Below are snippets I chose from the Salon article
which is an interview of psychoanalyst Justin Frank, MD by Chauncey DeVega. Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than 40 years of experience in psychoanalysis. He is the author of the bestselling books “Bush on the Couch” and “Obama on the Couch.” His most recent book is “Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.
This article goes far deeper into the mind of Trump than just describing the symptoms of malignant narcissism and other psychiatric disorders which he exhibits. Because Justin Frank is a psychoanalyst he does’t just look at manifest behaviors to determine a diagnosis in order to formulate a treatment plan. In fact some psychoanalysts don’t believe they need to make a diagnosis, or at least not one you’ll find in the DSM-5, to treat a patient.
Most modern psychoanalysts believe that childhood parental influences and experiences are vitally important to personality development and in some instances psychopathology.
Frank brings the clinical acumen of a psychoanalyst to understanding what makes Trump tick. He discusses more than what Donald Trump is, he addresses why he is what he is.
“As psychoanalysts we understand how one of the things that makes for a certain kind of mental pathology is a hatred of reality and an attack on thought. Donald Trump hates reality.…. there are so many different factors psychologically and emotionally that are involved with his behavior that to really understand Donald Trump would mean that you would understand of all of psychiatry...”
I hope that reading just these select excerpts, a few of which I few shortened to make the point, will prompt some of your to read the full interview. You can also listen to the audio.
My emphasis added:
- Trump is against any kind of rules or regulation. He sees everything as a kind of psychological straitjacket.
- Donald Trump is a prisoner — on an unconscious level — of his father.
- Donald Trump probably has the lowest frustration tolerance of any president I have ever witnessed.
- It is very hard for most people to accept that Donald Trump is not normal, because it is such an unusual situation. He doesn’t believe in rules. Not ever…. Donald Trump is like a two-year-old child.
- As psychoanalysts we understand how one of the things that makes for a certain kind of mental pathology is a hatred of reality and an attack on thought. Donald Trump hates reality.
- (When Trump says) “I don’t have a racist bone in my body!” Trump means it.
- The problem with Trump is that, first of all, there are so many different factors psychologically and emotionally that are involved with his behavior that to really understand Donald Trump would mean that you would understand of all of psychiatry….(for example: paranoia, sociopathy, sadism, grandiosity, malignant narcissism….
- Donald Trump actually hates loving families. He hates a deep connection between mothers and children. …. Donald Trump hates mothers and children. He cannot control those feelings. Therefore Trump’s goal is to separate mothers and children. he wants to punish them.
- Other people identify with the aggressor, the abuser. This is what Donald Trump did. He became cruel, like the parent, as a way of protecting himself from his own anxiety.
- (If he wasn’t president) Donald Trump would either be a gang leader or some version of Al Capone. Trump would likely be a mob boss.
- Donald Trump’s father always wanted him to be a killer. So psychologically Donald Trump functions like a killer — but he doesn’t kill directly.
As I have said quite a few times, when it comes to beating Trump it is wise to heed this quote from “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu:
You can bet that psychological profilers from both our allies and adversaries have a cadre of the best psychological experts analyzing Donald Trump.
Not just overseas: the editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” Bandy Lee, even met with Democratic members of Congress to help them understand how dangerous he is. Does anybody reading this doubt that career members of government agencies from the CIA to the State Department to the USDA haven’t read “The Dangerous Case...” in order to better understand the man who is undermining their efforts to do their jobs?
Any nation, friend or foe, wants to be able to predict Trump’s behavior. Our adversaries and most likely our friends want to figure out the best way to manipulate him. I would also bet that they all have copies of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” (here’s an interview with editor Bandy Lee, MD) and Justin Frank’s “Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President — or for the Russians scanning the Internet, «Опасный случай Дональда Трампа» и «Трамп на кушетке: в голове у президента» Someone in Russia is reading my little blog (see insert from my statistics).
Dr. John Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn and two Hollywood producers are completing a documentary which will further inform and enlighten people as to why Donald Trump is mentally unfit to be president, both mentally unfit and dangerous. Here’s more about it.
We already know that Trump is a dangerous dictator wanna-be, a white nationalist, an admirer of ruthless autocrats who operate unfettered by constitutional law, and someone who has so far broken the law with impunity. This justifies impeachment. His mental impairment justifies removal under the 25th Amendment. History will judge the Republicans harshly if Trump is allowed to finish his term.
Depending on the extent of damage he has done historians will judge him unmercifully as the president who came close to destroying our democracy, our place in the community of free nations, and the planetary ecosystem.