Duty to inform
A clinical psychologist argues that we need to set aside the bouquet of armchair diagnoses of Trump and settle on the one overriding diagnosis that captures it all.
I invited Dr. Greenwood, who is a clinical psychologist and founder of The Washington Center For Cognitive Therapy, to answer a few questions. In addition to his presence o[n] Medium, he has just launched a new website, dutytoinform.org. You can follow him on Twitter at @dutytoinform.
The first question is why do we need one overarching diagnosis.
Mental health professionals have offered several diagnoses of the president. They have done so usually to warn the public about his psychiatric vulnerabilities and dangerousness. They want to engage the public in a serious argument. And to be fair, the president does appear to meet diagnostic criteria for more than one disorder. However, by offering multiple diagnoses of the president, the impact and understanding of a particular diagnosis is compromised. Information overload kicks in, and people tune out.
Also, a more severe diagnosis deserves to be emphasized.
And that more severe diagnosis is…dude’s a psychopath.
The first core trait of the Psychopath is the “Drive to Dominate.” How does that manifest in Trump’s behavior in life, business and politics? I’m guessing it also explains his attitude to Black Lives Matter protesters?
Yes, the drive to dominate is one of the driving forces of the psychopath. They cannot lovingly connect with others, and can only relate to others through the gear of domination. “Winning,” as Trump endlessly repeats, is everything. Nestled within this cluster of traits are arrogance, deceitfulness, and attention-seeking.
And there’s nothing in column B. Literally nothing.
Trump’s bandwidth of emotions are limited to those associated with his drive to dominate others and prevail over his critics: anger, contempt, jealousy, feeling thwarted, mistrust, glee. These are the emotions depicted in the well-researched biographies of the man and his autobiographical writings. He is devoid of the more tender emotions that could engender solidarity, trust, or empathy.
That’s the creepy bit. That’s what makes it impossible to ignore him.
And it’s what his millions of fans like about him. That’s a fact about the US now, and it’s one we’ll never live down.
The second core trait is “Remorselessness.” Again, how does that apply to Trump?
Remorselessness is perhaps the most consequential trait in the man. Psychopaths appear to be born with brain abnormalities that lead to a deficit in conscience and empathy. Our conscience—that inner voice of “I should”—motivates us to meet our obligations and commitments to both those we love and the broader community. When this fundamental concern for others is missing, what’s left is a focus on immediate, egocentric gains.
And a terrible terrible person.
If psychologists “want to engage the public in a serious argument “ then they need to have a good idea of where the public is when they start. And my guess is that the general public hears the word “psychopath” and thinks “serial killer.”
I agree with Dr. Greenwood. But I doubt that it’s going to be possible to both change people’s minds about what a “psychopath” is and convince them that a Trump is one of them. Once they hear “he’s a serial killer,” they’ll dismiss it as tit-for-tat against Q-Anon or the like.
This is probably even more scary than Trump being a psychopath. Many of these millions are our neighbors; for some of us, they are our family. They are deeply devoted to ideals that are so anathema to liberty and equality that they may be psychopaths themselves. I suspect some of them are; others may be borderline personality, and others just plain garden variety assholes.
Too many people get their ideas about psychological disorders from movies and lurid novels, as well as tabloid press. I don’t know how you break through that. It’s like “loner”. All sorts of people who just don’t like a lot of people around are also viewed as likely serial killers, only restrained for now.
Yes, that seems highly plausible.
Ironically enough, Trump is a serial killer at this point, thanks to his brutally reckless dismissal of the pandemic.
I’ve long thought, even before 2016 in an apolitocal sense, that the rate of psychopathy and sociopathy in the general population is far higher than we recognize or admit. And I’ve also thought, since 2016, that the reason Trump’s supporters like him so much is that he does represent them and their interests quite well. I’m not sure I’ve ever really gelled those two thoughts together until iknklast’s comment above, though.
At last at last psychopaths are getting the respect they deserve.
There’s a joke in here somewhere about how the party of obsessive hatred of socialism is also the party of antisocial personality disorders
OB @ #3
My thought exactly. DJT is a multiple murderer. Premeditated murder with malice aforethought.
not sure about the other organizations “dutytoinform” suggest supporting, but The Lincoln Project doesn’t need any further cash. Yes, it’s slamming the drumpff, but only because he’s not their puppet:
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2020/08/29/the-future-history-of-rat-effing/