“I don’t have a degree in psychology, but….” I’m hearing this more frequently when talk show guests are asked about Trump’s erratic behavior.
That’s what Steve Adubato, whose PhD from Rutgers is in communications, said this morning on Morning Joy. Then he went on to described Trump’s erratic and unpredictable behavior as decidedly abnormal. David Corn, Tony Schwartz, Keith Olbermann, David Gergen, and others have described Trump’s behavior and pathological, or as Olbermann says “not normal.”
Olbermann in his recent video (well worth watching) eschews psychological jargon per se; but hemakes it quite clear he thinks Trump has an illness:
“There is something really, really wrong with him.”
“Who defends a Russian dictator ahead of an American president? Any American president?
“There’s something wrong with him. To pretend that there isn’t something wrong with him, you have to pretend really hard.”
“His illness — and it is an illness — is putting you at risk and your family at risk and your kids and my family and everybody we know, the ones we like and the ones we don’t. Something bad will happen and whatever he does will make it worse and it will all be clear that he’s not healthy enough to be the president and they will have to remove him.”
David Corn speaks a lot about what he see as Trump’s psychopathology in TV interviews. Here’s a sample of what he says:
Yes, mental health specialists should not diagnose anyone from afar. But it would be hard to read this list and point to a public figure who exhibits more of these (narcissistic personality disorder) traits than Trump. In Psychology Today, journalist Randi Kreger, who has written on personality disorders, applies this list to Trump's statements and actions and finds—guess what?—compelling evidence for each symptom. Some experts have been so sure of Trump's narcissism that they have been willing to brand him with the N-word merely on the basis of his public life. www.motherjones.com/...
“Art of the Deal” writer Tony Schwartz has also been interviewed on TV a lot. When “The Art of the Deal” became a best seller, his editor at the time, Edward Kosner, said “Tony created Trump. He’s Dr. Frankenstein.” Schwartz was famously quoted in the must read New Yorker article by Jane Mayer “Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All” as saying:
“I put lipstick on a pig. I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is. I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”
If he were writing “The Art of the Deal” today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, “The Sociopath.” www.newyorker.com/…
Here’s some of what David Gergen had to say:
(CNN) Donald Trump's behavior on stage Thursday night and in the days that have followed strike many as unfathomable: How can anyone act so arrogantly and meanly in public life? But in fact, there is a large body of academic and other work that helps to explain. Just Google the literature on "narcissistic leadership" and you will instantly recognize Trump -- both his bright and dark sides.
Narcissists have been called out since ancient times, of course. A Greek myth told the story of a proud young man who disdained those who loved him and instead fell in love with his own reflection in a pool. Unable to leave his reflection, he drowned. His name: Narcissus.
Narcissists have been called out since ancient times, of course. A Greek myth told the story of a proud young man who disdained those who loved him and instead fell in love with his own reflection in a pool. Unable to leave his reflection, he drowned. His name: Narcissus.
A century ago, Sigmund Freud famously identified three basic personality types: erotics (those who love and need to be loved), obsessives (more inner-directed), and narcissists (those fixated with themselves and who crave adoration, not love).
www.cnn.com/…
None if this is new. More than a year ago this was a feature article in Vanity Fair:
In June everyone I knew in the psychology community was talking about the cover article by psychologist Dan MCAdams:
I think there are two basic problems, problems of different natures though both grave in their own ways. I believe that when we focus on Trump’s pathology, as Olbermann did so well, we are doing a service to whoever pays attention to us. I can't imagine anybody on this website disagreeing that Trump is truly dangerous. To do so is not only to ignore this pathology, but to minimize the incredible power of the presidency. As for the far right undoing years of progress in the liberal agenda, that is major problem number two, and has to be addressed in different ways than Trump’s psychopathology.
It’s been suggested to me by a senior mental health professional that “we risk confusing and misleading our fellow citizens with our 'in speak' that does not add to accurate descriptions of his abhorrent conduct and misjudgment.”
As I have said many times before in response to this argument is that we shouldn’t underestimate the sophistication of a large portion of the public in their understanding of psychology, especially those who watch progressive talk shows and read liberal websites like Daily Kos. I agree that there is, as one critic of diagnosing Trump put it, “a need to reason from a base that all can understand and in language that is clear, direct, relevant and rooted in easily described behaviors and their outcomes.”
I do not think this precludes speaking to the psychologically savvy portion of the public. From Joyce Brothers to Dr. Ruth to the recently deceased Joy Browne millions have been educated about psychology through popular media. As I’ve posted before, there are dozens of psychology books about narcissism on Amazon, and I expect sales are spiking since the advent of Trump. I do not think it is productive to talk down to the American people if we have special understanding of psychodynamics.
If a psychotherapist wants to give expression to all the points you make we are merely a voice among thousands of lay pundits and opinionaters trying to be heard. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to add our voices to the warnings without identifying ourselves as mental health professionals.
What I have been saying since March when I started posting on Daily Kos from my perspective as a psychotherapist with 40 years of experience is that in order to understand Trump, and the danger of Trump, we need to have an in-depth grasp of his psychopathology.
Addendum:
I know all about the Goldwater Rule and have two responses to this who bring this up: 1) It only applies to psychiatrists, and 2) if I was a psychiatrist I’d say that the case law from Tarasoff v. Board of Regents in California (often referred to as “duty to warn) trump the mere rule from the American Psychiatric Association. I will not address this in response to any comments.