Notable comment:
Formal Psychiatric interviews are less detailed than the many hours of Trumpinsanity that we have seen over the past 18 months alone.
All patients with psychiatric disorders are not / cannot be cooperative with the diagnostic process, including patients who are delirious or psychotic.
Diagnoses can be made by careful observation. One sits, listens and watches, evaluates behavior using the DSM diagnostic criteria and can come to a valid diagnosis.
When behavior is videotaped so that the observations can be evaluated freely by others the diagnoses can be empirically validated. Usually such videotaping and comparison by multiple professionals are precluded or limited by laws governing medical confidentiality.
But not with Trump. Donald Trump’s public behavior has demonstrated diagnosable pathology on many occasions - such as the campaign trail, the “John Miller” and “John Barron” calls he made pretending to be a publicist, the interview with David Muir, his statements at the CIA meeting (the sun shone on him, his obsession with inaugural crowd size).
His public recorded behavior provides a plethora of information supporting the behavioral conclusions.
The observing psychiatrist or psychologist then compiles a structured report containing a comparison of required diagnostic criteria with observed and validated behavioral observations.
Such an approach is clinically valid.
I am board certified in Neurology and Psychiatry, and decades ago did this type of evaluation on patients in state institutions, and one on a woman who attempted to murder her psychiatrist. I attempted to interview her, was not successful, then observed her for hours, documenting everything.
(I was unaware of her murderous attempt until provided the information a few hours before the evaluation. But there were prison guards outside the exam room).
Donald Trump’s behavior has demonstrated diagnosable pathology on many occasions such as the interview with David Muir, his statements at the CIA meeting (the sun shone on him, his obsession with inaugural crowd size) and on many prior occasions - the campaign trail, the “John Miller” and “John Barron” calls he made pretending to be a publicist, and others all provide a plethora of information supporting the behavioral conclusions. And so on.