The progression of Trump's mental illness

I didn't get his endorsement when I ran for governor
— but the severely troubled man I met has only gotten worse

In 1994, I visited the home of Donald Trump. He was a Democrat then, of sorts,
and I was the party’s nominee for governor of Connecticut.

He’d taken an interest in our state owing to his keen desire to lodge a casino in Bridgeport,
an idea I found economically and morally dubious.

Trump talked very rapidly and virtually nonstop for nearly an hour;
not of my campaign or even of politics, but only of himself, and almost always in the third person.

He mostly told stories. Some were about his business deals; others about trips he’d taken or things he owned.

All were unrelated to the alleged point of our meeting, and to one another.

That he seldom even attempted segues made each tale seem more disconnected from reality than the last.

It was funny at first, then pathetic, and finally deeply unsettling.

On the drive home, we all burst out laughing, then grew quiet.
What the hell just happened?

My first theory, that Trump was high on cocaine, didn’t feel quite right,
but he was clearly emotionally impaired: in constant need of approbation;
lacking impulse control, self-awareness or awareness of others.
We’d heard tales of his monumental vanity,
but were still shocked by the sad spectacle of him.

By 2016, the private Trump was on permanent public display,
raging over mere slights, seeing plots in every ill turn of events
and, as always, stunningly self-absorbed.

He was called a racist, a sexist and a bully.
But his mental health issues were euphemized as problems of “temperament.”

He lied ceaselessly, reflexively and clumsily, but his lies were called merely “unproven” or, later, “false.”

The New York Times called the birther story a lie only after Trump grudgingly retracted it.

Not till he was safe in office claiming that millions of phantom immigrants cast votes for Clinton
did the paper of record use the word “lie” in reference to a tale Trump was still telling.

In 2016, the precariousness of Trump’s mental health was clear to all with eyes to see,
but like extras in a remake of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” reporters averted their glances.

The day after the election, they were all in a state of shock,
like staff at an asylum who woke one morning to find that the patient who thought he was Napoleon
had just been named emperor of France.

Once he took office, many publications began keeping running tallies of his lies.

But all take a more cautious approach to questions of their origins in his deeply troubled psyche.
To date, no major network, newspaper or magazine has run an in-depth analysis
of Trump’s mental health.

The diagnosis we associate with Trump is “narcissistic personality disorder”
(a term that only lately replaced “narcissistic character disorder”).
You’ll find it in the Diagnostic Survey Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, fifth edition.

This week the world watched two men of obvious, serious emotional impairment
in control of ungodly nuclear weapons trade puerile taunts
while threatening to incinerate millions of innocent human beings.

Donald Trump, having made war on Mitch McConnell, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Nordstrom, China, Mexico, Australia and the cast of “Hamilton,”
baiting a man who idolizes Dennis Rodman and just murdered his own brother.

This is simply unacceptable.

In 2016 Trump’s real vulnerabilities were his mental health and personal finances.

We can now add his proto-fascism and his possible or intended treason to the list.

Trump was lucky in the draw. His defects were so monumental, so toxic,
we had no protocol for talking about them.

There are effective and responsible ways to talk about all such things,
but first our media and political elites must find the courage to name them.
They know as well as you or I who he is.
---
Bill Curry was White House counselor to President Clinton
and a two-time Democratic nominee for governor of Connecticut.

http://www.salon.com/2017/08/12/my-meeting-with-donald-trump-a-damaged-pathetic-personality-whose-obvious-impairment-has-only-gotten-worse/