While I do really hate this guy, and I also assume he isn’t mentally fit to manage a Wendy’s, never mind being president…we shouldn’t be listening to doctors willing to diagnose psychiatric conditions or mental health based on how someone is acting on TV. No doctor can get enough data to make an accurate diagnosis that way.
Yet they have telemedicine, that is tantamount to “how someone is acting on TV”, no?
But wait! He was able to name a rhinoceros and do differential calculus! Person woman man camera tv!
He brags about ‘acing’ that test, but here’s the actual test:
The most difficult maths problem is to subtract by 7s.
The answers to the 5 words memory question would never be ‘person woman man camera tv’, because they’re always carefully chosen to not be related in any way, because that would defeat the purpose, since related words are easier to remember. They’d be things like ‘daisy chair monkey water picture’. Even from his very first retelling, he didn’t remember the words, he was just naming things he saw in the room at the time, and he was bragging about passing a test that if you fail, you may be deemed unable to care for yourself.
We know this is the test, because he talks about the rhino part, then says it gets hard from there (eta: in his own words, 3 years ago), and now says almost nobody can pass the rest. And he says the doctors told him he’s one of the only people they’ve seen pass it.
This is himself recounting the story last month, January 2024. (e: Sorry for the Twitter link; I couldn’t find a better one.)
And his cult cheers this shit. It’s utterly bonkers.
e: Link, and another link. And one more.
e2: I couldn’t help but add this. I am so sorry. If it must be in my head, now it’s in yours too.
I’m no expert but It seems to me Trump is getting worse fast now.
the patron saint of the right spent most of his presidency with a head full of mush, they don’t care. It’s the same reason the age stuff resonates with Biden only, the right wants useful idiots who will sign off on their fever dreams. A non-functional brain is a virtue to them.
The dementia just makes them easier to control
I’m sure all the stress caused by the court cases doesn’t help. Usually the presidency is the most stressful thing to people, but that’s only true if they took the job seriously. Trump did not. Something that effects him is likely far more stressful for the narcissist.
And the prolonged use of drugs, for his entire life, but also specifically during his presidency.
Watching an elderly parent/grandparent go through the down slope of dementia isn’t fun.
But a Human Vegetable President is sort of the party dream. Just do a full Weekend at Bernie’s with a sitting President and you can get away with whatever you like, then deflect the blame onto a corpse.
Republicans would elect a bowl of soup to the presidency if they had to, because then they can rubber stamp a hundred orders a day dismantling government agencies, destroying welfare programs, neutering regulations, and oppressing people of color, women, LGBTQ+, and non-Christians. Trump is the most useful, most idiot useful idiot the world has ever seen.
Oh man, a bowl of soup would be a great president.
What kind of soup are we talking here? We don’t need no Goulash running the country, that’d be communism
I’ve always had a fondness of carrot cream cheese soup and of course I will hate you forever if you disagree.
Republicans would elect a bowl of soup to the presidency if they had to
I guess you forgot Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s while President.
But it’s okay, he forgot too.
But it’s okay, he forgot too.
Savage 💕
But it’s okay, he forgot too.
Dark humor is like food. Not everyone gets it.
Dementia Don!
#Dementia Don!
##Dementia Don!
Doesn’t matter. He could be comatose and they’d still vote for him.
As opposed to Biden supporters right? LOL…
We can call Trump nutty all day, but good doctors won’t make a diagnosis without seeing the patient. All this does is serve to make the doctor look bad, even if we all suspect his brain looks like Swiss cheese.
A ton of psychology is done through telehealth now. If you are spewing madness on TV, radio, and social media all damn day it’s a pretty decent sample set for analysis.
Yeah but still… a diagnosis is usually made after an interview and tests where appropriate.
That’s why they’re using a phrase like “is consistent with dementia” rather than “is dementia”
Yeah, that little bit of phrasing is doing a lot of work.
That said, as a layman, at what point is the vast corpus of data that is his assorted interviews, statements, appearances, etc on TV enough to call it? I’m curious how much more a one-on-one with a therapist could reveal. Obviously, there’s a persona that is prominent any time a camera is on, but if the camera is on all the time, when is it just his base personality?
I don’t think really any amount of this particular form of data is enough to be confident in an opinion.
As an analogy, I might be obese and have chest pain, but without scans and tests no doctor is going to say I have ischaemic cardiovascular disease.
Does a 77yo who mixes up names have dementia? Is it just diminished cognitive abilities due to age, combined with stress? Does it really matter?
IMO, any self-respecting psychologist would avoid paying an opinion without having a chance to interview a co-operative patient.
That makes sense, and I feel like that’s a good rule for 99.99% of people. Trump introduces one unusual facet and one that I don’t know enough about:
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He’s on camera all the time. His media presence is more than that of most of humanity, including those that do it professionally. Both being filmed and participating. Sure, a doctor needs scans to do things, but what is the test for this kind of thing and can the answers be derived from his very prominent existence?
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How does a therapist handle a non-cooperative patient? Let’s say the court order’s therapy. What does the poor bastard who works with him have to do to accomplish their task?
In practice, there’s not a huge emphasis on diagnosis.
As in, if grandma is buying a 12 pack of toilet paper every week when she does her shopping, it doesn’t really matter whether you classify it as dementia or forgetfulness, you just need to figure out the best way to minimise the harm and give her the best quality of life moving forward.
Most mental health diagnoses are the same. Even if you get a clinical diagnosis of “bi-polar” the treatment options are similar to most other mental health problems and you just work through them until you find a good one.
Similarly courts don’t care about diagnosis. They might get a psychiatrist to assess whether someone is fit to stand trial, but that’s a measurement of cognitive function rather than diagnosing the reason for cognitive impairment.
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For four years libs were screaming about ageism and immediately go back to it when Trump comes around again. Both these guys should be disqualified if the US was in any way a meaningful democracy and not a terminal empire with a useless gerontocracy and corrupt oligarchy.
anyone over retirement age should be barred from running, and that should not be controversial.
If you got on a plane and the pilot was 80 you’d be a bit worried, and we let these fucks run the most powerful nation ever to exist.
Media be like…“Biden is showing his age, people are afraid he’s too hold…quick, let’s switch the focus on Trump’s mental stability…”
