Apparently a number of people in the mental health field are convinced that the “Goldwater rule” has got to go. After the 1964 election, the psychological and psychiatric professional organizations adopted a rule discouraging their members from indulging in diagnosing the mental illnesses of politicians. Some of their number had diagnosed Goldwater, and apparently someone got sued and lost. I was 14 in 1964, so I don’t pretend to have had fixed views on the subject then, but over the years I concluded that while Goldwater was extreme by the standards of the day (he would quite likely be uncomfortably to the left of many present day Republicans), if he was clinically ill, he was only, to use Social Security Disability terminology, mildly impaired. He posed a threat to the nation, but that was solely due to his views, and not a mental illness. Quite likely some of the diagnoses were the product of the fact that, for the most part, there was a broad national consensus on most issues, and Goldwater was outside that consensus. That consensus has been destroyed by the intellectual (and in some case, biological) descendants of Goldwater’s base.
Trump, on the other hand, is “markedly” to “extremely” impaired in multiple categories. Most of my mentally ill clients are far more capable of stringing together an articulate sentence than is he. Most of them are far more rational (Read his recent interview for a sample of his mental incoherence) and have far more insight into their own condition. Many of them play a bit fast and loose with the truth, but I’ve never had a client who was convinced that he could create facts simply by asserting them. On the other hand, there is a distinction between what you might call high functioning mentally ill people, such as some sociopaths and psychopaths, and low functioning types, such as people suffering from bi-polar. Trump has always been a narcissist, but he’s turned it to his advantage and he has, by at least some measures, succeeded. It makes him more dangerous than the run of the mill mentally ill person.
Anyway, some psychologists and psychiatrists are advocating abandoning the Goldwater rule in Trump’s case, proferring diagnoses such as the following:
Dr. James F. Gilligan, a senior clinical professor of psychiatry at NYU Medical School, was on next and offered that Trump’s mental unfitness had multiple causes. And before the meeting was over, the following diagnoses had been brought up: narcissism combined with a sociopathic personality, pathological lying, and paranoia, which makes him vulnerable to conspiracy theories. Anyone who doesn’t flatter him extravagantly is meant to be destroyed. He engages in exploitation and violation of the rights of others, and sometimes goes as far as sadism, with no evidence of remorse. “When you add all these elements,” Gilligan observed, “this is a class of people of whom Hitler is a member.”
via Crooks and Liars quoting Gail Sheehy at New York Magazine.
Yep, he went there, re Hitler, but you can’t argue with him on the facts.
If Trump is removed from office, and I’m not as confident about that as are many others, it will likely be through the 25th Amendment. Beyond his obvious mental illness, Trump is showing signs of dementia, and the likelihood is that if he’s removed they will sugar coat his insanity by calling it dementia.
The fact that Trump is mentally ill, and that his diagnosis is what it is, makes dealing with him difficult for his opponents and imposes a special obligation on the media. The Democrats have to oppose him without provoking him. The media has to be careful not only in its criticism, but in its praise. Given the fact that he craves adulation, it is particularly dangerous to give him positive reinforcement when he drops bombs on people. If that’s what it takes to get Fareed and his friends to like him, that’s what he’s likely to do, particularly because it’s not likely to lose him any of the nutjob friends he already has.
Post a Comment