I have seen people claim that Trump has “a personality disorder” and this annoys the hell out of me.
First of all, you don’t mean “a personality disorder”. There are lots and lots of different personality disorders and most of them Trump obviously doesn’t have. For instance, he probably isn’t avoidant (characterized by feelings of inferiority, extreme sensitivity to criticism, and a tendency to avoid social interaction even though they are unbearably lonely). It is also quite unlikely that he’s schizoid (characterized by being solitary, secretive, and apathetic, although having a rich fantasy life). I’m also going to guess he doesn’t have obsessive compulsive personality disorder (characterized by being perfectionistic, obsessed with following rules, and a compulsion to make lists and schedules). What you mean is “a cluster B personality disorder”, aka the asshole cluster.
(I’m cluster B, I can say that.)
Second, we simply do not have enough information to diagnose Trump with anything. It’s true that Trump’s behavior is consistent with a cluster B personality disorder. It’s also consistent with bipolar I, an addiction to cocaine or amphetamines, delusional disorder grandiose type, and being an enormous dickbag with a poor brain-to-mouth filter surrounded by sycophants. If I were Trump’s therapist, I would have access to certain information, such as whether he is currently a cocaine user, that we as members of the public simply do not have.
Third, who cares? Trump is an impulsive and criminal person. We do not know if he is an impulsive and criminal person because of bipolar I, a cluster B personality disorder, substance abuse, a delusional disorder, or just happening to be a person who is impulsive and criminal with no diagnosable mental illnesses at all. Would it somehow be a good thing that we have elected an impulsive and criminal president if it turned out he was impulsive and criminal because he has bipolar I? Would we be like “wow, no problems here”? Of course not. That’s ridiculous. The problem is Trump’s behavior, not the mental health conditions that may or may not have caused it.
It seems to me that the most parsimonious explanation of many people’s diagnoses of Trump are not that they enjoy speculating about the mental health conditions of celebrities. (Which is a fun game. I personally am a big fan of the Ted Cruz Is Autistic theory.) If they did, they would probably specify which personality disorder he has, probably some people would be speculating about bipolar I as well, and their speculations would be tinged with empathy for the struggle that people with personality disorders go through. It is because they are using “personality disorder” as a symptom for “evil incomprehensible monster.” As a person with a personality disorder, I object to this.
Thing of Things 
With no irony at all: saying “Trump has a personality disorder” gives people with personality disorders a bad name.
Or more precisely: the fact that “Trump has a personality disorder” is intended as an insult means that the speaker lacks respect for me.
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legit talk: it does matter if he has a disorder, because it affects the predictions you can make about how he’ll behave in the future. it seems to be like he legitimately has narcissistic personality disorder, and tools for dealing with that will be useful for dealing with him, for anyone who has impact on him. I also think NPD is something of an exception as disorders go, because underneath it’s just intense anxiety, but it’s anxiety in a self reinforcing trap of powerful coping mechanisms that prevent improvement and hide the problem. the last thing someone with NPD would do is let themselves be vulnerable enough to admit the possibility of them having NPD, which is a huge problem and on the one hand makes it difficult to verify, but on the other makes it next to impossible to treat, short of secretly dosing them on large amounts of SSRIs or etc.
like, people are being tribal and awful about this, and also Trump probably has one of the hardest personality disorders to deal with as an uninvolved party, and that does actually matter.
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If “has a disorder” improves our predictions about his actions and responses better than knowing only the history we used to form the diagnosis, it’s a useful tool.
But I don’t think it does. And without being specific as to which DDM diagnosis we make, I am certain that “disorder” doesn’t give us any more predictive power.
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I have to agree with this. Sometimes in my life I think “that person is a narcissist” or on one occasion “that guy’s a sociopath” and I’m not doing it to judge them, or sneer at them, but to be able to predict their behaviour, and understand how I can most effectively work with or socialise with them, or indeed protect myself from them. I’ve found it very useful.
I’m not making predictions about Donald Trump, I find it all a bit too depressing to contemplate and I haven’t informed myself on any of the issues. But if I was going to, I would definitely start from the presumption that Trump has NPD and use that as part of the basis of my predictions.
Actually, I just thought of one semi-prediction that even someone as uninformed as I am can make based on my presumption that Trump is a narcissist. I predict Putin is able to manipulate the shit out of Trump. Trump will be putty in his hands. It’s only a semi-prediction because I have no idea how that would be measured.
(Prediction is also based on the presumption that Putin is a sociopath. Sociopaths can be terrifyingly good at manipulating narcissists.)
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Should add that in saying this I am not defending using “personality disorder” as a kind of mindless slur, and probably the latter happens more.
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On the Putin prediction: I think we can already see that starting to happen. Putin has made Trump a few compliments, and Trump seems to like him way more than justified in return.
My theory is that the most important thing for Trump is to look as if he’s winning, and as long as Putin gives him that, he can get away with whatever the hell he wants. Which may be related to narcissism, but doesn’t have to be.
And Putin is a smart guy who manipulated people for a living. He’s going to milk this opportunity for all it’s worth.
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Criminal seems a bit harsh, but I’ll certainly give you impulsive.
I’m also a huge fan of not caring why people do stuff. Everyone wants to make excuses. “I’ve got a temper”. “I’ve got a disorder”.
Love the Ozy approach, “Don’t care. Fly straight or else.”
Right on.
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This seems like a textbook case of ‘othering’.
Basically, some people want to have an excuse for opposing anything that Trump does out of hand. People do this in politics a lot anyway, but it is easier if you dehumanize someone.
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I’ve never seen anyone make the generic accusation of “has a personality disorder.” I’ve seen “narcissistic personality disorder” specifically (frequently) and “possibly ADHD” (less frequently.
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Do you think bipolar I is very likely? I haven’t seen his behavior as particularly episodic. His regular public appearances would be an Olympic task if he had major depressive episodes. Of course you can be bipolar without ever having depressive episodes. Even then, doesn’t the manic episode end eventually for a little while? if there is fluctuation evidence then I will increase my credence for the bipolar I hypothesis.
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Thanks for this. I’ve been going around thinking “Trump is obviously a sociopath” while simultaneously telling people off for claiming that Trump is a sociopath because diagnosing famous people from a distance is easy and irresponsible. I’d honestly missed the point that the symptoms matter more than the condition.
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Besides, Trump doesn’t look like a sociopath to me. He’s just an asshole who lies a lot. But he also cares a lot about praise and approval, which is quite untypical for sociopaths.
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Chiming in with the theme of “all the speculation I’ve seen has been about NPD in particular rather than an unspecified personality disorder”.
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I almost never start out by saying Trump has a personality disorder. What happens is, I start by saying, “Trump is a narcissist”, because that English word seems to be an extremely good tool for predicting his behavior. *Then*, someone who is a Trump supporter, has a diagnosed personality disorder, or both, comes back at me that “narcissist” is a clinical term that I shouldn’t be allowed to use without an official diagnosis (which, of course, will never, ever come), and I have to defend my choice of vocabulary by pointing out that it hews pretty close to the features on the NPD checklist.
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I enjoyed this post , it’s never been for me about his mental health, the last four years have helped me avoid that trap, nor do his politics offend, because not everyone has to believe as I do. He is an arsehole and is irresponsible and labelling it, or normalising it doesn’t change what he will do. He will do what serves his ego and interests and not his constituents.
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So far. Growth mindset.
>tfw Evan leaks out of Facebook into the blogosphere and is shitposting on your blog.
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