Mary Trump’s Revelations About Uncle Donald Being a Narcissist and Sociopath Has Always Been Obvious, But the Media Has Deliberately Remained Silent
NOTE: This story was originally published by this author on Medium.com in 2020. Since everything Trump says and does is governed by these two illnesses — and in light of events since 2020 — it remains highly relevant and should be reconsidered.
NOTE: Since the publication of this story on July 7, 2020, in the wake of Mary Trump’s book, two print / online publications have stepped up to specifically address Pres. Trump’s two easily diagnosed illnesses that are discussed in this article:
— The Daily News (New York): https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-mary-trump-book-president-sociopath-20200707-472oow2fwzcjdanqrmb5cr55pu-story.html
— CBC News (Canada): https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-niece-book-1.5646052
In the past, only a few print / online publications have stepped up to do the same, particularly The Atlantic. Other than these few outlets, my critique remains the same: most, if not all, media outlets consider this topic as utterly taboo. TV news, in particular, has been silent. Indeed, Rachel Maddow interviewed Mary Trump on July 16, 2020 for her program’s full hour, and did not ask one single question about Mary Trump’s two diagnoses.
It is confounding that the mainstream media — and even non-mainstream — have repeatedly refused to say this: our president has two disorders that are dangerous for a president to have: Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder (commonly known as “Sociopathy”). These conditions, taken separately, are indeed serious illnesses for a president to have. But in combination with one another they are a toxic mix that pose a danger to the United States and the world. In light of the new book soon to be published by Mary Trump, the president’s niece, it remains to be seen whether any credible media outlet will analyze Trump’s psyche in terms of his readily identifiable mental illnesses.
At the outset, I note that our country has come a long way in treating mental illness just as we would a physical illness. We’ve made great strides in fighting against stigma. However, in this context — when a U.S. president has powers that, if misused, can endanger our country and the world — I think it is incumbent upon all of us to consider the dangers posed.
I wrote extensively on this subject in 2018, lamenting the media’s refusal to report on this grave subject and identified the same two diagnoses as Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist with a PhD (i.e., Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Sociopathy). This is not because I have any particular qualifications in this area, but because it is so obvious to anyone who simply reads the diagnostic criteria and then judges Trump by his clearly observable behavior over the years. The media, however, beholden to advertisers for their survival, have deliberately failed to tell the biggest story of our time.
For example, in a series of articles in Psychology Today, which are recapped here, the editors studiously avoided identifying the diagnoses or issuing a public warning.
In February 2017, 35 mental health professionals signed a letter to the New York Times expressing concern for the president’s mental fitness. After receiving the letter, The Times failed to publish an article or editorial on the subject.
The Washington Post published an article on January 30, 2020 entitled “In the Age of Trump, Let Psychiatrists Judge the Mental health of Public Figures.” The article only addressed the issue as to who is qualified to reach a diagnosis and the problem posed by the gag rule of the American Psychological Association prohibiting psychologists and psychiatrists from diagnosing a public figure whom they haven’t evaluated in a clinical setting. The article says nothing about what others have written about Trump’s Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Sociopathy. Moreover, the Post did not conduct any independent reporting on the subject — not even to simply quote others.
Moreover, the Post’s piece does not even mention that in December 2019 a group of 350 psychiatrists and other mental health professionals submitted a petition to Congress stating that Trump’s mental health was rapidly deteriorating under the pressure of impeachment. The petition noted Trump’s “real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation.” Also notably absent in the Post’s piece is a discussion of the petition authored by Dr. John Gartner, PhD and signed by more than 60,000 mental health professionals. The petition states:
“We, the undersigned mental health professionals, believe in our professional judgment that Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States. And we respectfully request he be removed from office, according to article 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which states that the president will be replaced if he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
There have been three exceptions to the virtual silence on this issue, yet not a single one of the mainstream media outlets — neither print nor TV — have given these critically important published pieces any meaningful attention.
The first such piece is a highly credible book outlining the dangers posed by President Trump. This dire warning was made by Dr. Bandy Lee, a Forensic Psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine and President of the World Mental Health Coalition. Dr. Lee co-authored the book “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” with 27 psychiatrists and psychologists.
Dr. Lee has publicly stated that “. . . my colleagues and I saw this [assessment and warning regarding President Trump] as a part of our ongoing, primary professional responsibility to protect society and to warn against potential harm to public health, as our ethics and the law require”.
Dr. Lee has explained why she and her colleagues were unconstrained by the American Psychiatric Association’s gag rule. She and her co-authors maintain that pointing out danger and calling for an evaluation is different from rendering a diagnosis. Lee and her colleagues criticized the APA for changing professional norms and standards, stating that it is a ‘dangerous to turn reasonable ethical guidelines into a gag rule under political pressure.’”
In the book, the 27-member panel of experts analyzed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Report. They concluded that the overwhelmingly large body of sworn evidence in the Report allowed for a better forensic assessment of President Trump’s mental conditions than any psychiatrist could possibly perform in a clinical setting. Thus, the conclusions as to the mental instability and dangers posed by the president — as detailed in the book — apply with even more force than would a diagnosis rendered upon a typical office examination.
The 27 experts found that President Trump has “. . . failed every criterion for rational and reality-based decision-making capacity.” Dr. Lee has publicly stated in one of the main messages in the book is that “President Trump should be prevented from having access to nuclear weapons and war making powers.” Indeed, all members of the military must pass rigorous mental examinations before gaining access to any of our nation’s nuclear capabilities — but not the president. The book ultimately concludes that President Trump “lacks mental capacity” and that he “. . . cannot make decisions free of impulsivity, recklessness, paranoia, and false beliefs.”
Recently, in an op-ed in The Hill, Dr Lee and her colleagues wrote that “We recommend the president’s removal from all authority over the coronavirus pandemic.” This “prescription” (as she calls it) has received no media attention, despite the fact that thousands of lives are being lost every day due to his bungling of the Covid-19 crisis. And make no mistake: the bungling is directly tied to Trump’s two mental illness. He suffers under a delusion that he will look bad personally if any news about the virus is bad. This narcissistic perspective caused his delay in taking action, his bloviation that it was all a “hoax,” his initial muzzling of the experts, and even his recent comments at a rally that “I told them to slow down the testing”. The disregard for the lives and well being of the others is a classic modus operandi of a sociopath.
The third piece was published in the The Atlantic on October 3, 2019 by George Conway, a nationally prominent lawyer and husband of Kellyanne Conway, a Senior White House advisor. The piece is entitled “Unfit for Office.” Conway contended, as I do here, that reaching the two Trump diagnoses (Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Sociopathy) is easy for any lay person: one need only make observations of President Trump’s public activity, statements, decisions, and demeanor.
Will the media once again fail to serve the country in the wake of the publication of Mary Trump’s book? The “gag rule” of the APA does not apply to the media. They can easily cover this story. They could simply interview mental health professionals off-the-record and then report their findings. They can also find retired psychiatrists and psychologists to go on record. Such professionals would no longer be constrained by their industry’s rules and may be willing to speak out. The public must know the truth, but the media are unwilling to utter the words “diagnosis,” “mental illness,” “dangerous,” or “incompetent.” Withholding facts that would allows voters to make better informed voting decisions is an abysmal failure of our nation’s media.
I suspect the media will just sensationalize the allegations in Mary Trump’s book that are dramatic and juicy; e.g., that Trump paid someone to take his SAT test. But amid the loud and dramatic background music played by the cable networks, will they actually get to the core of the issue and warn the country of the diagnoses and the dangers posed? For the sake of the nation, I sure hope so.
