Thursday, August 4, 2016

GUEST POST

Note, this post arrived minutes after I had posted my own thoughts on Personality Disorders, appearing below  HW


Narcissistic Personality Disorder

by daedal2207
Rep.Karen Ross(D-Calif)in a Change.org petition,called for mental health professionals to demand a mental health evaluation of the Donald for the safety of the nation. She went on to list some of the 9 characteristics listed in the latest DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) only 5 of  which are needed for the diagnosis.Two problems bedevil such a diagnostic pronouncement. The first is that it is a matter of the degree to which these characteristics are displayed and the second is the social context in which they are displayed.
In a society which idolizes economic opportunism and  success, often in a zero sum economic & psychological context(racist and sexist to boot e.g."The big swinging dicks" of  Wall Street ),a lot of the winners would score high on such a score , potentially earning only a moral indictment as well as not so secret envy.Nevertheless our nation's sociopsychological experts need to be heard from,if only to explain the difficulty.Beyond that a statement that a lack of empathy is a primary sign of one who might engender risk and one need go no further than the impassioned statement of a father(Khan} and the anguish of his wife,is in order.Thus Congresswoman Ross's call is a request for a profiling of courage as well as a warning to the nation.

1 comment:

  1. When we consider mental illnesses, we also have to consider their physical elements. That's the main reason why I detest insurance companies treating their coverage differently than other areas of general health care. Many insurance companies treat coverages like dental, vision care, and others differentially as well, with a profit motive behind their reasoning. Health care coverage should be dealt with in a holistic manner.

    That said, although mental health maladies can be considered a disability, they should be treated differently in considering requisites for public leadership. A paraplegic, such as FDR, may be well qualified to serve as our president (his record proves this), whereas someone who is a delusional schizophrenic, for example, should hardly be considered qualified. We actually do consider overall health in qualifying a candidate ... mental health is considered part of those qualifications.

    FDR was fit to serve; I question whether Trump is qualified to do so. Trump was considered incompetent to serve in our military (received a medical deferment) ... I consider him incompetent to lead it as well. But that's just my opinion; assessment should be left up to the experts in the mental health field.

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