I am friggen tired of saying that the media should have mental health experts explaining the psychopathology causing aberrant dangerous to democracy behavior
By Hal Brown, MSW, Retired clinical social worker psychotherapist
Above: click to enlarge my version of RAWSTORY with image made with BeFunky showing four mentally cracked people in the news.
Once upon a time we had Dr. Joyce Brothers and Dr. Ruth Westheimer giving psychological advice to millions of American. Dr. Brothers explained general psychology as it applied to everyday life and Dr. Ruth, as she was called, focused on sex eduction. No topic was too taboo for Dr. Ruth to address.
We have no expert in psychology who regularly appears on MSNBC shows as a regular to help explain the psychopathology of public figures. The only one to do this is Lawrence O'Donnell.
Every day they have experts on the law, history, and fascism on their panels.
A notable exception in the mental health field when it comes to Donald Trump is his clinical psychologist niece, Dr. Mary Trump. Why not add a couple of regular experts to weigh in on the psychopathology evident in all figures making news who could undermine democracy?
Currently in our political milieu we have both politicians and non-politicians like Elon Musk and Ye who manifest behavior that strong suggest they suffer from a psychiatric disorder.
On the bottom of this page I am republishing a blog addressing this. I am looking at the same topic in the hope that those who missed the first blog (and others related to the issue) will not only read it but consider the RAWSTORY opening page I checked this morning. By the time you click here these stories will have moved down the page. Who knows what reports of people demonstrating to any rational person that they have so many loose screws that if they depended on them to remain upright they'd be laying flat on their backs.
The aberration of George Santos is what prompted me to reprise the subject.
Click above to enlarge image.
Here's an older RAWSTORY article which prompted me to write a blog:
A word about making a diagnosis without an actual in-person assessment: I am not going to go into depth about The Goldwater Rule in this blog. I wrote about why I don't think it applies to psychotherapists who are qualified to make a diagnosis when they believe they have a responsibility to warn the public that a person in public life represents any kind of danger to our democracy. You can read my thoughts about this on these Daily Kos stories I wrote, three of the five were written in August of 2016:
Above: click to enlarge my version of RAWSTORY with image made with BeFunky showing four mentally cracked people in the news.
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| Click above to enlarge image. |
Here's an older RAWSTORY article which prompted me to write a blog:
PSY-VU: While not breaking the letter of the Goldwater “rule ... Aug. 2013
The never-ending controversy about diagnosing Trump Aug. 2016
PSY-VU: The media finally recognizes what shrinks knew a ... Aug. 2016
A shrink musing in the morning: Trump's version of ... - Daily Kos
Trump’s psychosis has spread to Giuliani, Dershowitz, and rest of GOP: Psychiatrist Bandy Lee, Daily Kos, Jan. 2020
The normalizing of delusional sociopathic grandiose narcissism
There are myriad examples of people in the news who demonstrate by their behavior, their actions and words, that they, to put it bluntly, have one or all of their hinges so loose that if they were the door on the jam it would be hanging and about to fall.
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| Creative Commons Flickr |
I don't have to tax my brain by coming up with a list of clinically deranged people in public life. Just a look at the stories on various websites will provide many examples. A Salon article by one of my favorite columnists, Amanda Marcotte, offered a list of five:
From Elon Musk whose unhingedness knows no bounds as he tweeted "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci, a sentiment supported by said Rep. Greene who is saying that if she was in charge of the January 6th attack on the Capitol the crowd would have been armed (something that could end her in front of a grand jury), to Ye and Herschel Walker (who I wrote about here) There are numerous similar tweets from Musk strongly suggesting he is unmoored from reality and behaving in self-destructive ways.
Although I now post on Mastodon (here) I have been making some Twitter tweets to see what happens. Here's the one I made today:
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| Click above to enlarge, does not go to Twitter. Text reads: Scene which the spaceship hits the Moon's eye from the Méliès 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon" became one of the most iconic images in cinematic history. An infamous rich guy made history by being the man in the moon who sent a metaphorical rocket of his making into his own eye. |
There are enough people to be analyzed for in a PhD dissertation titled "Abnormal psychology as manifest in people in public life."
In some ways it is more disturbing to know that there are so many ordinary citizens who embrace the Big Lie and the conspiracy lunacy of QAnon. There are uncountable millions people not just in this country but around the world who, if objectively assessed by mental health professionals, would be diagnosed with one or more psychiatric conditions listed in the DSM-5.
- Binge Eating Disorder.
- Caffeine Withdrawal.
- Cannabis Withdrawal.
- Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder.
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder- DMDD.
- Hoarding Disorder.
- Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder – PMDD.
"According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), about one in five adults lives with a mental disorder (any mental illness in the US, and about one in 18 American adults has a serious mental illness. Some psychiatric conditions may be temporary, occur occasionally, and never return again." Reference includes entire list.
It should be obvious that most people with psychiatric disorders actually suffer, thus the term "suffering from" one or another disorder. There are other people who don't suffer themselves. They make people in their lives including family, friends, and co-workers, suffer. Just consider the number of books about being married to a narcissist.
Of all of these the two most relevant disorders to consider when looking at the people I am writing about are what is now called antisocial personality disorder but is often referred to by the previous name, sociopathic disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder. Some people meet enough of the criteria for having both and would be considered to be malignant narcissists. This diagnosis never made it into then DSM but in my opinion and the opinion of many mental health professionals including, notably, Dr. John D. Gartner, the founder of the Duty to Warn society, Donald Trump has this disorder. Gartner wrote about this in 2017:
Gartner is, as far as I know, the only mental health professional critical of Trump to appear on Fox News. In 2017 he was on "Watters World" in an interview which, to put it mildly, did not go well. Here's the video:
Full disclosure: Dr. Gartner and I have had a relationship since the formation of his Duty to Warn society.
Currently the media, with some notable exceptions like MSNBC which regularly has clinical psychologist Mary Trump on and others experts discussing Donald Trump, reports the behavior of Trump and people like those mentioned above as if it is normal.
I have followed the media closely since 2017 to see whether any mainstream publications addressed the issue of public figures like Trump, Taylor-Greene, Herschel Walker by interviewing mental health experts.
Salon stands out for having Chauncey DeVega who often publishes interviews with mental health experts like psychiatrist Lance Dodes like "Trump is a dangerous sociopath — but he's sane enough to stand trial" and Psychiatrist Bandy Lee says White House officials told her Trump was "unraveling".
Of course, Salon with its progressive slant, can't be considered mainstream the way USA Today can. As far as I have been able to tell USA Today is the only widely circulated publication to publish a story about Trump's dangerous psychopathology.
It is about time that the mainstream media, including publications that the far right fringe considers to be fake news like The New York Times and The Washington Post, have regular columnists who are mental health experts who can analyze the behavior of public figures based on their knowledge of personality.
It is about time dangerous psychopathology stops being normalized by the media. It must be called out for what it is.
Of course, Salon with its progressive slant, can't be considered mainstream the way USA Today can. As far as I have been able to tell USA Today is the only widely circulated publication to publish a story about Trump's dangerous psychopathology.
It is about time that the mainstream media, including publications that the far right fringe considers to be fake news like The New York Times and The Washington Post, have regular columnists who are mental health experts who can analyze the behavior of public figures based on their knowledge of personality.
It is about time dangerous psychopathology stops being normalized by the media. It must be called out for what it is.
