Re: Is the new president mentally ill?

Posted by Steve Smith on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Is-the-new-president-mentally-ill-tp7588635p7588644.html

Carter -

I found the article an excellent addition to this discussion.

Instead of continuing the fruitless "disease" argument, we should address these questions directly. Taking a determinist consequentialist position allows us to do so more effectively. We should blame and stigmatize people for conditions where blame and stigma are the most useful methods for curing or preventing the condition, and we should allow patients to seek treatment whenever it is available and effective.

Unfortunately It would appear that blame and stigma are not effective with our president elect who is a brand, who is an empire, who is an icon of narcissistic abuse of others.  I would also appear that he would not accept, much less seek treatment.  I believe this is what makes him "Teflon"... his complete denial (or unawareness) of there being a problem.   "The right way, the wrong way, the Trump way" prevails.  Our new "Narcissist in Chief" is about to take his throne, and as long as he has many subjects to worship him, he will remain there.

While "the Donald" IS the imminent delivery mechanism of our (potentially devastating) undoing,  it is his myriad supporters from many (expected and not) walks of life who might need treatment or stigmatization.   The "elites" and "bleeding heart liberals"  would be the ones under equal scrutiny about now, had "the Hillary" squeeked into office he way the Donald did.

I believe we are a nation (world) at risk of collapsing under our own Neuroses.  I offer the Buddhist concept that we all see the world as we choose to, roughly in one of the four categories:  "World as Battleground;  World as Trap;  World as Lover; World as Self".   I have aligned myself modestly with the "elites and bleeding hearts" to the extent that they tend to choose the latter 2 over the former and avoid the "self righteous right" and "knee jerk conservatives" for *their propensity* to frame everything as Battleground and Trap.  My support of Hillary and Obama broke down where they lapsed too far into Battleground/Trap.

I hope that the "Million Woman March" coming up carries more of the Lover/Self than the Battleground/Trap.  Women (and many others) have good reason to see the Trump Ascendency as a Trap and a Call to Arms, but I believe confrontation alone only propagates the problem.  

After a bad trauma, radical debridement or cauterization, even amputation are often called for.  Ultimately it is the wound/surgery aftercare and systemic support that returns the patient to vital health.   The "make America Great Again" crowd do not nurture nor support, it just isn't in their kit.  The nurturers of our culture need to remain ready to do what we do as the self-limiting (but possibly huge) damage comes to it's logical conclusion.

Carry On,
 - Steve

http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_questions_about/

Seriously, what's the point of diagnosing him?

On Jan 10, 2017 11:55 PM, "Jochen Fromm" <[hidden email]> wrote:

I posted this on Google+, since we have a lot of psychologists here you might be interested too?

Psychologists, therapists and mental health professionals seem to be fascinated and terrified alike by the new president who has not only become a brand, but is nothing but a brand:

1. he seems to be a textbook case of a narcissistic personality disorder
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-greene/is-donald-trump-mentally_b_13693174.html

2. he was elected although he imitates the behavior of an massive Internet troll
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-embodied-mind/201701/unified-theory-trump

3. he displays a total lack of honesty and truth-telling
http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/

All DSM-5 criteria of a narcissistic personality disorder seem to be fulfilled. Should we be worried? What do you think? He shows a clear need for instant retaliation if someone criticizes him, which is obviously some form a narcissistic rage. It is clearly more than a self-serving bias, and such a deep personality disorder is not harmless at all. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias

The problem is he is in a position where he can pull the strings now, as the commander in chief of the most powerful army. The US has about 2000 nuclear weapons on high alert, and there is a soldier with the nuclear football following the president at all times. What could go wrong?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_football

-Jochen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove