An Eminent Psychiatrist Demurs on Trump’s Mental State

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In this opinion piece for the New York Times, Allen Frances, chairman of the task force that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV, rejects the notion that President Trump has narcissistic personality disorder or any other mental illness.

“Most amateur diagnosticians have mislabeled President Trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. I wrote the criteria that define this disorder, and Mr. Trump doesn’t meet them. He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn’t make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.”

 

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5 COMMENTS

  1. A person has to get caught in their bad behaviour apparently, if their own consciousness lets them live with themselves.

    You are not an alcoholic if you do not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.?

    You are not a Kleptomanic if you do not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.?

    Not a pyromanic if you do not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.?

  2. Link:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder

    Quote:

    “Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), also known as dissocial personality disorder (DPD) and sociopathy, is a personality disorder, characterized by a pervasive pattern of disregard for, or violation of, the rights of others. An impoverished moral sense or conscience is often apparent, as well as a history of crime, legal problems, or impulsive and aggressive behavior.
    Antisocial personality disorder is the name of the disorder as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).”
    ……….

    Well, well… what do we know?
    The Famous Eminent Doctor Psychiatrist Allen Frances… forgot that tiny little bit. That the Allen Frances own child (the DSM), at Allen Frances own blog, he wrote at Jan 31, 2017:

    “Trump Isn’t Crazy. I wrote the DSM criteria and he doesn’t meet them”.

    link:
    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/saving-normal/201701/trump-isnt-crazy
    ……….

    And now, quote from the article at top:
    “He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn’t make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.”

    So… for Frances Trump is the example of SANITY, does not meet ANY criteria for mental illness, because Trump “does not stresses over little things”. And since Trump is hugely rich… OF COURSE… Trump is not impaired.

    On the contrary 🙂 He is very healthy (of body… written by Trump Personal doctor, and now mentally healthy (diagnosed from Frances… from a distance 🙂

  3. Give me ten cents and I will diagnose Allen Frances. The ten cents would make me a professional diagnostician. In lieu of such payment, I will withhold diagnostic judgment.

    According to Allen Frances, Donald Trump is not a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Instead he is some kind of an anti-democracy autocrat. To-may-toes, to-mah-toes. Either way, I would think that must qualify him as legally insane (i.e. a dangerous personage).

    Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, I will have you note, have availed themselves of all sorts of armchair diagnoses after the fact and posthumously. There has to be something, after all, besides plain badness that makes bad men bad.

    Let me make myself clear. I’m not diagnosing the President myself. Not for less than ten cents anyway.

  5. I would wager that 100% of the psychiatrists who would diagnose him as “mentally ill” are democrats. And that those who would not diagnose him are republicans. Just as a prosecutor can make a ham sandwich look guilty, a psychiatrist can interpret any psychiatric data in such a way to fulfill whatever outcome he seeks.