Clinical psychologist and Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump thinks her uncle is delusional. Below is is what she wrote on her website.
I've highlighted the portion that struck me below:
I wouldn’t be shocked, either. We know my uncle is committed to re-writing the history of his attempted coup. He’s even directed Pam Bondi, his latest Attorney General nominee, to investigate the 2020 election for fraud that does not exist.
Donald is determined to force his delusions into reality, and he will use the Justice Department to help him do that.
In my clinically informed opinion as someone who worked as a psychotherapist for 40 years it isn't only delusions about the coup and his winning the election but his susceptibility to believing other things that are demonstrably untrue that shed light on his psychopathology.
This is from the Wikipedia description of delusional disorder:
Delusional disorder, traditionally synonymous with paranoia, is a mental illness in which a person has delusions, but with no accompanying prominent hallucinations, thought disorder, mood disorder, or significant flattening of affect. Delusions are a specific symptom of psychosis. Delusions can be bizarre or non-bizarre in content; non-bizarre delusions are fixed false beliefs that involve situations that could occur in real life, such as being harmed or poisoned. Apart from their delusion or delusions, people with delusional disorder may continue to socialize and function in a normal manner and their behavior does not necessarily seem odd. However, the preoccupation with delusional ideas can be disruptive to their overall lives.
Most of the severely mentally ill patients I treated or had in my program had the symptoms of their psychosis controlled with medication. One unmedicated patient I recall with a delusional disorder believed that a famous Hollywood star was in love with him and was sending him mental messages. He ended up at the airport without a ticket trying to board a plane to California insisting the star would pay for it when he arrived.
The consquences of the delusions Trump and some of his supporters seem beset with are far less benign. My client didn't try to hijack a plane. Trump and his delusional cadre of enablers want to hijack our democracy.
Of course some of these people aren't delusional. They are psychopaths. I won't name names here but those who want to inflict pain on others whether they are migrants, so-called enemies of the state, or people protesting peacefully, I am convinced that if clincally evaluated they would be diagnosed as psychopathic personalities. This is "a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, in combination with traits of boldness, disinhibition, and egocentrism. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity to stress, which create an outward appearance of apparent normalcy." (Wikipedia)
The psychopaths are people who may or may not be aware that Trump and others who he is influenced by are clinically delusional, but they are more than willing to take advantage of the fact that Trump has these false beliefs.
Combine Trump's malignant narcissism (see The malevolent magnetic malignant narcissism of Trumpworld) which includes a lack of empathy and sadism with his delusions you have a dangerous mix of psyhopathologies which ultimately will not just cause people to suffer but is likely to lead to the loss of innocent life.
As if this isn't unsettling enough add the phallocentricism of Trump and his hyper-masculine crew (see The penises on the Potomac: the country has enthroned phallocentric rule) we have the real possiblity that we will have a replay of the Kent State Masacre. (See Will it take another Kent State Massacre to convince Trump supporters that he's gone too far?)
You can read all the coments I post to articles in RawStory here
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Primary Hal Brown's Blog website is halbrown.org (if you are reading this anywhere else any additions or corrections will be at this address)
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