Donald Trump is mentally ill. So what else is new? He has one of the most extreme cases of Narcissistic Personality Disorder ever recorded. So bad, that long before he even ran for President, one of my Psychology textbooks featured a Doonesbury cartoon of Trump to illustrate malignant narcissism. Yet narcissism isn’t Trump’s only problem. He is suffering from early stages of Alzheimer’s. He has the Attention Deficit Disorder of a ten-year-old with severe ADD. He has the anger management skills of an unruly three-year-old at McDonalds who was just told he isn't going to get the Happy Meal.
Moreover, as the Doonesbury cartoon above illustrates, there is substantial evidence that he is either a Psychopath, a Sociopath, or has Anti-social Personality Disorder. Just in case you didn’t get the joke, the last three diagnostic labels are merely different ways of stating the same thing. (Some argue that a Psychopath is a Sociopath who has committed a violent crime.) Plus, one can be both extremely narcissistic and sociopathic. In fact, I can’t imagine how anyone can be extremely narcissistic (focusing only on self and not caring for others) without being sociopathic (doing whatever is in your own personal best interest regardless of whether it hurts others.)
But I am not here to re-hash old (but valid) diagnoses of Trump’s mental incapacities (not to mention he is incredibly ignorant and stupid; i.e. low IQ.) No, I am here to propose that Trump is so mentally off-kilter that a psychological defense mechanism mentioned by Freud—which is fairly normal in normal people—is so pathologically extreme in Trump, it deserves a whole new diagnosis not yet listed in the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual.) This diagnosis is PDS—Projection Derangement Syndrome.
Most of us are familiar with projection—seeing something in others that lies in ourselves.
I was working as an Addictions Counselor at Holmesview Center, an all-male in-patient alcoholism and drug addiction treatment facility. Every Wednesday afternoon we would hold a Community Meeting of staff to air differences and resolved conflicts. One day, a client at one side of the room began criticizing a client at the other side of the room in front of about thirty-five other clients and staff. The first thing I noticed was that the client’s criticisms were valid. The man accused of wrongdoing was guilty of doing wrong. But the second thing I noticed, was that of all the other clients, the one objecting to the behavior was the client who was even more guilty of the same behavior he was accusing the other client of doing. Of course, the client doing the complaining had no insight that he himself perpetrated the same behavior he saw in the other guy.
This is the essence of projection. A thief thinks everyone else is a thief. I cheat thinks everyone else cheats. A liar thinks no one else tells the truth. We see in others that which we cannot see in ourselves. Yet most psychologists agree that psychological behavior which is fairly normal can constitute mental illness—if taken to such an extreme (abnormal) degree it causes great hardship either to oneself, others, or both.
Thus, in my book, such severe projection is Projection Derangement Syndrome. With PDS the negative behavior seen in others either doesn’t exist at all in the person(s) it is projected onto, or is greatly exaggerated. Moreover, the person doing the projection not only has the behavioral pattern to an extreme degree, he has no awareness of having this behavioral pattern at all. To sum up, with Projection Derangement Syndrome:
-
The behavior and traits of the subject are perceived as being in someone else.
-
The behavior and traits exist in the subject to an extreme degree
-
The other person accused of the behavior barely manifests these traits or behaviors, if at all.
-
The subject has no awareness he has the behavior or traits he sees in others.
-
This projection frequently causes great harm to self or others.
-
This pattern of projection is pervasive and persistent
Trump has Projection Derangement Syndrome in Spades. Much of Trump’s otherwise inexplicable behavior and statements make sense when we realize Trump suffers (or makes others suffer) from his PDS. Quoting Greg Miller in his book The Apprentice:
On August 15, the White House announced that Trump had revoked the security clearances held by John Brennan, former CIA director and frequent critic of the President. The irony in Trump’s explanatory statement jumped off the page—he accused Trump of “erratic conduct and behavior,” of “wild outburst on the internet and television” and seeking to “sow division and chaos.”
There are so many example of Trump’s pathological projections that I hope many of you will list some classic examples that I have forgotten or overlooked. Of course, the Liar in Chief called Ted Cruz “Lyin’ Ted; and the crook Trump called, Clinton “Crooked Hillary.” The same man who paid to have his grades and SAT scores kept secret, accused Obama for not releasing his grades. The dumbest President who ever lived called Maxine Waters, “an extraordinarily low IQ person.” Of course, Trump doesn’t know he’s stupid. After he just found out France helped America win the Revolutionary War—which every American who completed sixth grade should know—Trump stated, “A lot of people don’t know France is America’s first and oldest ally.” Of course, Trump was projecting his own ignorance of American History onto “a lot of people.”
Sleazy dishonest not good person sees evil only in others (Doonesbury)
I first became keenfully aware of Trump’s Projection Derangement Syndrome when he came up with excuses to justify his firing of FBI James Comey for not promising him unwavering personal loyalty. Donald Trump, whose legendary narcissism is so extreme he thinks visiting an area hit by a natural disaster is a great photo op, (paper towels anyone?) called James Comey a “Showboat” and “grandstander.” If that wasn’t enough pathological projection, he later piled on Comey was “crazy, a real nut job.” Not to mention the Liar in Chief also called Comey “an untruthful slimeball.” Come to think of it, Trump calls almost anyone he doesn’t agree with a liar. I wonder where that comes from?
Trump was convinced that because of Comey the FBI was riddled with chaos and confusion and that rank and file FBI workers were relieved he was gone. What Trump couldn’t see, was that because of Trump, the White House was riddled with chaos and confusion. The rank and file FBI workers were outraged that Comey was fired. Trump projected his feelings onto others, as he was the only one happy that Comey was fired.
O.K., so Trump projects. But is his level of projection truly worthy of a new DMS diagnosis? Consider other things he said about Hillary Clinton: “Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.” It is one thing for the least stable President in history to called Clinton “unstable,” and quite another to accuse, “Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy.”
What!? Here we clearly see Trump’s projection veering off into something worse than delusions of grandeur, but of a serious departure from reality—what psychologists call psychosis, and laymen call crazy.
The purpose of this diary is not merely to propose a new diagnostic label. I learned long ago, that I am so far down on the totem pole of influential psychologists, no one cares what I think about the game of labeling psychological disorders. The purpose of this diary is to expose that the President is so mentally unstable that his Projection Derangement syndrome, makes him too dangerous to be President. Trump may not be harmful to himself, but his projection is harmful to the world.
Allow me to quote Katy Waldman who wrote an excellent piece called We the Victims: Trump’s Paris accord speech projected his own psychological issues all over the American people:
On Thursday, Trump said the Paris accord would deliver the United States to a grim future of shuttered factories, squeezed taxpayers, blackouts and brownouts, and “vastly diminished economic production.” This extreme dystonic vision doesn’t correlate with the minimal regulations laid out by the agreement. These are not the words of a guy who’s done his homework. They are the threats of a fear-monger who believes the worst of others, especially those who aren’t on his team. “Our withdrawal,” intoned Trump, “represents a reassertion of American sovereignty,” as if collaborating with our allies to protect the planet was more of an assault on our identity than, say, Russian intervention in our free elections.
The word for what we saw in the Rose Garden is projection. Trump feels like a tremendous man who is also, somehow, nursing an eternal wound. His country, therefore, is a tremendous nation that is hampered and thwarted by cheaters at every turn. But the parallel inside Trump’s head isn’t the one that matters here. Trump has already poisoned the White House. Now Trump’s America is gearing up to poison the world.
Here we see that Donald Trump, who cheated everyone he could any time he could, projecting cheating onto the nations of the world. The consequences of his PDS could doom the entire planet, as this was his alleged reason for withdrawing from the Paris Accord, a chance to cooperate with other nations to limit deadly climate change.
Projection isn’t rocket science, or even Freudian Psychoanalysis. Even young juveniles are keenly aware when their siblings and peers are projecting and they retort, “I know you are, but what am I?” or the classic refrain, “I am rubber; you are glue; whatever you say bounces off me; and sticks to you!” Trump, on the other hand, is so unaware he is projecting, he doesn’t have a clue that the worst offenses he attributes to others, are the ones that make him too dangerous to be president.