She begins:
Diagnosing the President of the United States with a psychiatric disorder that requires him to be removed from office is a serious but necessary assertion. Thus far, many psychiatric practitioners have noted President Trump’s erratic, impulsive, self-consumed thought patterns, communications, and behaviors and are increasingly alarmed by his altered judgment, his inability to grasp details, his insistence that his beliefs, no matter how skewed or inconsistent, are what is real and true, despite evidence to the contrary.
Like most psychiatric disorders, tense situations exacerbate symptoms. Being President of the United States means the stakes cannot be higher. The person who holds this office must have the mental capacity and endurance to withstand the pressure, responsibility, publicity and fame that come with this role. Donald J. Trump cannot uphold the duties of his office because he carries a diagnosis of Delusional Disorder. In its most heightened state, it grossly impairs judgment, insight, and the capacity to understand ramifications of impulsive actions and communications (crucial for anyone in a position of leadership).
She actually met Trump in person, and her story is remarkable but not unexpected:
In addition to noting the marked deterioration in Mr. Trump’s cognitive functioning since running for President, I have met Mr. Trump in person, and had the opportunity to observe him in a public situation: Directly after Mr. Trump’s divorce from his first wife Ivana became public, they both attended a charity function where I was volunteering. Since he was a member of Manhattan’s elite, his presence at this fundraiser caused a stir. Many people there watched his conduct while in the same space with his new ex-wife. While I cannot claim to know how intensely his delusional disorder had taken hold yet, his behaviors were indicative of a person who deemed himself superior to others, especially when he did not find them to be physically attractive, or were not men who fawned over his power and reassured him of his dominance. When I approached him to introduce myself toward the end of the event, he said, “Why would I want to talk to you? I wouldn’t even let you suck my d*ck. Look at all the beautiful women here. Don’t waste my time.” The event was a charity auction for the designer Missoni, so the audience included many attractive models.
Psychiatrist John Dinka, MD, broke the Goldwater rule and wrote a two part article
The president and mental incapacitation. Feb. 16, 2017 Part 1 of 2.
Excerpt:
A recent article in US News relates how John Gartner, a psychotherapist at Johns Hopkins University and author of a biography of Bill Clinton, has stated that our new president, Donald Trump, suffers from a psychiatric condition called Malignant Narcissism.[i] Though he realizes that he is breaking to so-called Goldwater rule, which recommends that a physician should not diagnose a patient without interviewing him, Gartner is so concerned that he sidesteps the rule and is quoted as saying, "Donald Trump is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president." The symptoms of Malignant Narcissism that Mr. Trump purportedly manifests are many and include antisocial behaviors, sadism, lack of conscience, and manipulative and aggressive tendencies.
When I read the article closely, I too saw firm grounds to entertain such a diagnosis, and yet I decided to push the matter further. As an active member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), I take the Goldwater rule seriously, but I think it reasonable to create further hypotheses about such a powerful public person who makes so many startling and often preposterous statements and draws factually unsupportable conclusions. Further, after poring over the recent interview of Trump by John Muir of ABC news and reading the transcript,[ii] I grew even more concerned that our new president may warrant another psychiatric diagnosis, one more severe.
Donald Trump may suffer from a delusional condition, with both paranoid and grandiose features. Such a condition suggests breaks with reality. Such a dyad of conditions—delusions and malignant narcissism—most likely plagued both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. So if my hypothesis is correct, then these conditions will impact disastrously on Mr. Trump’s capacity to serve as leader of the Free World.
Excerpt:
Here is where we must pause and ask a few questions: Is not most of what Mr. Trump obsesses over in this interview simply the beliefs of the so-called Alt Right? Are not these very unusual and even dangerous ideas the ones which Mr. Trump swallows and now presents as his own fixed beliefs? Is he not just mouthing their beliefs?
To the contrary, for at least three of the fixed beliefs cited above and on which Mr. Trump perseverates do not grow out of Alt Right positions. Rather, the fixed beliefs of Mr. Trump to which I refer do not directly concern members of any cultural group like the Alt Right. Rather they concern mostly Mr. Trump. Crowd size, getting Iraqi oil out of the country years ago, and fabulous numbers of fraudulent votes all being cast for Hillary are primarily private idees fixes of Mr. Trump. Probably many of his supporters agree with him on these issues. Indeed they now admire him as a kind of cult leader in their culture war against the elite world that is conspiring against Mr. Trump. But in these instances at least, Mr. Trump has created the delusional material himself rather than simply mouthing the strange beliefs of others.
Here’s another article from a couple of weeks ago:
by Elizabeth Lunbeck, a professor in residence at Harvard University’s Department of the History of Science, who specializes in psychoanalysis, psychiatry and the psychotherapies. She presented a psychological case study of Trump as part of her speech, “Acting Human: The Psychopath and the Rest of Us,” on February 14 at the University of New Hampshire.
Excerpt:
“There is value in trying to understand him,” Lunbeck said in her speech*. “He’s not a policy guy, he’s all raw, unfiltered emotions.”
She guided the audience through a case study, using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to identify a variety of symptoms of potential personality disorders exhibited by Trump. For evidence, she used a collection of Trump’s tweets, speeches, and statements. Lunbeck said he falls into the categories of paranoid personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), which is the most common one Trump has been diagnosed with by several psychologists and psychiatrists.
“I think it is startling how much of this criteria fits our current president,” she said. “I suspect Trump mobilizes his own narcissism.”
Lunbeck, who also has training as a psychologist, isn’t alone in her thinking. Just take a look at these articles from The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, or on Twitter, where mental health experts weighed in. Yet, others have went a step further stating he doesn’t have the mental capacity to be president, sparking criticism within the health community on whether they should be making their opinions known without a proper medical diagnosis to determine if Trump has a personality disorder.
*In her speech she said “Trump mainly falls into clusters A and B, the realms of paranoid personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder.”
Many of you read Huffington Post, but you may have missed this article by Craig Malkin PhD, Contributor Clinical Psychologist in private practice and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School:
Excerpts:
Diagnosing NPD is complicated, but the core of the disorder comprises what I call triple E: exploitation, callously using others to maintain a special status; entitlement, acting as if the world should bend to one’s will; and finally empathy-impairment, where the drive to feel special blinds people to the pain and suffering of others. More troubling, because they desperately need to feel special, people with NPD can become psychotic.
Just like narcissism and most traits or conditions, psychosis lies on a spectrum. On the low end, people become “thought-disordered,” that is, use tortured logic, deny embarrassing facts, and show horrendous judgment. On the upper end, they may have auditory and visual hallucinations and paranoid delusions. As their special status becomes threatened, people with NPD bend the truth to fit their story of who they are. If reality suggests they’re not special, but flawed, fragile, and—even worse—mediocre, then they simply ignore or distort reality.
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If Trump has NPD, the whole country should be alarmed. Because for people with NPD, feeling special eclipses all other considerations, including dealing with the world as it is rather than what they need it to be. Our solution—and greatest hope— lies in remaining vigilant. Nixon’s disordered thinking and behavior soon became too blatant to disguise or hide. If Trump is vulnerable to the same kind of spiral, it will eventually be obvious to all.
Where do you fall in the narcissism spectrum? Take the narcissism test and find out.