There has been a lot of surprisingly serious discussion about President Trump's mental health — one congressman, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), says he will introduce legislation requiring a psychiatrist at the White House, along with the White House physician. Mental health professionals have even disregarded ethical guidelines against diagnosing somebody from afar for Trump, including a group that wrote a letter to The New York Times published Wednesday, suggesting that Trump is psychologically incapable of being president.
Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical College, lightly scolded his colleagues for their New York Times letter in his own Valentine's Day letter to The Times, and he shot down the usual mental malady attributed to Trump. "Most amateur diagnosticians have mislabeled President Trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder," he wrote. "I wrote the criteria that define this disorder, and Mr. Trump doesn't meet them." Frances was chairman of the group that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV, or psychiatry's "bible," so he isn't exaggerating. But if it sounds like he is standing up for Trump, he quickly dispelled that notion:
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) ... 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. [The New York Times]
Read the rest of his curt letter at The New York Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Spiralism is the new cult AI users are falling intoUnder the radar Technology is taking a turn
-
Can for-profit geoengineering put a pause on climate change?In the Spotlight Stardust Solutions wants to dim the sun. Scientists are worried.
-
Crossword: November 25, 2025The daily crossword from The Week
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
