“I saw this as a meteor heading toward earth because I know how destructive a malignant narcissistic leader can be to a country… it has four components, narcissism of course but also psychopathy, or antisocial personality disorder: lying, breaking laws and norms, having no remorse for violating the rights of others, also paranoia, and finally sadism.”
— John Gartner, Psychologist
What People Are Afraid of
Psychologist John Gartner (2025, Bjornson 2025) points out that no one is talking about Donald Trump’s insanity. Instead, they’re talking about his ineffectuality. This reflects the primary mode by which we deflect our own thin grasp on sanity: we call sanity the process of being logical. So, rather than recognize insanity, we quibble about justifying insane behavior.
Part of the reason the obvious issue of Trump’s insanity is avoided is a fear of retribution mixed with cowardice. Politics is the brokering of incremental advantage played as a cowardly game. Dainty uncalloused politics is vulnerable to despots, as we’ve seen so many times before. It will be a courageous person who takes down Donald Trump, most likely a male with battlefield experience.
I read The New York Times because it’s free. I use it as a bellwether because they’re obviously biased, clueless intellectuals. To the editors and commentators at The Times, everything is some version of business as usual. If this were 1930s Germany they’d be discussing the evidence of the Jewish Bolshevik conspiracy and the pros and cons of fascism.
Instead, they’re talking about whether Trump’s murder of 80 the people he claims are terrorists without evidence is a good idea. If he lined up, executed, and dumped the bodies of 80 innocent immigrants in a ditch, The New York Times would be analyzing the pros and cons.
The Building is On Fire
The search for Donald Trump’s logic misses the point. The point is that he’s a mentally ill, depraved lunatic. This is a reality leaders and commentators are not prepared for. And the longer they avoid it, the more guilty of condoning it they become.
This is where evolution fails. This failure to see reality is the reason there is an ongoing revolution in news, print, video, and audio reporting. Questioning the sanity of your elected leader leans toward the question of whether or not you are sane, which is exactly where the discussion needs to go. The public is reluctant to engage this topic.
As a psychotherapist, I know that people are unsure of their own sanity and don’t know how to discuss it. They typically disguise their weaknesses and justify their fears. This kind of avoidance commonly leads to a person being unable to discern reality and their own role in creating it. This is why much of psychotherapy involves presenting people with a mirror in which to see themselves.
At its root, sanity is little more than what we take for granted. When accepted behavior becomes abnormal there is little left to stand on. People know that if sanity becomes the issue, then no one will be able to convince anyone of anything.
At that point the argument reduces to accusations of gaslighting: each side accusing the other of fabricating a reality that only they can see. This is the natural outcome of people arguing about things that neither are fully aware of. Sanity is one of those things. It’s much easier, rhetorically speaking, to argue about strategy than sanity.
When Delusion Is Standing Beside You
My ex-wife accused me of gaslighting when I said she was creating her own nightmare. This arose when it came to light that she was appealing to random strangers to help free her because she said I kept her locked her up in our house. The fact that she was driving around spinning this story to strangers might have cast some doubt on its truth, but if you tell enough people something you’re bound to find some who will believe you. Rationalized delusion is difficult to separate from insanity.
They say that people with Dissociative Personality Disorder—what we think of as one of the most severe mental illnesses—requires years of professional diagnosis in order to be recognized. The reason is two-fold. A dissociated person creates multiple believable, disjoint realities, and few people are interested or involved enough to see how these fail to fit together. We tend to believe people, or mostly believe them. How else can you appraise reality unless you have some story to begin with?
We have a rich theatrical history dealing with gaslighting and sanity, most of which veers into the horror genre. The popularity of horror aside, an approach to politics that’s more hopeful than the fear of gaslighting is to focus on policy. In spite of this, it’s my belief that most people are half cocked, and our society is too.
This is why Trumpism is important. Less because it’s socially destructive—though it is widely and consequentially destructive—and more because it highlights society’s inability to recognize and manage its own sanity. One could say that we were destined to confront a bringer of insanity as long as we continued to avoid the question.
If you’d like to bolster your strength and fortify your sanity, I can help.
What Is Insanity?
Insanity can be defined pragmatically or conceptually. Pragmatically it refers to what works in a practical context. Conceptually it refers to what is reasonable, logical, or self-consistent.
We both encounter and create many situations that fail either the pragmatic or conceptual test of sanity. Conceptually, we become confused and look for guidance in the evidence we find around us. If we cannot perceive correctly we’re likely to become misguided or confused. This can go to extremes when we’re deeply misinformed or delusional. Still, if enough people agree with you, collective confusion goes out of control.
We avoid confronting these distinctions in order to avoid seeing how they apply to us. In doing this we further our confusion. Ultimately, we create a situation where the distinctions between misunderstanding and delusion can no longer be avoided. We have created this in Donald Trump.
We will not fail the pragmatic test of sanity by repeatedly doing what fails as long as we become enlightened at some point. It always takes several attempts to build an understanding and craft an effective response. When creative solutions are needed, expect repeated failure and do not be discouraged. But failures that go on too long can become delusional.
Faith and determination can lead to insane behavior but not necessarily so. It’s only when there is a lack of awareness that faith becomes pathological. This is the realm of religion which frequently crosses the boundary of sanity. My delusional ex-wife now subscribes to Bible literalism which is probably safe and probably where she’ll remain.
Collective faith is the origin of collective behavior. It is no coincidence that the new, acclaimed AppleTV serial “Pleuribus” addresses this very issue of the hive mind.
“The show (Pleuribus) explores themes of forced happiness versus individual suffering, the loss of creative purpose in a collective, and the nature of intelligence when it’s merely a regurgitation of previous thoughts.” — A.I. generated summary
“‘It is up to us to put the world right,’ she (the protagonist) tells them in her best attempt at a stirring, motivational speech. There’s a long pause, and then Diabaté, one of the six people sitting around the table, finally responds, ‘Why?’”— Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture’s TV critic
The pragmatic test of insanity is continuing to do what is injurious or destructive. In some cases this is a lack of awareness and in other cases it’s a lack of recognition. It makes sense that for some people the way to awareness and recognition lies in experiencing more of the consequences of unawareness. One hopes that the slap of reality will wake a person up, but this doesn’t always work.
The self-destructive person who slices their arms with a razor blade—what’s known as cutting—is attempting to regain awareness through an act of undeniable perception. Their problem is not a lack of logic, it’s a lack of engagement. Cutting helps them reconnect and, in this way, is a form of therapy. I would say that Donald Trump is a national, if not multi-national, form of cutting.
Trump Derangement Syndrome
Think of Trump Derangement Syndrome as a collective autoimmune response to a social virus. The central pustule from which this virus radiates is Donald Trump, who has metastasized in the maladjusted minions sprouting around him. However, unlike daisies which play a positive ecological role, TDS is a fungal rot.
This rot may play a positive role in opening people’s eyes. Hopefully, it will melt back into the soil once its purpose has been fulfilled and its toxic effects are recognized. This brain fungus will then return to its spore form to await the next fertile burst of social ignorance.
Just as social organization is unstable, so we erroneously call these symptoms a disease. The disease is not the symptom. The lunatics at the top is not the cause, they are the result. The cause is people’s inability to understand and correct their thinking. Even people’s misbehavior should not be seen as a cause.
I had a client whose marriage was falling apart because they called out their previous partner’s name when having sex with their current partner. I suggested that they confront this behavior at the time when they were engaging in it. I told them that they needed to examine their sexuality with this current partner in order to better understand what they were doing and what they were destroying. They refused and, as far as I know, they are still doing it.
The only person who can change your behavior is you, and the only thing you can do to change social behavior is to redirect your own behavior. What is needed in these cases of social delusion is more people calling it out and less people, like those at The New York Times, pretending it’s normal.
It doesn’t take much. You don’t have to be a genius, an orator, or a savior. All you need to do is be honest and communicative. Of course, this also requires confidence and courage. You will cause distress in those who would rather remain blind and irresponsible. But that is what we’re born for: to be responsible for what we create individually and collectively.
At its best, counseling can play a role. I encourage all my clients not only to steer their own lives, but to take responsibility for the lives of others. The people who are disturbed are the people who are waking up. Your troubles are not really yours, they are what you are now becoming aware of. And the reason that you are having trouble is because you have reached that point where you’re ready to address it.
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
— Steve Jobs, an inspired product designer and a deranged master of marketing
References
Bjornson, G. (October 28, 2025). “Donald Trump Confuses Dementia Screening for ‘Very Hard’ IQ Test as He Brags About Results.” People.com. https://people.com/donald-trump-mistakes-dementia-screening-for-iq-test-11837935
Gartner, J. (Nov 4, 2025). “Trump will not make it to the end of this term compos mentis: Psychologist analyses Trump.” Times Radio.
VanArendonk, K. (2025). “Pluribus Is About Everything and Unlike Anything Else.” NY Magazine. https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-pluribus-about-apple-tv-vince-gilligan.html#:~:text=The%20most%20topical%20metaphorical%20interpretation,them%20unable%20to%20keep%20going
