Where now Donald Trump?

 

 

Comments.    Considerations.     Questions.

 

                         by Kenneth Bagnell

   

    Almost everyone I know, wonders not whether Clinton can win, but if Trump can be defeated. The news in recent weeks is good: the ever accurate New York Times publishes daily a fresh voter trend; its reports are daily better and better. Currently Ms. Clinton has a 76 percent chance to defeat Trump; Donald Trump has a 23 percent chance to defeat Clinton. Nonetheless, we won’t know until election night, November 8. The new possibility or probability is just that. Nothing is certain.  But the statistical trend just mentioned seems to have taken form around the first days of August.

       By then the ever negative stream of media coverage on Trump had reached its pinnacle. Even — perhaps for the first time ever — a viewer could infer from sitting President Obama, a hint that Donald Trump was not well in mental health.  About that same time, The Toronto Star, in an article written by its Washington correspondent, included a more open implication: the question — which should have been raised months ago– is  indeed Trump’s mental health. Two quotations that were included in The Star article will suffice to reveal what has haunted many minds for months. A journalist named Stephen Hayes wrote in his article in a European paper named The Weekly Standard: “Donald Trump is not of sound mind.” Then a very respected columnist of The New York Times, included this claim: “He appears to be haunted by multiple personality disorders…” Of course. Many of us have long felt that way, but the media have been slow to begin reporting it and for a reason: professional psychologists are hesitant to speak on it and as for psychiatrists it has always been an official policy not to discuss a person’s condition publically especially when that person has not been examined and agreeable.

    Hence the issue of Donald Trump and the coming Presidency has taken on fresh, complex and very serious dimensions. What to do? For one thing verify that his character is questionable and his personality is exactly as we perceive it – crude and rude. The best way to confirm both is to turn up a lengthy New Yorker article in which a man named Tony Schwartz recalls and relates Trump’s character and personality, which became the material for an “autobiography” of Donald Trump, famously entitled, “The Art of the Deal.” It appeared in 1987. Once published, the book spent virtually 50 weeks on the bestseller list selling over a million copies that earned several million dollars in royalties. One reference from the New Yorker article on Schwartz’s assessment of Trump; “If he were writing The Art of the Deal today, Schwartz said it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered “The Sociopath.” Case closed. To read the full New Yorker article click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/us/politics/trump-tony-schwartz-book.html?_r=0

   It’s reasonably obvious why psychiatrists are firmly inclined not to make public their analytic opinion of a person, either from afar or indeed from “the couch.” But psychologists are not that rigid. In fact many scholars of various kinds, have examined from afar, the personality and character of individuals (actors, comedians, writers and so on.) They then published their views in book form. Hence over the last few months, I’ve read such “articles” on Trump by clinical psychologists. In a general sense, the outcomes are close to being in common. A current and very insightful essay is by Dan McAdams, graduate of Harvard and head of Psychology at Northwestern University in Illinois. His readable essay appears in a current issue of The Atlantic, dealing with this very subject.

      One of his observations: “A cardinal feature of high extraversion is relentless reward – seeking.  Prompted by the activity of the domaine circuit in the brain, highly extroverted actors are driven to pursue positive emotional experiences whether they come in the forms of social approval, fame or wealth… When Barbara Walters asked Trump in 1987, whether he would like to be appointed President of the United States rather than having to run for the job, Trump said this: “It’s the hunt that I believe I love…” The essay moves on for considerable length with very revealing analysis.   

    There have been instances in which Trump’s judgement and utterance can justly be called over the line of rationality. One example will suffice. The Republican party has a good share of men and women who in high office have achieved much public respect and admiration. One is Senator John McCain a greatly respected veteran member of the Republican party. (He had been, as his father, a member of the armed forces. He served during the Vietnam war. He was a navigator whose plane was shot down, he was seriously wounded, imprisoned, and, at times, tortured. He was jailed for roughly five years.) For whatever eccentric reason Donald Trump has stupidly ridiculed McCain, one of the most highly respected members of his own party. Can you imagine it?  Said Trump: “He’s a war hero just because he was captured… I like people who aren’t captured.” I expect he’ll try to restore the relationship –- for his own interest and rising desperation.

      There are numerous other examples (there’s a published list of about 50 Republicans who wiped their hands of Trump) but one insult is enough. Question: “Can you imagine Trump’s disgraceful rhetoric by a Canadian or British Prime Minister? In any case, there are those Americans, who will never, ever accept Trump’s disgraceful rhetoric. One is Rick Perry, former Republican governor of Texas. His reason:  “Trump’s comments have reached a new low in American politics. His stand on veterans has reached a new low…. His attack on veterans makes him unfit to be Commander in Chief of the U.S armed forces and he should immediately withdraw from the race for President.” Stay tuned.    

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