Trump's antics over the last 24 hrs are a good example of how the psychiatric profession is both right and wrong about not diagnosing him outside of a proper clinical setting. Look at how Trump is conducting himself and you see someone who is dangerous, unstable and driven ...
2/ by emotional impulse in a way that makes him unfit to hold the power he holds. Whether Trump is acting this way because of a defect or condition psychiatry recognizes is really beside the point. If Trump had somehow decided after careful and calm deliberation that this...
3/ was the most effective way to be President, it wouldn't be less bonkers or dangerous. The point here is that psychiatry doesn't have any ownership over the designation and identification of dangerous behavior. That's not their brief. The vast majority of shrinks wld agree ...
4/ about that. Indeed, in these kinds of circumstances the real value of a diagnosis wld be to **predict** the kind of erratic behavior we are in fact seeing. The fact that we are seeing it makes a predictive diagnosis at best moot and more likely irrelevant.
5/ If I'm walking down the street and I see an agitated man, screaming, threatening passersby and cutting himself with a razor I am going to at least walk out of his way and possibly call the police. I don't need any professional guidance to evaluate the behavior.
