Trump Psychosis

I have refrained from writing about the perfect storm South of the Border since most people will not find anything new in what I have to say and others (American Republicans) will simply deny whatever I say for reasons that inspire this essay.

There are three mental health issues that center around Trump but cannot be "blamed" on him. Not entirely.

But let me start with Trump himself. He is plainly a malignant narcissist - a condition that has progressed into psychosis as he is backed into a corner by the self-evident gap between the world he lives in and the world the rest of us are stuck with. Building an alternate universe is the very definition of psychosis, but psychosis is a symptom not a "disease". It is linked to all kinds of underlying conditions. Nor is "psychosis" the end of the story with Trump. For example, he exhibits an astonishing willingness to sacrifice thousands of lives to serve his purpose (whatever that is). This puts him in the company of such twisted personalities as Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, and Pol Pot. You really need a new name for these guys. There is one aspect of Trump's personality that is particularly dangerous. For lack of a better term, we can call it "charisma". It's the showman - the P. T. Barnum. Trump has built his public persona as a show business personality - a "talking head" - and he's good at it. He is very good at attracting attention to himself and instinctively goes for "outrage". He knows that flat-out bullshit and outright denial of the facts will get him attention. He loves our outrage. We hate him but we still watch.

The second issue has to do with Trump supporters, who also exhibit an easily recognized psychosis, namely a persistent denial of reality along with a fierce defense of this delusional world. They talk in conspiracy theories, bumper stickers, and catchphrases, moving rapidly from one to another to avoid getting into specifics. There are too many to list but "the Russia Hoax" is one. This is a straightforward denial of widely known facts and a simple mouthing of what Trump claims. They feel that Trump was "framed", not impeached and he was proclaimed innocent, proving all the charges were a Democratic plot. What ties all this together is a shared "alternate fact" universe that is deeply held and aggressively defended. There is no way to talk to these people and that's the way they like it. It's the inappropriate emotional intensity that marks this as psychosis and not a "widely held opinion".

Of course, it is dangerous for the President of the United States to be clinically insane and even more dangerous that a significant portion of Americans shares a psychosis of their own. It's frightening to see followers of a political party swallow the whole package, for example, defending imprisonment of babies in diapers to prove the depth of their faith.

The third problem kept me awake the night Trump was declared President and it persists. That is the panic among sane Americans as Trump's invincibility and ever-expanding criminality grow. While perfectly justified, this tends to take the spotlight off of truly scary issues that are only indirectly connected with Trump, if at all. It is not all about Trump! Any of the following issues would be on the front page if not for Trump's daily clown show.

• Nuclear power plants and the nuclear arsenal are, like hospitals, understaffed as large numbers of irreplaceable people don't report to work or die. If we have learned anything from the past it is that nuclear power plants ride a razor's edge. Minute by minute expert attention is required.  Of course, Trump has torn up the "Open Sky" treaty to remove the best defense we have against accidental nuclear war.
• By muzzling the CDC, Trump has not only crippled Amerian response to the virus but crippled the ability of the world to fight catastrophe. The CDC has lead the fight against pandemic for decades. We know how to fight these things, but by pushing aside the CDC, Trump has guaranteed millions of needless deaths worldwide.
• For most of the population of Earth, starvation not the infection is the issue. By obsessing over state by state epicurves and lifting of restrictions, we ignore places that at completely defenseless against what amounts to a modern plague.
• Happy talk from politicians in general papers over the need to prepare for a world-wide depression while the virus becomes "endemic". There is no evidence that we will mount the kind of worldwide defense against the virus that will make it "go away". We are still fighting polio even though we have a vaccine.
• Obsolete monetary theories, especially among American conservatives and the European Union threaten to trap the economy in a depression for decades. We can't "borrow our way out of this". Worry about how we can "afford" to keep people from starving to death mirrors Canadian politics that literally starved people to death until we were "saved" by World War II.

I could list a dozen more. The key is to follow the news on the BBC rather than American outlets. Of course, BBC spends 3/4 of its time on British scandals and puff pieces, but it does make an attempt to cover worldwide news. 

-- Postscript January 2021 (Trump defeated)

The New York Times provided an overview of Q-Anon and the impact of Trump's loss. My reaction was to remark at how individual Q-Anon believers go through an experience that looks very similar to my own experience with mania shading into psychosis. Symptoms of this disorder include:

• Hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that are not there)
• Delusions (false beliefs)
• Incoherent or nonsense speech.
• Inappropriate behaviors for the situation.
• Depression.
• Anxiety.
• Sleep problems.
• Social withdrawal.

The interviews in the above piece provide insight into some of the less-obvious symptoms, including social withdrawal, evident in Trump supporters in general (the "skunk at the picnic" effect). We also see depression and anxiety in some of the Q's facing the total collapse of the Q view of history. The attack on the Capital on January 6 must certainly be classified as "inappropriate behaviors for the situation".

Whatever your definitions,  millions of Americans take Q-Anon seriously enough to engage in violent, illegal behavior believing in the righteousness of their cause. If we characterize this frame of mind as "crazy", even though millions suffer from it, we must think about what we mean by "crazy". Just exactly when do we become worried about bizarre beliefs when believers start to act like this, severing ties with friends and family who express concern about the mental health of believers?

P.S. Scientific American article on the subject