[D66] Donald Trump’s Power Is Scary, Not His Mental Health

[A.O.]

https://www.thenation.com/article/donald-trumps-power-is-scary-not-his-mental-health/
	
Donald Trump’s Power Is Scary, Not His Mental Health

     By Miriam Markowitz, www.thenation.com
     View Original
     January 18th, 2017


Like most sensible Americans, I am terrified by President Trump. He 
seems to be, by my inexpert reckoning, a compulsive liar and and 
malignant narcissist. More and more psychiatrists are speaking out to 
warn of the dangers of his instability, and my guess is that you could 
find any number of disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of 
Mental Disorders (DSM) that would easily apply to him. But it would be a 
mistake—potentially a disastrous one—to go looking for them.1

It’s currently estimated that one in four Americans will suffer from a 
mental disorder in their lifetime, and those numbers are only 
increasing. Stress, economic precarity, inequality—all of these factors 
are contributing to the rise in diagnosed disorders despite 
pharmaceutical advances and better access to mental health care.2

We blame a lot of things that scare us on mental illness—gun violence, 
especially—even as we expand the scope of what those illnesses include. 
The DSM has logged nearly 200 new disorders since its first edition was 
released in 1952. But the truth is that doctors still know very little 
about mental illness. Disorders like depression are attributed to 
“chemical imbalances,” but there is no evidence that such imbalances 
exist, only that certain chemical formulations seem to mitigate the 
associated constellation of symptoms. Many drugs were discovered by 
accident rather than design; Lamotrigine, for instance, was developed to 
treat epileptic seizures, but doctors noticed it also stabilized 
patients’ moods. It is now an effective and largely safe drug prescribed 
to patients with bipolar disorder.3

We also fail, in our public conversations, to distinguish between people 
who suffer from a mental disorder and people who are actively 
experiencing a break with reality. Anybody can crack up, with or without 
a genetic predisposition towards mental distress. In the case of someone 
like Donald Trump, his privilege has kept him from being checked by 
reality. He’s surrounded himself with yes-men and children in order to 
keep anyone who might question his authority or decision-making far 
outside of his inner circle. It is likely that there is not a single 
person in his life who says no to him, and that is exactly why his mean 
and pestilent presence has grown into the strangulating mess it is today.4

Breaking norms the way Trump has done seems insane to us because we did 
not think it could happen, not because the man himself is unhinged. 
Trump seems mostly to be just as awful, vain, petty, and pathetic as he 
always has been. It’s the catastrophic power that this terrible man 
wields that seems crazy, and that is why we are panicking.5

There is also considerable danger in politicizing mental health. In 
repressive regimes, mental health is weaponized against the vulnerable. 
The classic case is Nazi Germany, where mental patients were first 
forcibly sterilized, and eventually murdered. Psychiatric abuse was used 
against dissenters in the Soviet Union, where, in 1959, Khrushchev spoke 
of those who opposed communism as psychologically “not normal.” Many 
political prisoners were interned in mental hospitals. This practice 
faded with the dissolution of the USSR, but has made a resurgence in 
Putin’s Russia: In 2012, members of the dissident band Pussy Riot were 
found to have “personality disorders” and recommended to be isolated 
from larger society.6

Malignant narcissism doesn’t disqualify Trump from the presidency. 
Politicians are often by disposition narcissistic—and if they don’t 
begin that way, they are susceptible to the inducements towards 
narcissism encoded in holding office. Trump is cognizant and competent 
enough to wreck American democracy with every silly thought in his 
tufted head, whether in heat or in whatever amounts for him as cool 
consideration. The worse he does, the more important it becomes not to 
make him an exception. He’s playing the same game as his Republican 
associates in destructive degovernance, and they will continue to wreak 
havoc even if he goes down. Trump must be held accountable as an adult 
citizen responsible for his decisions. He should be impeached on legal 
grounds, which undoubtedly will snowball the longer he remains in power.7

We must remember how many of us would fail a crude mental-health test, 
and that great politicians, including Winston Churchill and Abraham 
Lincoln, would have failed as well. And if you still like the idea of 
ousting Trump based on his mental health, imagine yourself cheering at 
his resignation. Now imagine President Pence mandating psychiatric 
screenings for un-American or antisocial behavior, first for elected 
officials and judges, then for teachers or prisoners, and then, finally, 
for you.8