Since before Trump was elected, armchair psychiatrists and real professional mental health experts have been in violation of the Goldwater Rule, which in the American Psychiatric Association’s Principles of Medical Ethics states that one cannot diagnose a public person for whom one has not examined. Rasa - Since before Trump was elected, armchair psychiatrists and real professional mental health experts have been in violation of the Goldwater Rule, which in the American Psychiatric Association’s Principles of Medical Ethics states that one cannot diagnose a public person for whom one has not examined.
This goes back to Barry Goldwater who ran for president against Lyndon Johnson and was feared to be mentally challenged in part due to his war mongering positions.
Now that Mary Trump has written her book about Uncle Donald that breach has been mitigated. Although she never had the pleasure of a psychiatric sit-down with her uncle, as a trained clinical psychologist she has had first and second hand knowledge of his behavior, and probably more importantly, a greater insight into what has created the monster that resides in the US White House.
Fair to say also that she is prejudiced against him for the harm he and the family did to her father, but for so many, this accounting is a validation of their views on him.
She compares him to a three year old, ‘incapable of growing, learning, or evolving…’ We have seen this not just from the beginning of his campaign and presidency but throughout his public life. The simple act of saying you’re sorry and saying ‘yes, it was my fault’ has eluded him all throughout.
In 1989 he called for the death penalty for black teenagers falsely accused of rape of a white woman and even after exoneration he has to this day refused to acknowledge that he was wrong. All through his presidency he has rejected personal blame and put it on everyone else. The way he has totally bungled the pandemic and believes he’s the American hero in all of it shows how incredibly twisted his mind is.
Mary Trump’s tell-all book is just the latest in beating up on poor Donald. It verifies what so many have believed and gives credible examples to justify them. The narcissist in Trump says that he’s smarter than any of the experts, and challenges others in an IQ square off, but now it’s revealed that he paid someone, as a teenager, to take the SATs for him because he knew he wouldn’t do as well as necessary to get into a prestigious university, in spite of his family’s wealth.
How this will be spun by his supporters is unknown and we’ll have to wait for its publication, but it certainly puts a chink in their armor.
Myles Hoenig