It’s absolutely fair that President Joe Biden’s age is a campaign issue. But we must also talk about Donald Trump’s various mental disorders.
|
Listen to this story  |
We periodically point out that Donald Trump suffers from serious mental illness. From pathological liar to classic example of malignant narcissism, the former president presents a set of disorders that, under other circumstances, might not land him in an institution, but would certainly warrant some form of treatment.
So why aren’t we talking about it?
The GOP appears determined to make President Joe Biden’s age an issue in the upcoming election (even though Trump is only four years younger), which is entirely appropriate in light of the fact that the outgoing president would be 86 years at the end of a second term.
It’s important that experts — rather than Fox News pundits, who interpret every one of Biden’s verbal slips as a sign of advanced dementia — weigh in on this topic. After all, being president is a stressful and very demanding job, so is it possible for an octogenarian to do it well? It’s a valid question, and it seems like voters deserve an answer.
But they should also know if one of the candidates is most likely completely crazy.
Yet even though Biden’s age is a legitimate topic, not only in right-wing media but also among mainstream media, Trump’s mental health, or lack thereof, is largely a taboo subject, even though this is a much bigger problem.
Most journalists have no problem mentioning Biden’s age (and it bears repeating that it’s a perfectly legitimate concern as long as their conclusions are supported by facts). Yet these same journalists fail to explain to their audiences when Trump does or says something completely insane, aside from calling some of his most outrageous speeches “rants” or saying that the former president is “unbalanced”. But these are buzzwords and not a serious attempt to demonstrate that Trump is, to put it simply, crazy.
A big part of the reason the former president’s mental health is no longer a topic of conversation is something called Goldwater Rule of the principles of medical ethics of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). He states that “it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion (on a person’s mental health) unless he has conducted an examination and received the appropriate authorization for such a declaration.”
This may seem fair in most circumstances, but it is arguably even less ethical to allow a seriously mentally ill person to become president – particularly if that mental illness could negatively impact his performance, which has was undoubtedly the case during Trump’s first term.
After all, there are exceptions to attorney-client privilege; for example, a lawyer is permitted to disclose relevant information if it will prevent death or serious injury.
Another part of the problem is that as a society we don’t talk about mental health much and these disorders aren’t as easy to diagnose as physical illnesses.
If an x-ray reveals a fracture, the bone is broken; a biopsy showing malignant cells is clear evidence of cancer. In these cases, no doctor will disagree with another doctor’s diagnosis.
The situation is somewhat different in the case of mental illness, particularly in mild or mild cases which may give rise to interpretations or differences of opinion.
For example, it takes a special type of person – especially someone who thinks very highly of themselves – to decide that they want to become president of the United States. Therefore, every commander in chief probably has a narcissistic streak.
However, there is nothing benign about Trump’s narcissism.
Trump, a textbook case. Look for it!
The Mayo Clinic website lists 13 symptoms for narcissistic personality disorder, plus eight others that describe how narcissists react to criticism.
Keep in mind that displaying any number of them can make you a narcissist, but we challenge anyone to look at this list of 21 symptoms and find even a handful. don’t do it apply to Trump.
This is an impossible task for any impartial person.
This is precisely why the former president’s mental health must be part of the national conversation. Voters need to know what a person with this disorder (and others) in a position of power is capable of, just as they need to know whether an 82-year-old (or 78-year-old, for that matter) , can withstand the rigors of the presidency for four years.
And it’s not just his malignant narcissism and compulsive lies. Look for APA symptoms for “sociopathy”, and it’s hard not to think of Trump.
But who is really looking for definitions of “malignant narcissism” or “sociopathy”? Obviously not enough people.
And this is where it would be useful for mental health professionals to speak out. They might point out that Trump is the epitome of several serious disorders. And then, responsible journalists might cite these opinions when writing about the former president’s latest rant or wave of lies.
In fact, most stories about him should include this information, for example:
“Former President Donald Trump, who experts say suffers from mental illness…”
“As usual, Trump, a diagnosed compulsive liar, failed to stick to the truth in his remarks…”
“Due to his malignant narcissism and sociopathy, Trump caused enormous damage during his first term, and experts say he has only gotten worse since. »
Certainly, it would have been better to have had these conversations eight years ago. Take his narcissism, for example. People like Trump need adulation and attention, just like ordinary people need oxygen.
You probably couldn’t have prevented the adulation of his staunchest supporters, but you could have deprived the former president of much of the attention he so desperately craves.
Instead, bottom-line-minded media executives showered him with billions of dollars in free airtime, constituting one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice in history.
Today we can’t do anything about what happened eight years ago, but it’s high time experts looked into Trump’s mental state and how it would endanger states -United if he were elected again.
