Is America mentally ill ?

[kentuck]

When I see the supporters of Donald Trump defending his comments and positions, I cannot help but question their sanity.

With the simple eyeball test, it is plain to see that Donald Trump has some severe mental problems. For anyone to accept those as "normal" should be cause for some serious introspection.

Much of America seems to have lost the ability to reason. They seem to have surrendered their thoughts and conscience to their Party spokesmen.

Is America mentally ill? I think an argument could be made that it is.

[Hortensis]

1. Not me. Reject all these insidious false equalizations.

We are not them, and that there is an America, even at its worst when they get power, is proof.

[handmade34]

2. yes

collectively, we are

[Solomon]

28. I've been saying that for years now.

[Iggo]

3. Fucks to the Yes.

[lapfog_1]

4. A significantly large portion of America

has joined the John Birch Society.

I can't explain why except for the rise of Right Wing talk radio and Fox News and the impending loss of "white privilege" or "white suburban America"

[dchill]

5. I can't make the argument that it's not.

Religion and racism, together again. And on meth. It could have a detrimental effect.

[MountCleaners]

6. Having been around a number of them

They are motivated by fear. They seek comfort in people who are white and like them. That is a preoccupation. When you are possessed by fear, yes that is a mental condition. When I talk to them, their perceptions of reality are just off.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

12. Nailed it.

It's all fear-based.
No one is immune from fear but some are more self-aware and are able to reject fear to embrace its antithesis; humility.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. No, but it lets racism blind it to a lot of things.

[Lee-Lee]

8. Posts like this are in bad taste

Mental illness is a real thing, a real thing that one in 5 Americans will experience in their lifetime.

Equating mental illness with people you disagree with politically or find distasteful is just another example of how attitudes in this nation serve to stigmatize those who actually suffer from mental illness and diminishes the legitimacy of their experiences and struggles.

If a good friend or family member was struggling with mental illness and all they heard from you on it was calling Trump supporters mentally ill do you think they would feel safe or comfortable confiding in you or coming to you for help?

There are plenty of well deserved ways to insult Trump supporters without doing it in a way that belittles people legitimately suffering from mental illness and serving to further the stigma surrounding it.

[treestar]

36. It has to do with not dealing with reality

Donald and his supporters try to concoct an alternate reality. They live in this world where the facts are not facts - only what they want to believe. A break with reality is the basis of mental illness.

[lindysalsagal]

39. Agreed. Let's stick with "deranged" or "cultist." Not "ill."

No need to punish those with brain challenges by lumping in the angry, fearful, and resentful.

[librechik]

9. We are under foreign occupation and didn't even see the attack that got us here.

Cognitive dissonance is traumatic.

[scheming daemons]

10. 25% to 35% of it is.

Thankfully, they're in the minority.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. No. Collectively we are not. The country as a whole is not.

And those of us who voted for Hillary Clinton two years ago bear no responsibility for the fact that Donald Trump is currently in the White House.

[Guilded Lilly]

13. History is replete with times that masses of highly questionable humans who...

seem to have lost their minds and morality grab importance and temporary power.
Then they crawl back under the rocks for a while.

Yeah, I see the creep level of ugliness and non-existent character ratcheting skyward these days. On one hand it makes me very sad, unnerved, then angry, then- ultimately- stubbornly and fiercely determined to fight back.

All in the same hour of any given day!

It’s all incredibly magnified. The Internet and media have given a platform for the lunatics to thrive.

But there are many millions more of us who are sane. I believe it. We are being challenged. We have to stay strong.

[MrsCoffee]

14. No. America is being held hostage by old white dudes in their death throes.

They will do anything to keep power. Lie. Cheat. Steal. Treason.

I am going to keep believing that we will rectify this bullshit after taking back the house and senate in November.

[kentuck]

15. Is depression a mental illness.

I will confess that the present political reality depresses me....

[Comatose Sphagetti]

16. Yes. A percentage of it is.

Anyone fear-driven (a huge number of Americans, both on the left and right. The percentages I'll leave to the reader) is disturbed to some degree.
This goes for the rest of humanity.

[HAB911]

17. Plastic in water and food

makes as much sense as anything

no proof or even hint, but something is wrong that's for sure

[RKP5637]

18. About a third or so of this country is in a cult, the tRump cult. n/t

[kentuck]

20. But does this "cult" affect the mental state of the rest of America?

...is why I ask the question.

[RKP5637]

25. Definitely! It is a constant drain on most peoples emotions IMO. I also think a lot of

aberrant unhealthy behavior can be traced back to the tRump effect.

[kentuck]

26. "aberrant unhealthy behavior"...

It's almost like a virus.

[RKP5637]

27. Definitely, and emotionally carried to some others susceptible to the virus. n/t

[RKP5637]

19. If someplace else today and contemplating a change of countries, America would definitely be off

my list. It is too unpredictable and unstable as demonstrated by a creature such as tRump becoming president.

[lpbk2713]

21. The indicators are there.

Mouth breathers tune in to Faux and Limbaugh and say "More! More!"

[mnhtnbb]

22. A well known psychiatrist wrote a book dealing with this very question

Allen Frances, MD is the author of twilight of american sanity A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump

Frances is widely cited as the man who wrote the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

This excerpt is from the book jacket.

While Frances thinks Trump is sane--but dangerous--he believes Trump's election poses graver questions about the nation's collective health. "Blaming Trump for all our troubles," Frances writes, 'misses the deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent."

And this excerpt is on the back cover jacket:

It is comforting to see President Donald Trump as a crazy man, a one-off, an exception--not a reflection on us or our democracy. But in ways I never anticipated, his rise was absolutely predictable and a mirror on our soul...What does it say about us, that we elected someone so manifestly unfit and unprepared to determine mankind's future? Trump is a symptom of a world in distress, not its sole cause. Blaming him for all our troubles misses the deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent. Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our society--if we want to get sane, we must first gain insight about ourselves. Simply put: Trump isn't crazy, but our society is.

The book is a fascinating read and an excellent companion book to the one edited by another psychiatrist, Bandy Lee, MD, which has had more exposure in the press: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.

Removing Trump (and other Republicans) from office is not going to fix our problems, IMO. They are the symptoms, not the disease.

[moondust]

23. Was Germany in the 1930s?

I don't know if professionals ever identified mental illness as the problem there or not. Is cultism considered a mental illness?

[Garrett78]

24. We certainly have a very sick society.

Trump got 63 million votes, Roy Moore nearly won, Kavanaugh is on the verge of being appointed, and the likes of McCain and Collins are called "moderate."

We aren't merely dealing with differences of opinion. We're dealing with a lot of really awful people.

[grantcart]

29. The question is how long has the country been going in and out of an anti

Intellectual psychosis.

I would say 35 years.

You really notice the deterioration when you leave the country for long periods.

When I was in college the Equal rights amendment was about to pass, when I returned in my mid 40s openly sexist commentary was commercially mainstream.

I don't believe that Howard Stern would have been successful in the 70's. Among other things I believe that ubiquitous exposure of women degrading porn has had an impact.

[Trust Buster]

30. More like ignorant.

[Cosmocat]

31. Dumb as fuck

Sadly ...

[pwb]

32. It's Fox news and talk radio ill.

.

[democratisphere]

33. Somewhere between 33% to 50% of America is most likely

certifiably mentally ill. For many there is no cure.

[fescuerescue]

34. That does a dis-service to people who fight with mental illness

No America isn't and society isn't. Or maybe it always has been and always will be. Either way. It doesn't make sense to apply a medical condition to a political opinion.

Politics however are cyclical.

In a handful of years, when Democrats have the majority (only to lose it, yet another handful of years later), Republicans will be accusing you and I of being mentally ill. Oh wait. There are right now.

[ThoughtCriminal]

35. "christian" Right

The role of right-wing, fundamentalist, "christianity" cannot be understated. The feedback loop of this hypocritical, immoral, backwards, doomsday-cult turns normal people to insanity.

THEY ARE A MINORITY.

But with the Electoral College, gerrymandered districts and dominance in rural states that give them an edge in the Senate, they are are extremely over-represented.

[icaria]

37. I think Jimmy Carter called it "a malaise in America"

and took hell for it.

I think people are what they always are but the political system is broken (or insane). The inmates are running the asylum, so to speak.

We like to think it's just them, not us. We decry the cult of personality around trump, but I see some of it on this board around other so called leaders. It's a sign of failing ideologies.

[kairos12]

38. Personality Disorder exhibited 35% of the population.

[Rizen]

40. Mentally Ill?

No but the Republican party exhibits cult like behaviors. They're certainly detached from reality.