Posted on 12/01/2019 5:05:32 AM PST by Candor7
Many clinicians, political commentators, and members of the public have speculated upon the mental health of President Donald Trump. Indeed, over 70,000 people self-identifying as "mental health professionals" have signed a petition declaring that "Trump is mentally ill and must be removed." In sociological terms, the "medical gaze" has been hitherto focused on President Trump, and to a lesser extent his ardent supporters.
However, in recent months, many have been questioning the direction of this "medical gaze." In fact, more and more people are suggesting that this "medical gaze" should be reversed and refocused on President Trump’s most embittered and partisan opponents. Some have even suggested that these opponents are experiencing a specific mental condition—a condition which has been labelled "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS). What does DSM-5 say about "Trump Derangement Syndrome"?
Mental illnesses are officially classified in a dense and dry book published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). This book contains 947 pages and lists hundreds of mental disorders; TDS is nowhere to be seen. Similarly, a review of scholarly databases such as MEDLINE and Google Scholar reveal no academic papers on this alleged syndrome. Officially at least, TDS is not a real, diagnosable, or treatable mental disorder.
That said, medical anthropologists and critical sociologists have convincingly argued that DSM-5 is a flawed document. Indeed, social scientists have long recognized that there are numerous "folk categories" of mental disorders that are considered real conditions by the general public, even though they are not recognized as such in the DSM. These include categories such as "burnout" or "nervous breakdown."
As such, lack of official recognition does not mean that TDS is not a real mental condition. Lay Understandings of "Trump Derangement Syndrome"
There is no shared lay understanding of TDS, mainly because it is a folk category rather than a professional category. As such, there is currently much armchair speculation about the nature and existence of TDS, without consensus.
The name itself explicitly suggests a "syndrome," which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behavior." Several commentators have run with this, putting forth suggestions about opinions, emotions and behaviors characterizing TDS.
Shared amongst these is a notion that the everyday activities of President Trump trigger some people into distorted opinions, extreme emotions and hysterical behaviors. Well-known writer Bernard Goldberg gives supposed behavioral examples of TDS among Trump’s political opponents, including fainting, vomiting, students retreating to "safe spaces" and others demanding "therapy dogs." Political commentator Justin Raimondo focuses on opinions, language and cognition, writing in the LA Times that "sufferers speak a distinctive language consisting of hyperbole [leading to] a constant state of hysteria… the afflicted lose touch with reality." article continues after advertisement
Such forms of highly emotional reaction could be something akin to the fainting and screaming characterizing American Beatlemania in the 1960s. Unlike the Beatles, however, the extreme emotional reaction alleged to characterize TDS is not based on adoration and admiration, but on fear and loathing.
Contrariwise, many others ridicule the notion that TDS is anything but a malicious slur term used to discredit and delegitimize criticism of President Trump. For example, CNN’s Chris Cillizza may speak for many when he stated: "The truth is that TDS is just the preferred nomenclature of Trump defenders who view those who oppose him and his policies as nothing more than blind hatred." Likewise, Adam Gopnik writes that "our problem is not TDS; our problem is Deranged Trump Self-Delusion."
In other words, there are polarized opinions about the nature, reality and existence of TDS. Conclusion
The wider public may be unaware that psychiatrists and social scientists spend considerable time and energy behind closed doors pondering over the existence and reality of mental conditions. This has led the APA to revise the DSM five times since 1952, considerably expanding the list of official mental disorders with each revision. As far as I am aware, few psychiatrists are currently arguing that DSM-6 should contain TDS as a mental disorder.
That said, in its official definition of mental disorder, the DSM-5 states that "a mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior…mental disorders are usually associated with significant distress in social, occupational, or other important activities."
Many have argued that some people have been seriously disturbed and distressed by the policies, speech, behavior, and tweets of President Trump, so much so that it has affected their cognitive, affective, and behavioral functioning. Such people may need mental health support. As such, further research is necessary to investigate the extreme reactions toward President Trump, in the same way that researchers investigate other extreme social phenomena, such as Beatlemania or the like. This will shed light on the reality of this emerging folk category that has been labelled by many as "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Listening to supermarket banter in Canada, it seems thatCNN/CBC propaganda has been very successful at misleading Canadians, who themselves desperately need a populist political movement in Canada for economic reasons, something the left is desperately afraid of in Canada, which is why the CBC news broadcasts anti Trump news every chance they get, 24/7.
Trump Derangement Syndrome also afflicts Canadians, if you can imagine. Its like the spreading virus of a Zombie Apocalypse which can only have one ending.
CNN is a poison.
Forced watching in airports. Including the baggage return carousel at BWI.
From what I understand, CNN pays the airports to host that stuff.
Mental health “professionals” would rather their patients suffer from TDS than deal with it as a real mental condition.
The first thing TDS sufferers need to do is turn off their television and keep it off.
Then they need to stop reading any establishment news articles.
They need to get outside and smell the flowers or walk in the woods.
Then they need to start living _their_ lives and start ignoring what _other_ people are doing far away and ignore what other people are saying about what other people are doing far away.
Then they can regain their sanity.
“ridicule the notion that TDS is anything but a malicious slur term used to discredit and delegitimize criticism of President Trump. “
Definitional TDS behavior.
"self-identify"
Just like all those dudes breaking records and winning championships by "self-identifying" as girls.
Meaningless
Trump Derangement Syndrome comes from that same dark place in the human soul that lynching black folks did back in the day.
Its interesting to see it spread among the young and not be censored or criticized by those who so glibly play the race card these days.
CW II can’t be very far off.
It’s as if 30% of the country have become Zombies headed towards a Zombie Apocalypse. Hateful ba$tards all of them.
Sweet, Merciful Jesus, I’m glad I don’t know her.
Thank you, God!
Would they remove Einstein from the field of math? The world is full, or historically has been full, of people that could be considered “on the edge” for centuries. But they accomplish what they go after, right or wrong. And the only way to consider them a problem is when they don’t do what you want them to from your, possibly, limited experience or capacities. The difference from the mentally ill to genius is a very thin line in many cases.
rwood
ALL LIBs/leftists are lunatics. It is merely a matter of degree. They are mentally deranged. Watching therm attempt to justify their mental illness is worth a laugh. Sickos. I laugh at their persistent “dilemma”. Hahahaha. All they deserve is ridicule 24/7.
TDS = Dipshititis.
The DSM-5 is in many way a political norm statement than a medical document.
There is a truthful joke that sanity is when your perception of reality is similar to your neighbors. Insanity is when your perception of reality differs from your neighbors .
Many of us have very strange neighbors.
It is as real as Hopium Withdrawal. Representative Maxine Waters is ‘patient zero’ for the dual-diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome and Hopium Withdrawal.
Meaning (to Dems): their leader - wonderful; our leader - bad.
“Forced watching in airports. Including the baggage return carousel at BWI.”
OMG. So nearly an hour (on average) of being forced to listen to CNN.
Where the hell is the Geneva Convention when we need it?
I think the DSM is in the process of ‘normalizing’ pedophilia, as they did for LGBTs recently. Not sure when Bestiality gets ‘normalized’ (providing the beast ‘consents’) but I suspect that it’s not too far off.
Now we know there are at least 70,000 well-certificated QUACKS, who fear that President Trump will “fire them” from their worthless “jobs”...
Sociology, psychology and other soft science have been so overtaken by liberals that they can never achieve an objective and balanced perspective.
It’s real and dsm-5 is a farce.
I would bet that if I peruse the DSM-V, I would find the exact disorder that we colloquially call "Trump Derangement Syndrome." The fact that we who are not trained psychologists or psychiatrists recognize that something is going on but do not know the scientific term for it does not mean that we do not observe a real phenomenon.
Contrariwise, many others ridicule the notion that TDS is anything but a malicious slur term used to discredit and delegitimize criticism of President Trump. For example, CNN’s Chris Cillizza may speak for many when he stated: "The truth is that TDS is just the preferred nomenclature of Trump defenders who view those who oppose him and his policies as nothing more than blind hatred." Likewise, Adam Gopnik writes that "our problem is not TDS; our problem is Deranged Trump Self-Delusion."
I see here a fair amount of projection. Whenever we would criticize Obama policies, people like Chris Cillizza would dismiss our criticisms as racist diatribes. They never once examined the actual criticisms, which were based on policy, not personality. On the other hand, the left avoids talking about Trump policy, choosing instead to label Trump as racist, sexist, etc. I wonder how many leftists can accurately name any Trump policies, much less explain the rationale behind them? They are only interested in personally destroying him, not in debating policy.
And the bottom line is, we have seen plenty of leftists acting in an irrational manner over the fact that Trump is president. Not just irrational, but completely off-the-deep-end behavior. They are not well.
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