NEW
I have tried diligently to read as much as I can of the literature and debate regarding President Donald Trump’s alleged mental illness. I have noted that that there are those who state we should not even be diagnosing our president. There’s an ongoing debate as to whether in fact he suffers from any mental illness or not. And, the debate is amongst the professionals!
I am a big fan of K.I.S.S - “keep it simple stupid”.
I was trained in existential psychotherapy and have been a licensed mental health professional for over 40 years. Having said that, from a strict existential standpoint, we don’t diagnose – it objectifies. So, I won’t fall into that trap of whether he has a diagnosable mental illness or not. I think we confuse and misdirect people by trying to make a diagnosis – the public focuses on the name calling (diagnosing) and then get caught in the debate on who is correct about the diagnosis. The man is engaging in behaviors that are frightening, confusing and sometimes outrageous. At this point, the question is simple, ”is this the kind of man we want as our leader?” This brings to mind a quote by Jean-Paul Sartre, “We have the war we deserve.”
Although Trump wasn’t elected by a majority, unless you wish to believe his alternative facts, but he was elected nonetheless by the people of the United States of America. So, I reiterate and paraphrase Jean-Paul, “We have the mess we deserve.” The problem remains, “are we willing to allow him to continue as our leader?”. Given all of his behavioral/verbal manifestations, I, as a concerned citizen and a mental health professional, recognize that perhaps I may have a somewhat keener eye for disorders/dysfunctions than the average citizen. So, I see it as my responsibility to draw peoples’ attention to the issues (manifestations) that I am seeing and perhaps they are refusing to see. We need to be focusing on the signs and symptoms of his disorder and focus attention to those -as the news media has – and simply questioning, “is this the man we want as our leader?” Let me leave you with one final quote, again from Jean-Paul: “When the rich make war, it’s the poor that die.”
Ole von Frausing-Borch, M.S.Ed., Licensed Marriage Family Therapist,
NEW
As a psychoanalyst I am in the habit of not diagnosing my patients; instead I observe, explore and try to understand their repetitive patterns of behavior which often results in shedding light on their core conflicts.
Watching President Donald J. Trump in office I have noticed his impulsive and grandiose behavior which is creating anxiety and panic in our country and the rest of the world.
Being a native of Germany I have witnessed the chaos of the dictatorship of the Nazi regime. 70 years later Germany has barely recovered from the harm caused by killing millions of people simply due to belonging to a certain race and religion. President Trump's cruel immigration policies against certain Muslim countries reminds me of the horror delivered by Hitler and his followers. Never again!
Instead of building walls let us build bridges. Instead of harming our environment let us find ways of saving our world from global destruction. Instead of splitting our nation let us celebrate our diversity and find bipartisanship.
We can not afford to watch our country being destroyed in the next 47 months. The stakes are too high. Donald Trump does not have the observable qualities to unify our country. Let's stop this train wreck before it is too late.
Donald Trump's presidency needs to be repealed and replaced.
Gabriele Chorney, Psya.D, Psychoanalyst
Living in a world in which I see or hear Donald Trump on at least a daily basis, it would be peculiar of me not to notice or wonder what drives him. The trick is to figure out what the behaviors mean and whether they are a threat to the country.
A few of the most disturbing behaviors that I have seen in Donald Trump have been the mocking of people he perceives as weak and the degree to which he denies, lies about or distorts information.
In my experience as a therapist, I have worked with people who have been harmed by trauma, including emotional abuse – as children. As a result these children sometimes grow up distrusting most adults and are unable to believe that others in positions of power will love or care for them. These kids may become forever fearful that they will ultimately be revealed as being ‘weak’ which in fact they were as children.
Kids with these terrible experiences may become very thin skinned as adults – because they believe that other wish them the worst. Their behavior often seems inappropriately defensive. At the same time, these kids may crave attention – even negative attention – because it is better than no attention. Unfortunately, when one is a kid, getting yelled at can be better than being ignored.
Kids who experience abuse may become bullies who distract others from their fear of their own weakness by appearing stronger (bullying) weaker kids. They may also get attention from others by lying – which makes them look stronger than they are – at least sometimes. This can become a bad habit. Finally, since they cannot trust authorities, abused kids often learn to trust peers who also don’t trust authorities. This may create some poor choices in choosing friends.
These are the kinds of thoughts that float through my head on a daily basis. Was Trump victimized as a kid? Is that why he is so insensitive to others? Are the people he is choosing in his cabinet – who have such dubious credentials – likewise people who grew up to distrust those in authority? We may never know but if I’m right he is unlikely to change any time soon.
Vanessa N Weber, LCSW, Clinical Social Worker
As a therapist, I have become increasingly sensitive to the kaleidoscope nature of my feelings toward someone that I see often and/or they hold a position of authority or power or some level of partnership with me.. It is difficult to tease apart when I am feeling transference feelings or when my feelings are, instead, manifestations of my pure sense of that person. All people closely or moderately connected to me are, to some extent, incomplete reflections of either others at earlier points of my life or mirror reflections. The remainder may be purely "us," wherein we so accurately reflect one another that we feel "attuned."
In the case of my evolving relationship with Donald Trump, I am amazed at the intensity. Certainly there is more than is manifestly exposed. I will continue to observe self. Nevertheless, as a human being and as a clinician, what I continue to observe in DJT over so many months is defensive, delusional, paranoid, aggressive, inept mood regulation, poor executive functioning, and dark narcissism. This makes me feel angry.
Human beings are far more alike than different. While my intensity is probably on a continuum, it is still fair to say that my clinical practice is reflecting the escalating anxiety we all likely feel, either more or less- while the intensity certainly varies, anxiety is very much THERE in my treatment office! One can extrapolate anxiety is pronounced globally as well.
Anxiety has a contagion like any emotion. I believe at this moment in American history, we are experiencing emotional shockwaves, the likes of which have not been seen the Civil War, World Wars, or 9/11.
Yet it is different. It is not political-it is about fitness for the unique stressors and capacity to remain calm that defines a president. America is in deep trouble. We have a deranged man steering a ship already wounded and it is scarier every day. We have a president with the emotional maturity of a defiant adolescent who finds it exciting and sportlike to stir things up-with global, lethal potential as an outcome. Hang on tight. My fellow Americans, this is going to be a bumpy ride.
Barbara Cunningham, Psy.D., LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist)
Many communities (Electors, Legislators, Journalists, …) have been grappling with issues surrounding the 2016 US Presidential Election and its aftermath. Free Citizen Therapists (FCT) initially began as a Time Limited Discussion of that Election.
There were those therapists (MD, MSW, PhD, LPC, ...) who believed that there should be safeguards against the abuse of diagnostic and therapeutic skills used gratuitously against public figures (The Goldwater Rule) but saw, as well, the ethical duty incumbent on citizens who were therapists to warn, report and prevent, where they demonstrate a seriously likelihood of harming others (Tarasoff Rule).
The careful skills necessary to balance Goldwater and Tarsoff was seen to deserve open discussion.
Over this period of nearly one year, there has been back and forth on whether or not to openly share our discussions with a larger audience. We have witnessed print and online journal articles slowly accrue that agreed with us that many of the characteristics displayed by candidate and then President Trump are collectively disqualifying for his fitness to serve in a manner that doesn't threaten the well-being of both American citizens and the rest of the world.
The following is not aimed at any particular diagnosis. In general, diagnoses are formulated for the purposes of treatment planning and communication between mental health professionals.
Our purposes in observing the behaviors of Pres. Trump are closer to the following:
Imagine someone with a certain set of psychic characteristics arrives in one of our professional offices, carrying a lethal weapon and speaking of not understanding why it shouldn't be used.
We feel that the combined characteristics (described below) in any such armed person arriving in our office would be more than sufficient to require each of us, as practitioners, to either intervene ourselves or to have the police called to mandate psychiatric/psychological observation and/or evaluation.
The Legislature or those empowered to remove a president under the 25th Amendment — the analog of the police in the above — appears unwilling, to date, to act. And, indeed, how can they be expected to do so, without support from the Mental Health Professional Community.
Follows are the six examples I consider justification in my assessment:
- 1. He appears to be incapable of understanding and responding in an emotionally empathic way to how another feels (a tortured soldier from the Hanoi Hilton, competitors, mourning parents, a handicapped journalist, for example). In fact, he seems not to care, nor to ask to find out how these others might feel about his spoken depreciations. Rather, he acts like a bulldozer. He runs over others. He grabs what he wants. And he seems not to care what he has done to get what he wants. Winning appears to be all and his says so in more-or-less those words.
- 2. Not only does he seem to think black and white; but he thinksin a particular and typically pathological way. He splits the world into those who support him (to whom he shows support and often admiration) and those who are against him (whom he seeks to destroy).
- 3. Candidate Trump and now President Trump has not shown the ability to reflect on his impulses before acting, i.e., he presents as suffering from poor self-regulation and impulse control (e.g. Tweet storms at all hours, going off teleprompter with unfiltered rants). This is typically associated with people who lack the capacity to be in emotional contact with those who disagree with him. This appears to intrude on his capacity to remain autonomous in his emotional functioning. It is likely related to a stunted capacity to grow and/or to lead. The President is, therefore, easily overwhelmed by his emotions, absorbs anxiety from others and generates considerable anxiety within himself and others. This anxiety is often contagious, causing anxiety in many others and therefore threatening their ability to act rationally.
- 4. Mr. Trump demonstrates a willingness to destroy extant organizational and governmental structures by aggressive means. For example: NATO ... use of Nuclear Arms ... EPA ... Public Education ... a sort of Apres Moi la Deluge attitude. ... This is typical of Sociopathic Disorders of a number of types, but cannot be determined without further evaluation. It is held in place by a grandiose sense of one's own power and a coinciding disinterest in learning from others. Thus: he has secret plans for winning wars; he knows more about the economy than economists and more about war than the generals; he, alone, knows how to “Make America Great”; and anyone else's interventions and alliances with other coequal branches of government or allied countries are of no apparent value to him.
- 5. He demonstrates an apparent inability to see more than one "not unreasonable" view ... a monomania, of sorts. These views can flip (as in abortion, Iraq, attitudes towards a competitor who has capitulated, etc.) and what makes the new attitude acceptable to him might be called a "my will be done" syndrome. This is typical of the personality disorders, and more serious psychotic disorders. This is usually thought to be related to an inability to separate symbol from word, and word from action. This would be a characteristic of someone dangerous because that are in possession of a sling-shot, never mind nuclear codes.
- 6. Understand his incessant lying is more difficult to evaluate from afar. President Trump continues to display an incapacity to distinguish the real from the wished for/imagined or, else, a willingness to present distortions of the truth from truth. Whether we are speaking of Moslems dancing in Jersey City, numbers in attendance at meetings and inaugurations, illicit blocks of voters, his promise to release tax records before the election, or his many other distortions of verifiable fact … observing Mental Health Professionals cannot determine whether he is a pathological liar, delusional or a pragmatic liar (lying for his own purposes and ignoring the well-being of others.) However we assess his lying, this a trait which taken alone would give any reasonable person serious doubts about his fitness to be president.
Thus, speaking with the training to observe human behavior and recognizing that I cannot offer a definitive diagnosis except, if you would, "almost certainly unfit to carry a weapon and not leaving my office with such a weapon,” I ask Congress to act on their mandate to protect (for it can be no less than that assigned to the Executive Branch) and to take action to influence those empowered to do so to remove the President under our 25th Amendment, or to initiate impeachment.
Again, whether Donald J. Trump is suffering from Pathological or Malignant Narcissism, a Delusional Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder or some Hypomanic combination of two or more of these disorders is a concern for treatment; but not for his fitness to serve as a guardian of safety in a dangerous World.
Howard Covitz, Ph.D., Clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst.
As a clinical social worker and former mental health director I diagnosed and treated countless patients before I retired a few years ago. I diagnosed Trump, obviously from afar, as having a complex constellation of serious mental disorders making him unfit to be president starting in April. I would like to address one aspect of Trump’s mental health profile that, considering how impulsive he is and how much he enjoys bullying, this may be the most dangerous. I think he has many of the characteristics of paranoid personality disorder. It is easy to find examples of at least three of the following.
Consider this list:
The World Health Organization's ICD-10 lists paranoid personality disorder as (F60.0) Paranoid personality disorder.[7]
It is characterized by at least three of the following:
- excessive sensitivity to setbacks and rebuffs;
- tendency to bear grudges persistently, i.e. refusal to forgive insults and injuries or slights;
- suspiciousness and a pervasive tendency to distort experience by misconstruing the neutral or friendly actions of others as hostile or contemptuous;
- a combative and tenacious sense of personal rights out of keeping with the actual situation;
- recurrent suspicions, without justification, regarding sexual fidelity of spouse or sexual partner;
- tendency to experience excessive self-importance, manifest in a persistent self-referential attitude;
- preoccupation with unsubstantiated "conspiratorial" explanations of events both immediate to the patient and in the world at large.
Our conclusion is that whether you use euphemisms like unhinged to describe his behavior or psychological jargon, the bottom line is that his ingrained personality characteristics, or his mental illness makes him unfit, and even dangerous, to be president.
Hal Brown, MSW, Clinical Social Worker
Trump and his supporters stole the election as reported in The Huffington Post. That report is but the tip of the iceberg.
There is an abundance of evidence that should lead to his impeachment. Most obvious though is the gross disorganization and turmoil in his administration. It is essentially run by a former participant in the Brietbart news organization, Steve Bannon. His public apologist Kellyanne Conway is an inveterate liar almost as egregious as Trump is himself. Although he is a farce he remains in office to serve the interests of the Republican party.
Had President Obama behaved as does Donald Trump he would have been impeached within hours. Trump's egregious misconduct could easily be regarded as dereliction of duty by most standards. He is erratic, self centered, a chronic unashamed liar and sexual predator. His vile comments about women should not only embarrass him but lead to a call for his resignation. Yet, he continues in office supported by greedy politicians who seek to exploit him. He enthralls many with his crude manner and predatory treatment of women creating the impression that he is a bully who doesn't hear "No!"
That segment of our fellow citizenry whom Hillary called the "basket of deplorables" supports him. They are bullies and braggarts, ne're do wells who see in him one of them. As one of his competitors for the nomination said, "He is a chaos candidate."
He appeals though with his scorn for convention. Both a bully and boaster, a con man and a crook he refuses to release his tax returns. He ignores the emoluments clause by allowing and even encouraging his family members to literally steal money from the government.
Were I to use the diagnostic framework for psychiatrists I would diagnose him as a psychopath, a thug and predator, a con man and a "chaos" president.
He will continue to create utter havoc, stir domestic turmoil and destroy our alliances with other Nations expecting them to be cowed with his belligerence and bullying. He will succeed only in being regarded as a buffoon and a fool yet still the hero for many even though he is a con man and a crook.
As a citizen of the United States of America, a former medic in the Army reserves and a psychologist/psychoanalyst who doesn't like severe character disorders running our Nation I dearly hope he will be impeached.
Siebolt Frieswyk, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, Psychoanlysist
As a retired therapist with a Masters in art therapy and 8+ years working on psych units and locked wards, I have gained familiarity with personality disorders (sadly, most were of the parents of the teens hospitalized for suicide attempts). And I also (unfortunately) had two long, difficult encounters with Narcissistic Personality disordered employers in non-profit organizations, so I have witnessed this up close and continually. I have no doubt that Trump would be diagnosed with this disorder, and I have enough daily experience with NPD to feel certain that he will not willingly admit he’s out of his depths. Indeed, it is a symptom of NPD to lie pathologically, and to break laws to cover one’s tracks (both the bosses I had were defrauding donors for $thousands). In fact, one of the reasons I see NPD rather than dementia is that he tries to cover up — only some who knows (on some level) he’s doing wrong will work so hard to cover up.
NPD is unworkable, in the sense that you can get the person to “promise” to change — and it doesn’t happen. You can’t negotiate with someone who will change their mind the next minute. The only solution is to remove the person from power. Continual scrutiny and pressure might get him to “quit” — but he could turn around and demand to reclaim the job, without any sense of shame. He must be removed, because he is dangerously unstable. On top of that, he has the entitlement and detachment from ordinary life that most rich people have — a bad combination.
I believe his “handlers” are pushing for an autocracy at the least (dictatorship at worst) and use him as their front. But it’s like having a loaded, faulty gun. There is no way to know when it will go off, or in what direction. And by the time the damage is done, it will be too late. I suspect the Republicans have seen even worse behavior from Trump than we have, so it is a measure of their depravity that they continue to cover for such a sick man.
Cathy M.
From Overseas
And here is my conclusion. Trump is a president in a high position, which requires from him a outstanding behaviour. This is just being human, being able to listen, to have patience, to answer or even say but in a normal way, "this I do not answer”. But it is to the degree of immoral behaviour, when you make everyone around you feel like he is your opponent, even not noticing that he is trying to convey his supportive disposition to you…
So trump is just being rude, he did not have an answer on the question, had no patience or a loving ear to listen to a question brought in front of him, and by this behaviour he breaks down the self esteem of people around him, breaks their freedom of speech, causes emotional confusion and silencing the natural Will of the person next to him… The Victim on his term, living under a constant fear of this kind of terror, just obeys him, tries to avoid any collision with him, trying to keep him in a good mood…making himself into “a good Soldier” following orders… at a certain point the victim even "understands” and even pities the Patient: "it is very unfair what is been done to him and i understand why he is so defensive”, and now from soldier he even takes on the task of an understanding therapist, “understanding” that even the president is aloud to be rude, disgraceful, insulting, brutal, because the poor man is so committed, and the people who do not see that, and ask questions aggravate him and he feels hurt…
What should be researched now is the following:
Many around Trump know he can not function as a president. The main question is:
Who wants to keep him as a cover up for what they in the meantime are doing behind his back and the back of the nation, while everyone’s attention is kept on the clown having his fun show?
Who are they, and what are they doing, while our attention is held by a Malignant Narcissist who want all the attention in the world, and gets it?
Trump is for sure a danger to this world, but we also have to find those who are even more dangerous, those who are hiding behind his back and using him to hide what they are doing.
Margaret Laufer is from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 30 years working with groups and individuals on self development, also with teachers and parents: educating yourself, as basis for educating your child. She worked as therapist, wrote the book 'Concentration', working from the basis of Anthroposofie, and is what is called a healing pedagog. She is writing a medical book on the human organs in relation to the body, soul and spirit.
What I would say is that due to Trump’s pathological lying and erratic behavior he, at the very least, needs to be examined by specialists.
I'm not a US citizen and cannot vote in the States. I did, however, graduate in the States, so I care about this even more. Also, I do see this as a global issue. This man can bring us to WW3, and that's why I'm talking about this. It's a global issue and should be treated as such.
The world should put pressure on Congress, for this is beyond USA, as is clear by how many diplomatic problems Trump has already created globally.
Mateja Klaric, BA, Psychology, Grief Counselor
Slovenia
In so many of Trump's utterances about important matters, he has not only been personally ugly and oddly centred on himself, but unschooled and unrehearsed. The advantage of his being unprepared is that we see who and what he really is. The arrogance of not have things written for him - especially on occasions of great social and national importance - is one thing. What's disturbing is his paucity of knowledge and dignity. What we have is (at least) a sociopathic narcissist, and so obviously and compulsively so that he doesn't have the awareness of his own grotesque character's appearance. He has always lived and displayed himself and all he'd "created" as some sort of King - this is how he has always seen himself, and he's has the machinery of showbiz - and the skills of the same - to reach the pinnacle that all the pathologies of his childhood demanded. The emperor is increasingly on view without his clothes, and his followers seem not to be looking.
Kenny Glassman, Registered psychologist in Australia, in private practice 14 years after 16 years in public practice with NSW Health, specializing in addiction and addiction-related disorders.
Recommended reading:
The Trump Psych Debate: Is It Wrong To Say He's Mentally Ill? Forbes Dr. John Gartner counters the position of Dr. Allen Frances.
by Sherry Amatenstein LCSW Clinical Social Worker, VOX, Feb 13, 2017
