Re-Diagnosing Donald's Psychopathy

For a very long time, I thought that Donald Trump's psychological disorder was that of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. With additional evidence, particularly from his responses to recent tragedies, I think this is the wrong diagnosis. I think the correct diagnosis is that he's suffering from Antisocial Personality Disorder.

According to the DSM-V, the basis for diagnosing a person with a psychological disorder is that (a) it must fit the traits listed, (b) that there are clear impairments of self and interpersonal relations, (c) that it has been stable over a lifetime as an adult, (d) that these traits are not considered normal or expected when measured against that person's socioeconomic position, (e) and that it is not solely due to a substance (such as drugs).

We can see Donald's interpersonal impairments just by looking at his multiple marriages and his cheating on each of them, including when his current wife was pregnant. His lack of close relationships (all of his relationships are business-related, not interpersonal), and how he treats people with whom he claims to have a relationship with, also indicate a psychopathy.

Initially, I thought it was Narcissism.

Under Narcissism, the pathological personality traits are limited to (a) grandiosity (entitlement/self-centered) and (b) attention-seeking. Those traits are all found in Donald, but we can see that Donald's functional problems extend beyond these two categories and that they've long been there if we only put the pieces together of his past and present.

It's Antisocial Personality Disorder.

ASPD is characterized by the traits of (a) deceitfulness, (b) manipulativeness, (c) impulsivity, (d) hostility (to minor things, often resulting in vengeful responses), (e) risk-taking, (f) irresponsibility, (g) and callousness. We can find documented episodes of all these traits from multiple biographies on Donald, but most importantly, we can see clear evidence of these traits in his time in the Oval Office, every day. Previously, we only had periodic episodes captured by biographers; now, we have real-time, complete documentation of his actions to review.

But what about his narcissistic behavior -- those traits most definitely exist but aren't covered in ASPD, are they -- or, is he suffering from multiple psychopathies? Actually, under ASPD, self-impairment is noted by egocentrism and self-esteem issues that are associated with power (or a lack thereof).

That's all I've got for now. I meant to delve into the tactics to leverage his traits against him, but I haven't yet completed that thought process and this is already TL;DR territory.

Sources: APA's comparison of DSM-IV and DSM-V, and Wikipedia (for comparative)

America

In these dark and dire times, where White nationalists wish to strike fear in the minds of Americans, let's fight back with the hope of Neil Diamond's Song, America. Dare I say, let's make this song the theme of the Democratic Party.

America is nothing if not the dream of a land of immigrants. As Emma Lazarus wrote, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Indeed, America needs to be more like the America it's always striven to be; it needs to be that beacon of freedom seen around the world, once again.



Far,
We've been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a star

Free,
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream

On the boats and on the planes
They're coming to America
Never looking back again,
They're coming to America

Home
Don't it seem so far away
Oh, we're traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm

Home
To a new and a shiny place
Make our bed and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
Freedom's light burning warm

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Ev'ry time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America

Got a dream to take them there
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America

They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today! Today! Today! Today! Today!

My country 'tis of thee (today)
Sweet land of liberty (today)
Of thee I sing (today)
Of thee I sing
Today! Today! Today!