Archive for February, 2017

On Trump’s Mental State

Thursday, February 23rd, 2017


In a letter to the editor published on February 14, 2017 on the New York Times’ web site, an eminent psychiatrist demurs on Trump’s mental state:

Fevered media speculation about Donald Trump’s psychological motivations and psychiatric diagnosis has recently encouraged mental health professionals to disregard the usual ethical constraints against diagnosing public figures at a distance. They have sponsored several petitions and a Feb. 14 letter to The New York Times suggesting that Mr. Trump is incapable, on psychiatric grounds, of serving as president.

Most amateur diagnosticians have mislabeled President Trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. I wrote the criteria that define this disorder, and Mr. Trump doesn’t meet them. He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn’t make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder.

Mr. Trump causes severe distress rather than experiencing it and has been richly rewarded, rather than punished, for his grandiosity, self-absorption and lack of empathy. It is a stigmatizing insult to the mentally ill (who are mostly well behaved and well meaning) to be lumped with Mr. Trump (who is neither).

Bad behavior is rarely a sign of mental illness, and the mentally ill behave badly only rarely. Psychiatric name-calling is a misguided way of countering Mr. Trump’s attack on democracy. He can, and should, be appropriately denounced for his ignorance, incompetence, impulsivity and pursuit of dictatorial powers.

His psychological motivations are too obvious to be interesting, and analyzing them will not halt his headlong power grab. The antidote to a dystopic Trumpean dark age is political, not psychological.

ALLEN FRANCES

Coronado, Calif.


The writer, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical College, was chairman of the task force that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (D.S.M.-IV).

Île vierge

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017

Lie Lie Land

Friday, February 17th, 2017

Artist Bambi – Picture Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP

Fou de Bassan

Sunday, February 12th, 2017

Picture by Olivier Brunet

Flags, Countries & Stereotypes

Saturday, February 4th, 2017

Nice project by by Russian art director Kirill Zaytsev that smartly mixes country flags and stereotypes. Here are my favorites:

What patients should ask their physicians when ordered a new drug

Saturday, February 4th, 2017

Great list, from a paper by Ranit Mishori (@ranitmd), of questions to ask your physician to when ordered a new drug:

  • What is this medication, and why am I taking it?
  • Are there non-pharmacologic options to treat this condition?
  • How long do I need to be on it?
  • What are the benefits of continuing to take it?
  • What are the possible harms of using that medication?
  • Do any of my medications interact with any another?
  • Can I lower the doses of any of these medications?
  • Which of my medications are more likely to be nonbeneficial considering my age, my other medical conditions and my life expectancy?
  • Are there any medications I can get off completely?

Isabella Mocks Donald

Saturday, February 4th, 2017

Surrounded by female colleagues, Sweden’s deputy prime minister Isabella Lövin signs a climate bill in a way that clearly mocks a well known picture where Donald Trump, with all-male colleagues around, signed a decree barring US federal funding for foreign NGOs that support abortion.

No need to say that neither Trump, nor his fans, will get the point. But the real issue is actually not there. Let’s hope that those who can smile at this picture can detect others with a similar inner joy and build together a genuine meshed society.

I wish Isabella smiled.

Hula Hoop

Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

Just discovered Julie Winegard… looks like this year, in spite of recent Trumpisms could be pretty poetic after all if they decide to make Hula hoop again.


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