Gartner and others believe Trump also has signs of frontotemporal dementia, which affects a person’s personality, behaviour and language more than memory. “When people have dementia, whatever personality disorder they have gets dramatically worse because the frontal lobes start to shrink and there isn’t a brake any more,” Gartner says. “There isn’t a filter. There isn’t judgment. So now you have a malignant, evil person who has lost his internal controls, and in this administration, there are also no guardrails. God help us.”
Former Australian of the year Professor Patrick McGorry, a psychiatrist, says he could not diagnose Trump from afar but, like many, has concerns.
“There’s a bizarre element to all of it, and there are definitely examples of where his memory must be in question, where there’s a level of confusion and disorganisation of thought. That’s the observational data you can absolutely raise questions about.”
Trump’s judgments and actions can change the course of history. But despite a clear recognition that too many heads were buried in the sand about Joe Biden’s decline, it still feels uncomfortable – bordering on taboo – to discuss a president’s cognitive function or mental health. It is particularly fraught with danger for psychologists and psychiatrists in the United States. They have to deal with the MAGA base, which believes all criticisms or observations are politically motivated, and must also navigate two codes that guide how a person can be diagnosed.
www.bbc.co.uk
