With deference to the classic Bob Newhart episode where his advice to an obsessive compulsive client was to shout the two words stop it, this is my own psychotherapy advice to everyone using waffle words to normalize Trump.
STOP IT!
I repeatedly see Republicans trying to normalize Trump’s mental illness as naiveté mixed with arrogance. I have to wonder if they are just saying this for public consumption while behind closed doors are perusing the DSM-5. Is it wishful thinking to hope they would simply Google Trump mentally ill. (I know it IS wishful thinking that they would Google Trump mentally ill Hal Brown
This is from Sen. Bob Corker in Politico:
Trump, "Corker says when we meet in his Senate office for his first extensive interview about the new administration, is a “wrecking ball” when it comes to longstanding American foreign policy, a newcomer to the burdensome demands of being the world’s lone superpower who remains determined 'to just destroy everything about’ the U.S. establishment’s view of the world. “ A WRECKING BALL?
Still, he insists "Rather than turning their fire on a prickly president who clearly takes criticism personally, holds a grudge and rarely backs away from a fight, Corker is arguing in the backstage councils of Capitol Hill that they should seek to influence Trump more quietly.” Really: “a prickly president who clearly takes criticism personally, holds a grudge…” and this is “normal”? Are members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans that psychologically ignorant? How could they not know that Trump exhibits obvious signs of mental illness?
How much of what Republicans (and the pathologically optimistic talker Chris Mathews) have to see before they stop trying to excuse and normalize Trump’s behavior using words like PRICKLY?
Meanwhile just now on MSNBC calling Trump “bombastic and overly reactive Mark Sanford, and then praising him for his "under-reacton" to the N. Korean missile test.
It’s been a long time since I was criticized on Ethics Alarms for diagnosing Trump as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder. That was back in August before it became abundantly clear that his mental illness was more complex and dangerous than off the charts NPD.
More and more therapists — in fact over 22,000 of them — now think that they have an ethical duty to ignore the Goldwater rule and sound the alarm about how dangerously mentally ill Trump is.
Not all the characteristics of NPD relate directly to why he soundn’t be president. But combined with the characteristics of other disorders mentioned above he presents a constellation of symptoms which taken together, as they play off each other, mean he is too unstable to be president.
If we go with this consider which characteristics of NPD actually preclude his being president: :
- Having an exaggerated sense of self-importance - NO
- Expecting to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it NO
- Exaggerating your achievements and talents NO
- Being preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate NO
- Believing that you are superior and can only be understood by or associate with equally special people YES when to means he won’t take advice from people who disagree with him.
- Requiring constant admiration YES when it allows Bannon, Conway, and others to manipulate him.
- Having a sense of entitlement NO
- Expecting special favors and unquestioning compliance with your expectations YES because it leads to authoritarianism
- Taking advantage of others to get what you want YES because it will leads to dysfunction in the White House.
- Having an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others - YES because he will be willing tp put aAmerican lives in jeopardy in overseas adventures, and as a former Florida Republican congressman said to Joy Reid, if there is a national tragedy we need a uniter, not a divider.
- Being envious of others and believing others envy you YES when t comes to world leaders who clearly are more capable than him.
- Behaving in an arrogant or haughty manner YES because it will tarnish America’s international image
Add to this his impulse control disorder, his sadistic satisfaction he gets from getting revenge and bullying, that he can’t tell the difference between the truth and a lie… and that he embraces impossible explanations for things that make him feel diminished (claiming massive voter fraud for example)...