It may seem odd to consider that there are those with empathy for Donald Trump in the innumerable ways he’s unsuitable for the office of the presidency since most of us see him angling for a shot at another 4 years — or more, if his quips are indicative of what he actually wants — and are simply out of patience.
But those who feel sorry for the President may be just as justified in their sympathy as the rest of us are in our anger.
Psychoanalyst Justin Frank has been “diagnosing” presidents since George W. Bush — a worthy subject of critical dissection by any measure — through Obama, and now Donald Trump. In the latest book in his “On The Couch” series that examines the lives and inner workings of our presidents, Frank’s entry on Trump leaves plenty of space to empathize with reasons that Trump may have turned out the way he did, why he would have come up with his alter ego John Barron, and even what may lead to some of his more manic episodes during his tenure in the White House.
Frank points out that often, Trump is found “interrupting himself” midsentence with a thought that sounds as though he thinks he’s already said the first part of it out loud, but which is actually just a verbal response to something he only thought.
Dr. Frank points to Trump’s narcissism as a product of his parents’ emotional unavailability and suggests he may have had plenty of trouble in school due to impulse control and that these factors could have combined to prevent him from ever considering that he may benefit from introspection.
In the end, Dr. Frank very convincingly presents the case of a man whose present manifestations of bad behavior — constant need for praise, desire for fast food, hunger for money, need to be correct at any cost — are carryovers from a childhood that might have turned any one of us into the sociopath you see in the White House today.
In fact, Frank essentially concludes his “diagnosis” in the book as Trump having been overlooked by doctors, if he was even ever taken to any, as having had an undetected childhood learning disability, perhaps a subtype of dyslexia — something that would explain both his behavioral insanity AND his refusal to turn over school transcripts, his regular word slurring and mixups, perhaps even confusing the visually similar “Bahamas” with “Alabama.”
A former employee from The Apprentice subscribes to this theory:
Trump is severely dyslexic, it’s why you never saw his grades. He mistook Bahamas for Alabama as those letters confused him and it’s why he is fighting so hard to hide it. He would freak out on script dept. on ‘Apprentice’ for using same letter combo’s. @realDonaldTrump
— NoelCaslerComedy (@CaslerNoel) September 6, 2019
I personally don’t intend to tone down my anger or feel any better about Donald Trump even considering his probable disability. At his age, he has had more than enough opportunities to address whatever issues he has, and he continues to hack, slash, and burn his way through everything.
Featured image via Department of Defense
Like what you see here? Join the discussion on Facebook over at Americans For Sanity!
