I observed in my experience that potus accounts for a 80% of difficulties in managing psychiatric symptomatology in a emergency setting. The first step to adress the problem is recognizing potus as a serious problem that affect the whole life of the patient, even If you observe just some acute episode.

Giovanni,

I thank you for your input. Donald has publicly displayed a serious personality d/o since mid-adolescence based on my own clinical research.

Rich

I believe that there is no easy way to measure a politician, the same way that there is no easy way to measure a singer or actor's mental state based on the smile on the stage. He/she might joke around on the stage, while the next day, one of the actor committed suicide. One of the reason of despair Kurt Cobain mentioned in his suicide note was "not being able to be his real self."

A politician's every move might reflect his political maneuver. It's not his real self, but rather, the manifestation of what he tries to achieve. I'm not saying that there is no one who truly doesn't know anything he says, as such cases are plenty. However, acting as a clown may serve many purposes as well. It might distract people from fighting or just eliminate the need to answer by pretending to know nothing. There are also two different ways to please the mass: To become an all-rounder who can please many, or to focus on multiple groups of minorities and gain loyal supporter. The latter strategy often comes in package with saying controversial words to divide people and gain support from the clash.

We're not talking about a child gaining a little gang of friends, but an actual king of business empire. Regardless of whether they are right, wrong, or controversial, the strategy worked on his business, and probably managed to bring him to the highest throne as well. It might be part of personality disorder or any other diagnosis label, but it worked. The question is just: "For whose benefit?"

I'm not completely unfamiliar with the worlds of politics, as my mother once was a province legislative (Indonesia has three level of parliament: regional, province, and national). It got to the point that when there was a conflict and she went crying to her friends, everyone else thought that it was a political move. The other party (who are actually from the same political party) went so far to send hundreds of junk mails to make her step down from the competition of being vice leader of province parliament, which she did eventually. Words, expression, or social connections are not things you can measure at face value.

Richard Kensinger He is an utter disgrace !

Afkar,

I thank you for your response. My clinical research on Trump goes back to his mid-adolescence, and we have a plethora of public data as he persistently craves the spotlight.

I am attaching 2 of my articles in this regard.

Rich

POTUS shows several pre-morbid personality traits that predispose him to full blown steroid-induced psychiatric illness.

When admitted for COVID with dyspnae, president Trump received a shotgun therapy that included dexamethasone presumably at high dose. He may still be taking some a few weeks after discharge from hospital.

He may be at risk of an episode of bipolarity..

To be followed...

Henri,

I appreciate your input and I find it very accurate.

Thanks, Rich

What is so problematic about this discussion is that people unsuitable for government office (or for any position of trust and authority whatsoever) can be found on every street-corner. If that weren't the case, there would be no need for psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, remedial teachers, criminologists, family therapists and lawyers. (Who knows: for police, prisons.) Sure it's possible to argue about why that is the case - gets us into historiography, economics, anthropology, history of religion, all kinds of things. But it's an illusion to pretend that the presentation of the case history of a particular narcissistic personality has anything to do with the discussion of the nature of the loopholes in the American political system and the loopholes of the American Constitution that have made it possible for a psychological misfit to usurp the most powerful political office in the land. Ruining millions of lives in the process. One can appreciate the aspect of a specialist issuing a warning: 'beware, this guy does not deserve your trust.' But there's also a 'psychological reductionism' in this argumentation that confuses issues of governance, even of constitutional law, with issues of clinical diagnosis.

C-Span is not just some social media outlet or other - it's the US's equivalent to the BBC, i.e. it's mandate is non-profit public service broadcasting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-SPAN It's the most important window into House or Congressional hearings, expert testimony, the kind of 'behind the scenes' information that anyone dissatisfied with main-stream media turns to. If C-SPAN provides a public forum for political scientists, historians, climatologists and social psychologists, to probe the general topic "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump", that's not so much 'politics' as a most astonishing break with centuries of US politics - it's really the equivalent of an admission that the US is not so much in the midst of a contested election as a constitutional crisis.

How meaningful is it to speak of 'mental illness' spreading to the electorate? I put it as a question. There are issues of social psychology here that are not widely understood and not widely studied:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?458919-1/the-dangerous-case-donald-trump

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/whats-wrong-with-68-million-americans-expert-says-trumps-mental-illness-infected-48-of-the-electorate/

5 November MMXX

Attached articles presented to you with my compliments...

Cordially...

ASJ

With all due respect Anthony, if you want to make a contribution then make a contribution. That ain't.

Thanks so much to all who provide me w/ input and your attachments!

Stay safe!

Rich