Mental Health Issues Do Not Explain Everything
We live in interesting times, which incidentally is considered to be a curse by the Chinese. There is much speculation regarding Donald Trump and whether or not he is mentally impaired. Of course, it would be unethical to make sweeping diagnostic assumptions based on observations rather than on genuine consultations. However, I am concerned, not as to whether or not he is mentally impaired, that is for others to determine, but rather how mental health issues are often used as an “excuse” for bad or destructive behaviour.
It is true to say that there are some conditions which can lead to damaging or antisocial behaviours, but in the main people with mental health issues are decent, law abiding people who have good intent and a trying to manage the best they can with their ailment. I fear that in an attempt to explain the eratic behaviour of Mr Trump, people are far to keen to say that he is mentally impaired. This was a similar charge made against Hitler. His acts so monstrous and inhuman, that he had to be mentally unbalanced. In the end, however, he was not, as he knew well enough to not document his crimes because he knew that they would be seen as wrong.
Eratic behaviour scares us, and unfortunately society is often far to quick to explain it away with calling it mental disease and therefore nothing to do with us sane people. Unfortunatly, history has shown that man has infinite capacity to not only be humane but also inhuman. Let’s wait and see what happens about Mr Trump, but I think we all should not rush to diagnosis in his case.
