By Hal Brown, MSW (Retired psychotherapist — bio.)
Introduction
I initially tried to figure out if Marjorie Taylor Greene fit into any diagnostic category. She is unlike Trump who gave therapists ample evidence to come up with a diagnosis without our needing any kind of in-person assessment. She doesn't meet the criteria for having a psychotic delusional disorder. She may have some traits of an anxiety disorder. The DMS is not the be all and end all of diagnosis as it not including malignant narcissism proves. How do we diagnose someone who is convinced of the things members of QAnon believe? Clearly there is something amiss with their reality testing. How do we understand it clinically? Generally therapists want to have some notion of what underlying psychodynamics are at work in their clients to cause beliefs and behaviors that distress them or in some case others. If I saw her as a client it would mean she came to me because something was bothering her. I'd want to have her describe just HOW it was bothering her. I wrote this article assuming she was experiencing anxiety.
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Marjorie Taylor Green is disparaged for her loony beliefs in conspiracies. While they may seem delusional and could be an aspect of a serious mental disorder, if not with her very possibly with a number of other people in the QAnon group, it is also seems that she may be truly anxious about these things being true. If so she might benefit from so therapy.
Her feeling she needs to carry a gun to protect herself when there is no chance of her needing it suggests that despite her bluster underneath there is a feeling of vulnerability and anxiety.
Yes, she is a mean spirited person and has no empathy for those who it is she who makes anxious. Therapists are like doctors who must treat the most evil of patients to the best of their ability.
If Marjorie convinced me to come out of retirement and came to me for therapy it wouldn’t be my job to change her political views or to inspire her to empathize with those who she has made anxious.
My job would be to treat her disorder. If she insisted that I merely helped her to feel better I would tell her that she’d have to find another therapist because to do that I would have to reinforce beliefs that might be false, or pathological. I would explain that my role included helping her to discern what was real from what wasn't real. I’d explain that she worried a lot and this was a sign of anxiety and that if I could treat it, while there were no guarantees, there was a good chance she would feel better.
One of the beliefs I would address first is the Jewish space laser theory in part because it is the easiest to disprove.
Here’s the Facebook post (since deleted) that started it all (click here to enlarge):
Here’s more about it:
The Camp Fire was a horrific California wildfire that started on November 8, 2018, and, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, “burned a total of 153,336 acres, destroying 18,804 structures and resulting in 85 civilian fatalities and several firefighter injuries. The Camp Fire is the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history.” After an investigation, the department “determined that the Camp Fire was caused by electrical transmission lines owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E) located in the Pulga area.” Scientists have noted that climate change has worsenedwildfires in places like California.
Conspiracy theorists have pushed other explanations for the Camp Fire, especially on social media. One theory, which has been promoted by QAnon followers, falsely posits that a nefarious entity used laser beams or a similar instrument to start the fire for financial profit or to clear space for California’s high-speed rail system.
Rep. Greene is a proponent of the Camp Fire laser beam conspiracy theory. She wrote a November 17, 2018, Facebook post -- which is no longer available online -- in which she said that she was speculating “because there are too many coincidences to ignore” regarding the fire, including that then-California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) wanted to build the high-speed rail project and “oddly there are all these people who have said they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires.” She also speculated that a vice chairman at “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm” was somehow involved, and suggested the fire was caused by a beam from “space solar generators.”
Greene added: “If they are beaming the suns energy back to Earth, I’m sure they wouldn’t ever miss a transmitter receiving station right??!! I mean mistakes are never made when anything new is invented. What would that look like anyway? A laser beam or light beam coming down to Earth I guess. Could that cause a fire? Hmmm, I don’t know. I hope not! That wouldn’t look so good for PG&E, Rothschild Inc, Solaren or Jerry Brown who sure does seem fond of PG&E.” from Media Matters
Consider how anxious she’d be if there really was a a Jewish space laser which could be targeted at her like I depicted happening in my illustration.
I found an article that explained the details about the actual space laser. The title, Owner of 'Jewish Space Laser' Hits Back at Marjorie Taylor Greene Claim it Started California Wildfire, in this article is harsh.
It is all to easy to mock her for this. Compared to other conspiracy theories, like saying the Parkland shooting was staged, this is a benign but outlandishly colorful belief. Some of the tweets in this article mock her, for example:
If Marjorie was my client I’d want to show her the following from this article. I’d want to demonstrate to her that I took her belief seriously as I did her anxiety about it, that I considered her to be an intelligent person who was able to grasp the technology of space lasers, and that I could understand why thinking they existed and were in the wrong hands might make her nervous.
But, as Solaren — the company behind the supposed galactic weapon pointed out on Friday — the self-declared bibliophile clearly didn't read everything about the project.
For one, Solaren hasn't quite gotten to the launching satellites into space stage yet.
Secondly, the contract between Solaren and PG&E dissolved in 2015 — three years before the fires started — because they were never able to generate the financing for it.
Thirdly — as the article Greene referenced clearly stated — the theoretical satellites would convert the solar energy to radio waves before transmitting them to Earth... which are both harmless and invisible, thus making them the unlikely source of those blue laser beams, much less the cause of any fires.
Thanks to their newfound viral fame, the company was forced to explain that its satellites — which do not even exist yet — "cannot" be weaponized.
"Solaren uses a different technology than described in the Facebook post, as we do not transmit power via lasers," it patiently explained. "Solaren uses radio frequencies to transmit power from Earth Orbit to a Receiving Station on Earth. Radio frequencies are what cell phones, radios and satellites use to transmit their signals."
"The Facebook post infers that lasers or blue beams of light caused the fires to erupt. As Solaren Space Solar does not use lasers for power transmissions, the described light phenomena 'as seen by witnesses in 2018' nor the fires could ever have been caused by Solaren Solar Power Satellites either then or in the future."
I don’t know whether the company founder Gary T. Spirnak is Jewish or not. I suppose he could be. I wouldn’t bring that up with Marjorie, nor would I mention that got an MS in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the University of Delaware where President Biden earned his BA before he went to Syracuse for his law degree.
How much would I charge Marjorie for her sessions? I think offering her free sessions might be seen as an insult or make her think I had ulterior motives for treating her, so I would ask her what she thought was a fair amount and this is what I’d charge her.
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Related: GOP will remain in the ‘wilderness’ if it makes Marjorie Taylor Greene the face of their party: Wall Street Journal editorial