Crazy like a fox, or just plain crazy?
Dr. John D. Gartner, practicing psychotherapist and faculty member at Johns Hopkins University School of Psychiatry writes: “If you take President Trump’s words literally, you have no choice but to conclude that he is psychotic.” Psychotic? I’m not real sure about that. But I think he’s at least delusional. A delusion is “a fixed belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact.” And from his performance so far, our president has a very loose association with reality, reason and the truth.
Following the 1964 election a lawsuit was filed against over 2000 mental health professionals who declared Barry Goldwater to be psychologically unfit to serve as president. As a result, the American Psychological Association has forbidden its members to make diagnoses without first examining the subject. But, fortunately, many psychologists have recently come together in spite of this policy in an effort known as DUTY TO WARN. They assert: “We believe that we are legally and ethically obligated to break confidentiality in order to warn a potential victim of violence; our duty to warn the public trumps (?) all other considerations.” In October of this year DUTY TO WARN held a multi-city march to “Make America Sane Again.”
President Donald Trump has been informally diagnosed from his rhetoric and his conduct as suffering from malignant narcissism, a personality disorder, not a psychosis. A major symptom is a loose association with reality. His repeated lying (multiple examples), a disregard for the rights and feelings of others (the Trump University fraud case, four bankruptcies, two divorces, repeated sexual assault allegations) and his demonizing of the press, minorities and anyone else who opposes him are classic symptoms of narcissism. Trump’s impulsivity emerged after he viewed upsetting pictures of gassed Syrian children and immediately launched 59 Tomahawk missiles at Assad’s defenses. Sudden, lethal moves such as this are contrary to his stated policies and are disturbing, to say the least. One noted journalist put it: “A foreign policy based on Trump’s gut reactions to the images flashing before him on cable news is dangerous.”
In his article “1988: the year Donald Trump Lost His Mind,” Politico Magazine’s Michael Kruse writes “His response to his surging celebrity (after his book was published) was a series of manic, ill-advised ventures that led to bankruptcy and divorce,” both signs of instability.
When Donald Trump first entered the Republican presidential primary I searched his bio for any personal qualities, educational and business accomplishments and life experiences that might qualify him to be our chief executive. I could find none. In fact, his record as a businessman was particularly spotty and suspect. And his performance so far in office has verified my original misgivings. But what disturbs me most is the fact that after over a year now of confusion, errors and dysfunction in the White House, I have not heard one single original Trump supporter around these parts admit that he or she might have made an error of judgment in voting for him. But in addition to being incompetent, he can be dangerous.
Lately Trump is ratcheting up old rivalries and tensions with North Korea’s also less-than-emotionally-stable leader Kim Jong Un to create a crisis where there really need not be one. Every global power knows that a U. S. nuclear exchange with North Korea would last about thirty minutes. But when we’ve got two crazies stirring the pot there’s no telling where it all might end up.
George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@bellsouth.net.