First of all, Carson was describing his temper as 'pathological', which by definition means that it is extreme, excessive, or markedly abnormal. Ben Carson revealed this as something that he had overcome in his life. It was a message of victory and hope for others who know someone dealing with this.
Donald Trump redefined 'pathological' to mean 'incurable' which is patently false. The whole point of Carson's revelation was to demonstrate that it is 'curable'.
As for the term 'pathological', the most common use is in describing an extreme, excessive, or markedly abnormal liar. Yet this did not fit the false narrative that Trump wanted to employ. He purposely brought up the child molester analogy in order to smear Carson, and then lied about it by saying that Carson had an incurable disease.
The irony here is that Trump himself is a pathological liar. Trump lies when telling the truth would actually be better. With Clinton and Obama, they lie about things that matter. Trump lies about things that don't. He simply can't help it.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. The problem is that the definition you chose for pathological is not the medical definition. A pathological liar is a lay term for someone who can’t seem to stop lying. That is not an extreme and unacceptable behavior due to uncontrollable powerful feelings. Ben Carson was indeed trying to paint his anger problems more vividly in order to provide an impressive victory and make his life story compelling. I agree, that is how I interpret his use of a word that if true would paint a very different person.
That was really what Donald Trump was conveying. He discussed the mechanism described for the murderous attacks and how they were implausible as described, he then painted the picture of how abnormal true pathological anger is by comparing it to other behavior that results from feelings too strong to control.
Trump’s take home point was that the book was not a true depiction it was a fictionalized narrative, exaggerated to represent a more gripping tale and to glorify Ben Carson’s accomplishment. The surprising thing to many of us was that Ben Carson has real accomplishments to be proud of and a very compelling life story without the need for embellishment.
You are right to note the dichotomy between Carson overcoming his pathological anger and Trump noting pathological anger is not curable. That is another reason we know that Carson exaggerated his stories and used the word inexactly. True pathological anger is a mark of a severe underlying personality disorder and such disorders - narcissism, antisocial personality etc are not curable.
I do not agree with you that Trump lies habitually or even frequently. I have found him to be truthful. The MSM wants to spin him as a liar so they release snippets of his words out of context or in many cases lie outright about things he has said. I always go back to the source documents (you tube is a great help) and listen to the entire event. Trump is remarkably consistent on most subjects; to hear Trump now is to hear him in 1990. He has evolved on abortion and planned parenthood and that has been well covered and consistent with an honest man coming to an understanding of the precious nature of life, and in the case of Planned Parethood a man finding out he had been sold a lot of hoohah. Trump is a dealmaker and deals are made by having a general plan of attack and modifying as the deal takes shape, not telegraphing all of your assets and gambits. That is not dishonesty its called being a skilled negotiator.
I’m sorry to say this since I know you like Ted Cruz but so did I once. When I ran the same kind of background check on him it was with a very different result. Ted lies, fluently, frequently, flagrantly and fervently. The 4 F’s of liardom. It is very easy to document multiple instances and they made me lose all respect for the man.
So there you have it - have at it.