn't livable, and a whole lot worse so long as people aren't in the streets like BLM were. But given a stage and a participating opponent to give her a stage to stand on her moral high ground, she certainly doesn't miss the chance. Dems didn't even bother to give us a warning when they certainly had access to intelligence indicating the virus is no joke and to prepare, i mean we are all human beings right? apparently, not so. Our media is an epic failure. I've been researching politics 10+ hours each day, most days, since the president became the president, and then covid because i'm extremely susceptible & don't trust this admin. with anything, I knew it was coming & so did they. In almost 4 yrs, and all the hours each day, you are the 2nd journo that ive found that's honest, and speaks clearly, and with the appropriate urgency to match our current situation. As far as i know, we don't have a shortage. That's a disgrace. They have the privelage of "knowing a guy" tho, where i had to hunker down for weeks. Not a single official warned us. Appropriate or not. Stepping on toes or not, doesn't matter. 4 years ago i'd have almost bet we are all human, i'd have been mistaken. At a time when the president is trying to convince everyone that all but his fav's are fake news, i'd have thought they would have upped their game...wrong again. I used to think if people owned them instead of companies maybe we'd have better results, but I don't think so now. I thought an individual may be equipped with a conscience, but apparently once they reach a certain tax bracket, and when push comes to shove, they REALLY are just about the money, just like the vast majority of officials. And the fact that i've not seen a single comment, from anyone regarding the no heads up about the virus is whatever stage is past alarming and tragic. How do people not wonder that? None of them are doing what i consider a good job, but i thought at the very least, we should be able to rely on them to tell us when a new virus pop up and is headed our way, and is very contagious....wrong again, lol. They will remain safe and that's what matters. The president certainly does have many issues, and something is going on there, but it's not why we are in the mess we are in. It's not good that's for sure, but we are where we are because the GOP CLEARLY has been planning this for quite some time. When i saw the trickery from gop senators saying something that really had nothing to do with the issue they were asked about, making an off the wall statement but then jumping back in line to answer the question at hand, I literally started talking to the screen. After a few minutes i had to ask myself why people, some having 30+ yrs on the hill, would risk their reputations that it took so long to build, on a 1 or 2 term president? Because they aren't. I searched, and more, and more, they aren't thats the only thing i've come up with and so far im standing by that. They aren't because they know he's either not leaving, or going to try like hell not to leave. That had to be planned. Again, didn't see anyone else asking that, or commenting on s.m. , and the way that not much isn't said publicly anymore, i'm sure i would have come across at least one. If not planned by them, certainly planned by Putin and he has much experience in this area. Heck so do we. I recently learned that up to 1995, for 100 yrs before that we also took part in influencing elections in other countries and if we couldn't, we figured out how to cheat so our guy won, but russia has done it for just as long. There is a science to it. A playbook if you will. Same with the authoritarian take over crap the president is trying to (and doing a good job i might add), and if we are VERY lucky, november won't be too late. It may be too late right now, i don't know. I can understand, to some degree, the media's reluctancy to stick with the facts, look for proof etc, and not spread conspiracy theories, it's extremely important to remember a couple of things. One: conspiracy theory doesn't mean an idea that's far fetched, or crazy, it means it can't or hasn't yet been proven. Two: professional criminals don't leave a trail of bread crumbs that leads to a smoking gun. It's important to research as best we can, then use a combo of addition, and common sense. Sometimes a thing can't be proven right now, but if we research, then research the sources etc until we hit a wall, give it much thought, try to imagine what else it could possibly be, look from every angle we can, follow experts in that area on s.m. and learn as much as we can about what they know, and when we reach a conclusion (to be fair we most likely didn't have to reach it ourselves, but caught a drift of at least a form of it), that we researched as much as we could, and from all sides, but definitely the left if you are right leaning, or right if you if you are left leaning, we can conclude something. Even if we are off a bit in depth as face it you can only get so far and conclusions must be made because we will never have access to classified info. Then we must tell people. If they call us crazy, try to start a convo with them involving a fact we have found. If they are unwilling then keep it moving. as far as i can tell figuring it out ourselves is a must now. The media won't go there because they don't want to lose their precious accesss, or concerned about what if they are wrong, or both. We should be able to rely on them to kick ideas around in our heads. Ideally at least one of those things will come from them. Can't be done with what we are working with apparently, but back to the trouble we are in: I don't see anyone asking certain things, or drawing conclusions. I see ppl that even if they can see a thing as clear as day, if anyone will call them crazy, say their wrong etc they don't even entertain it from the beginning. They seem to go with what's the most popular that day or week and repeat things. There were some GOP officials that believed in at least a little something, but they all resigned or didn't run again when their term was up. We didn't notice that much. I could groan for days about our shortcomings, but I don't want to, lol. I follow you on twitter now, and am going to share a couple of things with you on your page. You may already know, but just in case.
Mary Trump is not the first psychologist/psychiatrist making the claim that the president is mentally unfit. Many, psychoanalyzing his behavior from afar, have made similar proclamations. And to the Trumpers who disagree, I ask them where has there been any empathy from this president to over 130k families that have lost loved ones to this virus? As Schwartz said "He's incapable". That means that he does not possess the necessary and inherent trait that most of us have to care and love for someone else. It's doubtful he would even shed a tear for a close family member. Instead of empathy he reduces Covid-19 and the death total to a statistic that he continues to justify by saying it could have been a lot worse if he hadn't done the "very perfect" things that he does. If 500K die, he'll say it could have been a million. A million could have been two million. He claims "We've done a great job". And so his delusion continues while he puts the entire nation at risk. And this is just the virus. Remember this 3 year old in the body of a 74 year old man still has the nuclear codes. Do you think this presidency can't get any worse? Really? The press needs to wake up.
I suggest the answer lies in the word psychopath. It is a specific clinical diagnosis which J-School grads are not qualified to assign. I suspect that were legitimate news services to use that word on Trump; he’d sue for defamation. The “NY Times v. Sullivan” case requires the Plaintiff (Trump) to prove knowledge of falsity of the statement and, until Trump is designated a psychopath by a competent medical examination, he isn’t one.
Instead legitimate news services can describe Trump’s actions and let us draw our own conclusions.
You, correctly, note that opinion columnists do not shy from calling Trump a psychopath. Opinion isn’t actionable.
I make it a point to not attempt a rational discussion with anyone who simply insults whoever they disagree with, rather than dealing with the issues involved. So let’s try considering an important issue…rationally, without rancor, or name-calling.
Let me begin this hopeful debate by pointing out that I am not a master chef, not a trained auto mechanic, not a physician, and certainly not a certified psychiatrist. However, I know when an omelet’s been burnt, when a finger is broken, when my car’s brakes don’t work, and when a person is mentally deranged.
Naturally, I might very well be wrong in any or all of these instances. I could be in a restaurant in France, where I’m told that omelets are typically reheated and browned on the bottom. That “broken” finger may simply be a congenital condition with no serious consequences. I could, and have, accidentally put my foot on the wrong pedal. And the object of my “analysis” could simply be clowning.
But, should actual experts in any of these fields make such “diagnoses at a distance”? That is a serious question, which is a crucial one in these troubled times. Here goes my attempt to answer it.
Not being a psychiatrist, I see no reason why I can’t state unequivocally, and based entirely on his tweets, speeches, interviews, and his public statements, that President Donald Trump is mentally ill.
But, should a professional psychiatrist make such a statement about our President? My answer is “yes”. Diagnosis at a distance by professionals in their field of expertise is ordinarily, at the very least, an absurdity. But, as in many instances in this life, actions which may be flat-out wrong in most instances could, under extenuating circumstances, be essential.
Since Donald Trump is clearly one of the most powerful persons on earth, can order someone killed without being held to account, may even plunge us into war through his position as Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces…public recognition of his fragile mental condition by psychiatrists is not only acceptable but even required.
It has been some years since I’ve read Gulliver’s Travels, but I do remember that the protagonist did what would ordinarily be regarded as an unpardonable act...as having made use of his giant stature and the contents of his bladder to urinate on the Lilliputian monarch’s palace. But it was on fire, and that was the only water readily available.
Maybe now is indeed the time when psychiatrists must commit what would ordinarily be an inexcusable offense, which consists of diagnosing a person at a distance. However, this time the subject is a person who could do, and has already done, irreparable damage to others, to this country, and even to the world.
And, perhaps, psychiatrists are even justified in analyzing at a distance anyone who can casually overlook the evidence that President Donald Trump is clearly showing signs of a serious mental illness.
As for Donald Trump’s psychopathic tendencies, I have a feeling once the book is released this week and a wider audience of people have read it, the media will have no choice but to address it in depth, especially as COVID-19 gets even more pronounced in the red states and they can’t bullshit it away.
As a survivor of a tremendously toxic and painful narcissistic relationship with my sons father, I honestly thought Trump’s personality issues would be brought front and center and all of us previous victims would get some validation and closure as the disorder gained notoriety. What’s happened instead has been like living in a Pink Floyd video, where the truth is ignored and psychopathy runs rampant and without consequence. The truth always comes out, but if often makes you wait for it.
Thank you Eric for your hard work--as always.
I don't know if I can improve on db's explanation submitted here. I also agree with your response. In addition to the many mental health professionals warning us about trump's dangerous MH issues, many current and former WH officials have told us the same thing about him--he is dangerous. Let's not forget the state department and justice department heroes who testified to widespread criminality that failed to result in removal. The information is out there, and I imagine those that work with trump know it better than most.
I suggest the problem is not just with the press. The failure to act, including as you note report regularly on his instability, is widespread. Begin with the complicit enablers formerly known as the republican party, and end with the dishonest lawyers making entirely specious arguments on his behalf. Of equal importance the last 3+ years subjected us to children in cages, Nazis, American soldier bounties, and Covid victims loaded in refrigerated trucks. The consequences of the country's 2016 mistake are completely out of proportion. And exhausting.
Mary Trump's book lands at a time when we are all trying to avoid contracting a deadly virus while figuring out what we will do if we see an July-August Covid spike resulting in schools remaining closed. The book requires widespread coverage. Will MSM do that? I am doubtful.
Which brings me back to Press Run, independent journalism, and our responsibility to promote and support what is needed.
While I appreciate your call to arms, the media is way too late. These same psychopathies have been evident from when Trump walked down the escalator, from when he said he preferred "war heroes who haven't been captured," from when he excoriated the Khan family, from his ET "grab 'em by the pussy" comment ad infinitum. The press has failed the country and similar to the Republican party, it will be impossible to restore its credibility.
The media is using the excuse that most psychologists and psychiatrists hide behind - that they can’t diagnose someone without meeting with them. But the kids of personality disorder that Trump has is diagnosed based on observed behavior and Trump’s behavior has been on public display literally for decades. There can be no doubt that the man fits the diagnosis’s of an extreme narcissist to a “t”. Here are the behaviors listed at the Mayo Clinic’s website:
Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance
Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration
Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it
Exaggerate achievements and talents
Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate
Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people
Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior
Expect special favors and unquestioning compliance with their expectations
Take advantage of others to get what they want
Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others
Be envious of others and believe others envy them
Behave in an arrogant or haughty manner, coming across as conceited, boastful and pretentious
Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office
At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they perceive as criticism, and they can:
Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special treatment
Have significant interpersonal problems and easily feel slighted
React with rage or contempt and try to belittle the other person to make themselves appear superior
Have difficulty regulating emotions and behavior
Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change
Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection
Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability and humiliation
No one needs to meet Trump in a clinical session to confirm that diagnosis.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662
But if "The Habes" and company actually reported this way, they might lose their all-important, you know, access, so we wouldn't get the leaks that tell us that there are staffers who are trying to do what they see as "the right thing," when the right thing long has been to go public and demand invocation of the 25th Amendment. Which no republican is going to do, because that would require them to put the United States ahead of Russia.
I'm not a fan of his, but this was a decent clip. I find it ironic though that the same journo's that report on pettiness, and don't report when a major incident has occurred because it's all the ratings, that he lecture anyone on conscience. I am sincerely worried about us. From the lack of people with the ability to think for themselves, to the soulless GOP, to the dem officials that don't say a word to them, or even stand up to tell us that a virus is coming that's going to kick our entire asses if we don't have a decent response, and we don't have one. They are as cowardly as the GOP that bows to the president. It's a crass thought, but I want to say at least the GOP are no longer pretending to stand for anything but wealth, leave God out of their mess, but it would be soooo much better if they did stand for something. Sadly, i don't think Pelosi is quiet because of class as she likes to portray every time i see her on msnbc. She does it for political gain. If your opponent is behaving in such a way that he's destroying his own chances at re-election what better to do that sit back and let him? If she was made of such admirable stuff she would have cut off funding for his atrocities at the border. She's find with a minimum wage that isn't livable, and a whole lot worse so long as people aren't in the streets like BLM were. But given a stage and a participating opponent to give her a stage to stand on her moral high ground, she certainly doesn't miss the chance. Dems didn't even bother to give us a warning when they certainly had access to intelligence indicating the virus is no joke and to prepare, i mean we are all human beings right? apparently, not so. Our media is an epic failure. I've been researching politics 10+ hours each day, most days, since the president became the president, and then covid because i'm extremely susceptible & don't trust this admin. with anything, I knew it was coming & so did they. In almost 4 yrs, and all the hours each day, you are the 2nd journo that ive found that's honest, and speaks clearly, and with the appropriate urgency to match our current situation. As far as i know, we don't have a shortage. That's a disgrace. They have the privelage of "knowing a guy" tho, where i had to hunker down for weeks. Not a single official warned us. Appropriate or not. Stepping on toes or not, doesn't matter. 4 years ago i'd have almost bet we are all human, i'd have been mistaken. At a time when the president is trying to convince everyone that all but his fav's are fake news, i'd have thought they would have upped their game...wrong again. I used to think if people owned them instead of companies maybe we'd have better results, but I don't think so now. I thought an individual may be equipped with a conscience, but apparently once they reach a certain tax bracket, and when push comes to shove, they REALLY are just about the money, just like the vast majority of officials. And the fact that i've not seen a single comment, from anyone regarding the no heads up about the virus is whatever stage is past alarming and tragic. How do people not wonder that? None of them are doing what i consider a good job, but i thought at the very least, we should be able to rely on them to tell us when a new virus pop up and is headed our way, and is very contagious....wrong again, lol. They will remain safe and that's what matters. The president certainly does have many issues, and something is going on there, but it's not why we are in the mess we are in. It's not good that's for sure, but we are where we are because the GOP CLEARLY has been planning this for quite some time. When i saw the trickery from gop senators saying something that really had nothing to do with the issue they were asked about, making an off the wall statement but then jumping back in line to answer the question at hand, I literally started talking to the screen. After a few minutes i had to ask myself why people, some having 30+ yrs on the hill, would risk their reputations that it took so long to build, on a 1 or 2 term president? Because they aren't. I searched, and more, and more, they aren't thats the only thing i've come up with and so far im standing by that. They aren't because they know he's either not leaving, or going to try like hell not to leave. That had to be planned. Again, didn't see anyone else asking that, or commenting on s.m. , and the way that not much isn't said publicly anymore, i'm sure i would have come across at least one. If not planned by them, certainly planned by Putin and he has much experience in this area. Heck so do we. I recently learned that up to 1995, for 100 yrs before that we also took part in influencing elections in other countries and if we couldn't, we figured out how to cheat so our guy won, but russia has done it for just as long. There is a science to it. A playbook if you will. Same with the authoritarian take over crap the president is trying to (and doing a good job i might add), and if we are VERY lucky, november won't be too late. It may be too late right now, i don't know. I can understand, to some degree, the media's reluctancy to stick with the facts, look for proof etc, and not spread conspiracy theories, it's extremely important to remember a couple of things. One: conspiracy theory doesn't mean an idea that's far fetched, or crazy, it means it can't or hasn't yet been proven. Two: professional criminals don't leave a trail of bread crumbs that leads to a smoking gun. It's important to research as best we can, then use a combo of addition, and common sense. Sometimes a thing can't be proven right now, but if we research, then research the sources etc until we hit a wall, give it much thought, try to imagine what else it could possibly be, look from every angle we can, follow experts in that area on s.m. and learn as much as we can about what they know, and when we reach a conclusion (to be fair we most likely didn't have to reach it ourselves, but caught a drift of at least a form of it), that we researched as much as we could, and from all sides, but definitely the left if you are right leaning, or right if you if you are left leaning, we can conclude something. Even if we are off a bit in depth as face it you can only get so far and conclusions must be made because we will never have access to classified info. Then we must tell people. If they call us crazy, try to start a convo with them involving a fact we have found. If they are unwilling then keep it moving. as far as i can tell figuring it out ourselves is a must now. The media won't go there because they don't want to lose their precious accesss, or concerned about what if they are wrong, or both. We should be able to rely on them to kick ideas around in our heads. Ideally at least one of those things will come from them. Can't be done with what we are working with apparently, but back to the trouble we are in: I don't see anyone asking certain things, or drawing conclusions. I see ppl that even if they can see a thing as clear as day, if anyone will call them crazy, say their wrong etc they don't even entertain it from the beginning. They seem to go with what's the most popular that day or week and repeat things. There were some GOP officials that believed in at least a little something, but they all resigned or didn't run again when their term was up. We didn't notice that much. I could groan for days about our shortcomings, but I don't want to, lol. I follow you on twitter now, and am going to share a couple of things with you on your page. You may already know, but just in case.
Mary Trump is not the first psychologist/psychiatrist making the claim that the president is mentally unfit. Many, psychoanalyzing his behavior from afar, have made similar proclamations. And to the Trumpers who disagree, I ask them where has there been any empathy from this president to over 130k families that have lost loved ones to this virus? As Schwartz said "He's incapable". That means that he does not possess the necessary and inherent trait that most of us have to care and love for someone else. It's doubtful he would even shed a tear for a close family member. Instead of empathy he reduces Covid-19 and the death total to a statistic that he continues to justify by saying it could have been a lot worse if he hadn't done the "very perfect" things that he does. If 500K die, he'll say it could have been a million. A million could have been two million. He claims "We've done a great job". And so his delusion continues while he puts the entire nation at risk. And this is just the virus. Remember this 3 year old in the body of a 74 year old man still has the nuclear codes. Do you think this presidency can't get any worse? Really? The press needs to wake up.
Mr. Boehlert,
I suggest the answer lies in the word psychopath. It is a specific clinical diagnosis which J-School grads are not qualified to assign. I suspect that were legitimate news services to use that word on Trump; he’d sue for defamation. The “NY Times v. Sullivan” case requires the Plaintiff (Trump) to prove knowledge of falsity of the statement and, until Trump is designated a psychopath by a competent medical examination, he isn’t one.
Instead legitimate news services can describe Trump’s actions and let us draw our own conclusions.
You, correctly, note that opinion columnists do not shy from calling Trump a psychopath. Opinion isn’t actionable.
I make it a point to not attempt a rational discussion with anyone who simply insults whoever they disagree with, rather than dealing with the issues involved. So let’s try considering an important issue…rationally, without rancor, or name-calling.
Let me begin this hopeful debate by pointing out that I am not a master chef, not a trained auto mechanic, not a physician, and certainly not a certified psychiatrist. However, I know when an omelet’s been burnt, when a finger is broken, when my car’s brakes don’t work, and when a person is mentally deranged.
Naturally, I might very well be wrong in any or all of these instances. I could be in a restaurant in France, where I’m told that omelets are typically reheated and browned on the bottom. That “broken” finger may simply be a congenital condition with no serious consequences. I could, and have, accidentally put my foot on the wrong pedal. And the object of my “analysis” could simply be clowning.
But, should actual experts in any of these fields make such “diagnoses at a distance”? That is a serious question, which is a crucial one in these troubled times. Here goes my attempt to answer it.
Not being a psychiatrist, I see no reason why I can’t state unequivocally, and based entirely on his tweets, speeches, interviews, and his public statements, that President Donald Trump is mentally ill.
But, should a professional psychiatrist make such a statement about our President? My answer is “yes”. Diagnosis at a distance by professionals in their field of expertise is ordinarily, at the very least, an absurdity. But, as in many instances in this life, actions which may be flat-out wrong in most instances could, under extenuating circumstances, be essential.
Since Donald Trump is clearly one of the most powerful persons on earth, can order someone killed without being held to account, may even plunge us into war through his position as Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces…public recognition of his fragile mental condition by psychiatrists is not only acceptable but even required.
It has been some years since I’ve read Gulliver’s Travels, but I do remember that the protagonist did what would ordinarily be regarded as an unpardonable act...as having made use of his giant stature and the contents of his bladder to urinate on the Lilliputian monarch’s palace. But it was on fire, and that was the only water readily available.
Maybe now is indeed the time when psychiatrists must commit what would ordinarily be an inexcusable offense, which consists of diagnosing a person at a distance. However, this time the subject is a person who could do, and has already done, irreparable damage to others, to this country, and even to the world.
And, perhaps, psychiatrists are even justified in analyzing at a distance anyone who can casually overlook the evidence that President Donald Trump is clearly showing signs of a serious mental illness.
John A. Broussard broupome@hawaii.rr.com
Great song. Thanks for the new band referral.
As for Donald Trump’s psychopathic tendencies, I have a feeling once the book is released this week and a wider audience of people have read it, the media will have no choice but to address it in depth, especially as COVID-19 gets even more pronounced in the red states and they can’t bullshit it away.
As a survivor of a tremendously toxic and painful narcissistic relationship with my sons father, I honestly thought Trump’s personality issues would be brought front and center and all of us previous victims would get some validation and closure as the disorder gained notoriety. What’s happened instead has been like living in a Pink Floyd video, where the truth is ignored and psychopathy runs rampant and without consequence. The truth always comes out, but if often makes you wait for it.