Unless you’re a mental health professional and join the group I described in my last diary 2,200 mental health professionals alarmed by Trump you can’t read an enlightening discussion among therapists about publicly diagnosing Trump. There is a private Facebook page just for therapists who sign the manifesto objecting to Trump because he is unfit to be president, mostly but not exclusively because of his temperament. They go to great lengths to avoid making a diagnosis for various reasons including the often expressed ones that to do so would be unethical to do so, and because they can’t make a diagnosis without a face-to-face assessment. However, when they do go public they use all kinds of words which actually describe his diagnosis, particularly narcissistic personality disorder, without actually making the diagnosis.
I have explained my opinion in detail both here in 11 diaries, and on the new private Facebook page. To respect their privacy I can’t post what others have said from that site. Suffice to say that the responses to my comments are running against me three or four to one.
While I am in the minority among psychotherapists, I have yet to be persuaded that I am wrong. I keep reading articles by therapists that dance around making an actual diagnosis. For example, in The Insanity of Narcissism the author of “Traumatic Narcissism” psychoanalyst Danial Shaw writes about Trumps psychiatric symptoms without actually calling them indications of his having psychiatric disorder in Insanity of Narcissism. Ironically, he uses the word “insanity” in his title which I would argue is more stigmatizing than actually writing about narcissistic personality disorder.
He writes:
This analyst admits he is champing at the bit to make a diagnosis but is resisting doing so. Then he goes on to beat around the diagnosis book (i.e. the DSM-5). So without identifying Trump he writes: "Perhaps I could speak a bit about narcissism in general, without naming names ― especially about the kind of narcissistic person that seeks and attracts followers to form some kind of big religious or political movement, with him or her as its supreme leader.”
He eventually gives Trump the “non-diagnosis” diagnosis a of malignant, traumatizing narcissist who is are capable of untold destructiveness. Most therapists who go on TV or write articles have agreed to constrain themselves by following the so-called Goldwater rule that keeps them from helping the public to understand better why Trump is unfit to be president by explaining the details of his diagnosis.
Not all therapists totally agree with strict adherence to the Goldwater Rule. For example, this was written by a psychologist in 2010:
The Goldwater rule has many attractive aspects. For example, it potentially constrains rogue psychiatrists who might be tempted to denounce the mental health of political figures on political bases alone. It also protects politicians from unflattering and potentially erroneous assessments of their character.
On the other hand, I wonder who is to protect the public from unstable and problematic politicians?
The legal scholar Stanley Fish distinguished between psychiatrists and psychologists by emphasizing that psychiatry, as a branch of medicine, is primarily a healing profession. The obligation of psychiatrists is to the well being of their patients.
Psychology, by contrast, includes not only healers, but also scientific researchers. The product of psychology, in Fish's thinking, is knowledge about a person's mental processes and behavioral expressions, as well as how to predict and control such phenomena. The application of such knowledge potentially leads to the well-being of the public over the longer-term. www.psychologytoday.com/...
I see the reasons offered by these therapists. I happen to think Trump is the exception that breaks the rule! Something to think about: consider the history of psychology and the contributions by those who were willing to break the rules, starting with Freud. No less a personage than Eric Fromm wrote about fascistic dictators before there was such thing as a diagnostic manual like the DSM-5.
This is from the Huffington Post article:
Erich Fromm, famous in the 1960s for “The Art of Loving,” published his first bestseller, “Escape From Freedom,” in the ‘40s, when he witnessed the popularity and the horror of Fascism in Europe. He was a keen observer of the personalities of dictators, whom he saw as narcissistic to the point of psychosis. This kind of narcissist, and Fromm mentions some of the most conspicuous 20th Century dictators as well as Nero and Caligula, has made himself God and the world, to himself. He has made of himself an Idol, and expects and demands total submission and compliance.
Sam Vaknin, a mental health expert and author, who has studied over 600 hours of Donald Trump footage gets away with making a diagnosis because he isn’t actually a therapist. He “made the harsh conclusion that Donald Trump is not simply a classic narcissist — he is, in fact, a “malignant and, probably, psychopathic narcissist.”
This is from the introduction to the interview published about him in American Thinker:
Shmuel Ben David “Sam” Vaknin is an authority on the subject of narcissism, having written the widely read and very favorably reviewed book, Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited and Narcissistic and Psychopathic Leaders. He may be described as a polymath, with extraordinary expertise (and experience) in abnormal psychology, and with focuses including temporal physics and politics (See his Web site, YouTube site, and Wikipedia bio).
Read more: Donald Trump and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: An Interview with Sam Vaknin
Shmuel Ben David “Sam” Vaknin is an authority on the subject of narcissism, having written the widely read and very favorably reviewed book, Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited and Narcissistic and Psychopathic Leaders. He may be described as a polymath, with extraordinary expertise (and experience) in abnormal psychology, and with focuses including temporal physics and politics (See his Web site, YouTube site, and Wikipedia bio).
Some see Donald Trump's behavior in the media and become concerned. I recently had the opportunity to discuss him with Sam Vaknin.
Read more: www.americanthinker.com/...
This is from the article
There are, Vaknin explains, nine criteria that a narcissist meets, and there is little doubt that Trump is “writ large” on every one.
A narcissist feels grandiose and self-important, and often exaggerates to the point of lying his or her accomplishments and skills. A narcissist is obsessed with fantasies of “unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence.” The narcissist is convinced that he or she is special and, because of that, should be treated as a high-status person. A narcissist requires “excessive admiration” and feels entitled, demanding special and often unreasonable treatment. A narcissist is “interpersonally exploitative,” using others to achieve his or her own goals, and is also devoid of empathy. A narcissist is also envious of others and will seek to hurt or destroy people, and, lastly, a narcissist “behaves arrogantly and haughtily,” and “rages when frustrated, contradicted, or confronted by people he or she considers inferior to him or her and unworthy.”
I am sure there are those who are tired of me writing about this, just as I expect that the same reader who keep reposting a comment telling me how unethical and insensitive I am will post again.
I hope more people read this and respond to me usual poll again. I am hoping I will change some minds.
