I think armchair psychological diagnoses are a disservice to society.
I respectfully disagree. Anyone who might vote for him at this point doesn’t care. Indeed, they will be encouraged by his opponents trying to psychoanalyze him.
Calling him anti-social and narcissistic I have no issue with, and have done it myself as those terms without medical terminology have entered the popular lexicon as character traits independent of medical practice. The danger is when everyone decides they’re a mental health doctor and starts diagnosing people. That’s not how mental healthcare works.
At the end of the day, using armchair medical diagnoses in this way is clearly intended as a slur against the person, and as such it stigmatizes mental illness. Trump deserves every insult possible, but those which are slurs should still be avoided. For example, I love Samantha Bee’s satire and comedy. But when she called Paul Ryan a pussy, I believe she made a mistake, not because Paul Ryan isn’t a moral coward, but because using pussy as a slur is more damaging to others than to him.
ETA: I still enjoy both Bee’s and Bolling’s work. But I think it’s important to respectfully critique everyone because none of us are perfect and we all make missteps.
