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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Is Not Well: Accepting the reality about the president's disordered personality is important
Trump Is Not Well
Accepting the reality about the presidents disordered personality is importanteven essential.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/donald-trump-not-well/597640/
Donald Trumps disordered personalityhis unhealthy patterns of thinking, functioning, and behavinghas become the defining characteristic of his presidency. It manifests itself in multiple ways: his extreme narcissism; his addiction to lying about things large and small, including his finances and bullying and silencing those who could expose them; his detachment from reality, including denying things he said even when there is video evidence to the contrary; his affinity for conspiracy theories; his demand for total loyalty from others while showing none to others; and his self-aggrandizement and petty cheating.
It manifests itself in Trumps impulsiveness and vindictiveness; his craving for adulation; his misogyny, predatory sexual behavior, and sexualization of his daughters; his open admiration for brutal dictators; his remorselessness; and his lack of empathy and sympathy, including attacking a family whose son died while fighting for this country, mocking a reporter with a disability, and ridiculing a former POW. (When asked about Trumps feelings for his fellow human beings, Trumps mentor, the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, reportedly said, He pisses ice water.)
The most recent example is the presidents bizarre fixation on falsely insisting that he was correct to warn that Alabama faced a major risk from Hurricane Dorian, to the point that he doctored a hurricane map with a black Sharpie to include the state as being in the path of the storm.
Hes deteriorating in plain sight, one Republican strategist who is in frequent contact with the White House told Business Insider on Friday. Asked why the president was obsessed with Alabama instead of the states that would actually be affected by the storm, the strategist said, You should ask a psychiatrist about that; Im not sure Im qualified to comment.
We have repeatedly heard versions of that sentiment over the course of Trumps presidency. Its said that speculating on Trumps mental health is inappropriate and unwise, especially for those who are not formally trained in the field of psychiatry or psychology.
Thats true, up to a point. Yes, it is best to leave it to experts to determine whether Trump satisfies the criteria for a clinical diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, some combination of both, or nothing at all.
But if a clinical diagnosis is beyond my own expertise, Trumps psychological impairments are obvious to all who are not willfully blind. On a daily basis we see the presidents chaotic, unstable mind on display. Are we supposed to ignore that?
Response to Demovictory9 (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
Nasruddin
(751 posts)maxsolomon
(33,265 posts)so much of his schtick is blowing smoke up the audience's ass, like a borscht-belt comic or a road-weary rock band throwing out applause lines. He just bullshits, relying on clichés and tiny bits of info he retains from locals or staff.
"what a crowd!" "helloooo, Cleveland, are you ready to ROCK?"
his words are irrelevant; it's the smarm or disdain that he projects. that's what his voters eat up.
Response to maxsolomon (Reply #15)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
barbtries
(28,787 posts)there are even people alive who haven't figured this out yet. especially the media! they must know, but even just this morning i heard joe scarborough saying something to the effect of trump has to do [something]...trump is a slave to his pathologies. he does not take advice. when he says or does something shocking and the media is all why did he do that?! it just tires me the fuck out. at this point? really?
we have had years to acknowledge this. i called it when he was coming down the escalator.
#Unfit
Girard442
(6,066 posts)...will people still say, "Well, unless you're a mental health professional who has
personally examined the resident, you're not qualified to judge."
RobinA
(9,886 posts)professional and this article is spot on as you point out. We know a lot more about Trump than many professionals do when diagnosing. Any reasonably oriented person and many not so oriented can tell theres something wrong with this guy. To quote a Great One, You dont need a Weather Man to know which way the wind blows.
underpants
(182,717 posts)An analogy may be helpful here. If smoke is coming out from under the hood of your car, if you notice puddles of oil under it, if the engine is overheating and you smell burning oil, you dont have to be a car mechanic to know that something is wrong with your car.
Nasruddin
(751 posts)Bob Loblaw
(1,900 posts)because you think there's serviceable tread on the tires, you might be a republican.
That's such a good analogy.
Something is clearly wrong--it's not up to us nonprofessionals to diagnose it, but something is in-your-face wrong. Who would buy that car, knowing that the car would refuse to ever go in for repairs?
paleotn
(17,901 posts)Blues Heron
(5,931 posts)vlad the impala
bdamomma
(63,810 posts)analogy underpants
LiberalFighter
(50,825 posts)customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)This is just insanity on the steroids of incredible power.
bdamomma
(63,810 posts)The warnings should not be ignored, he is a threat to himself and others. Do we really want this POS to take us over the edge with him. That's why the rats are fleeing the ship.
maxsolomon
(33,265 posts)He also has a set of core principles:
1. Never admit fault/never apologize.
2. Punish anyone who would cross you.
He shares these principles with the dumbest, most selfish 30% of this country (and Mobsters). They love him for it.
2020 is the last stand of American Democracy.
struggle4progress
(118,268 posts)who wanted to be king so badly that he completely lost it when his plans fell apart), Gerald Ford (accurately described as unable to walk and chew gum at the same time), Saint Ronald of Alzheimer, GHWB (whose primary accomplishments as President seem to have been the final cover-up of the bizarre Iran-Contra scandal) and his son, The Village Idiot
The GOP just loves using the Presidency as a distraction from whatever evil they can do in the wings
RobinA
(9,886 posts)Nixon holds a candle to Trump in a bad president category. Nixon had some duzys, but Trump is a whole nother breed.
struggle4progress
(118,268 posts)It's not some mysterious power that Trump has that brings the GOP circling around him: it's the end result of fifty years of deliberately developed political strategy
Yes, he's the worst President we've ever had, and the evil that he does will live after him
But he didn't get there by himself -- there's a whole apparatus of unprincipled whores who helped put him there
And that poisonous apparatus had to be carefully cultivated: it did not spring up one day by some accidental coincidence -- it was the work of years