Update: The Precipitous And Accelerating Decline In Trump’s Mental Health

-by Helen Klein

It is critical that attention to Trump’s extremely poor mental health be on the front page. THIS IS A FIVE ALARM FIRE and a clear and present danger to us all. While I have been retired for almost ten years, I was a psychologist and received my Ph. D. from the University of Texas in Austin.

Watching and listening to Trump recently, I’ve noticed that he appears to speak more in sentences than he did during his campaign, when his “word salad” and gobbledegook were striking. I suspect the lack of structure during campaigning demonstrated the real Trump speech and that he fares somewhat better in more structured situations like interviews. I mentioned this to Howie last week.

My mother, who had Alzheimer’s, eventually lost all of her speech but this is clearly not the case with Trump. He loves to talk and rambles on incessantly. The content of his speech, however, leaves a lot to be desired (an understatement). Various experts have written about his likely dementia and I want to clarify my own thoughts on this. Nothing said here has not been described before so this is rather a short summary of concerns about Trump and his current mental health.

It has been suggested, with much documentation from Trump’s very public appearances, that he has frontal temporal dementia. I spoke with a colleague from Austin, who supports this view, and who described this diagnosis as “paucity of thought and impulsivity.” Trump’s disregulation affects his behavior, personality, language and movement and his emotional indifference is part of it. Symptoms tend to be clustered together but may be in more than one sphere. Symptoms get worse over time. As a public figure, comparisons between Trump's current and past behavior are striking and show much deterioration. 

So let’s take a quick look at Trump and what we now see and read about. 

(From Mayo Clinic)

Language: The quality of Trump’s speech is poor. He has difficulty finding the right words, has trouble naming things and often tends to cover this up by using general words. He has difficulty with appropriate sentence structure and production. He uses simple language and repeats the same words as descriptors. He sometimes struggles understanding word meanings of interviewers. His vocabulary and content are limited and poor in quality. 

Personality/behavior: lack of judgment— oh my, woah. Tariffs, for one. The list of his poor judgment is long, almost infinite, one might say. Impulsivity— another woah. He sure speaks his mind and shows little forethought about implications or consequences of what he says or does. Lack of empathy— double woah. No concern whatever for anyone’s feelings. 

Movement: poor coordination, falls or has trouble walking. Well, we have seen this and it is obvious. Difficulty walking on ramps and steps. Difficulty holding a glass. Swaying awkwardly to the Village Peoples’ gay anthem, YMCA.

Dementia, however, is only one aspect of Trumps mental health that is of concern. Other psychiatric diagnoses have been rampantly described by experts. Personality disorders (narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder), delusional thinking, pervasive lying, cognitive decline, the list is long. 

This is trouble, folks. All the craziness going on and Trump’s inability to govern are surely tied into his poor mental health. It behooves the media and politicians to start emphasizing his total mental unfitness. Americans should be alarmed and need to be alarmed by his insanity.