Trump and social change in the USA

 I received several emails chastising me for posting my opinion of The President of a country I am not a citizen of. As long as the US claims to be the leader of the Western world (the free world !!) and I live in that part of the world now I have he right and the responsibility to state my opinion of that president, even if in some places I might touch the internal affairs of the US. I was also criticized of giving Trump the diagnosis of autism because most professional either disagree with the diagnosis or have other diagnoses. Most of the disagreements on the diagnosis of autism are  based on the absence of the common behavioral symptoms we usually see in  afflicted children. Autism is not a childhood disease; autistic children grow up to be autistic adults. The degree of disorganization in an autistic person has to measured not by the open symptoms, but by the core problem in autism: External Reality. The autistic person gives the signs that he is unable to put his own reality aside to react to external reality (our reality). What I am going to say is not in any way related to ‘the alternate reality’ that is used in the vocabulary of the white house to cover up Trump's extreme intolerance of external reality. External reality is what stands out of the realm of fantasy, imagination, daydreaming, i.e.. It exists on its own, independent of the person who is perceiving it. 

There are three other realities that also exist but do not conflict with external reality much. The first is the reality of the neurotic and some borderline cases. This reality is formed in childhood and becomes fixed and imposes itself on the subject in certain circumstances. However, it does not affect its 'real reality' or other realities that are formed before or after its formation. In spite of the fixation of that reality the neurotic knows the difference between what he reacts to as reality and the reality of his neurosis. The most demonstrative of that reality is the phobias. The phobic patient panics in the dark yet he knows that there is nothing really out there that justifies his panic. 

The second reality is mainly a problem in character neurosises. The patient of character disorder does not accept or agree with certain external realities because they stand in the way of the functions of his character formation. He tries to change that ‘frustrating’ reality by will and intention (ignore, avoid, fight, lie about, etc.). But, in doing any or all those things he still knows that the reality he does not accept exits out there and that it just irks him. He never forgets its presence.

In all those conditions the subject visits external reality and reacts to it emotionally. The phobic who turns the light in the whole house still complains of his illogical fear. The psychopath tries to gain the confidence of those whom he would like to sheet and react narcissistically to his successes and failures in changing the reality of certain situation to manage his psychopathy.

The third reality is the reality of the autistic. The autistic -child or adult- seems, looks, and behaves as if he is shielded from external reality. External reality does not elicit reactions from him and he swings from rage to apathy if it is forced on him. The autistic does not respond to both external causes of frustration or satisfaction. Yet, the autistic seems to have some sort of reality that keeps him busy all the time. It is what appears to us as sort of ‘him’. An example to that reality is Trumps tweets. they reflect what is occupying his mind which most of the time relates insignificant realities or relates in strange ways.

To be accurate I should say something about 'him'. existence "him"  saying that. For the him to exist there should be some psychological space between the acting self and the observing self . The autistic (Trump) does not have this gap. This shows in always talking about the people who deal with his "him" not of the him.The gap between the acting and the observing him is  necessary for making judgment, taking decision or even feeling  something that pertains to a situation. Trump is undifferentiated psychologically.  He  self-generates reality (the most... in history, the most ridiculous, etc) and stops at that. His reactions to his created realities happen without a sense of ‘will’ (only twitting or so called lying, etc. )The young woman I mentioned before was able to give us a hint of what happens in the mental life of the autistic if he gets moments of release from autism: he sees external reality but it does not create  an impact on his cognitive functions.

Going back to Trump we can easily realize that external reality does not exist for him or even conflict with his self generated realities. There is two features in trumps autistic reality: he is quite content with whatever reality his autism imposes on him at any time (that was why he seems inconsistent or liar). The second is a strong need to exaggerate about his reality. This could deceive us psychoanalysts and we give it a psychodynamic meaning. Exaggeration of autistic reality is an attestation to its lack of importance to the autistic.  The observations that led me to my diagnosis are debatable but undeniable.

He is a person who is oblivious of what others think or feel about him. I do not know a psychodynamic condition that causes such affective deficiency without some psychotic concomitants with it. but I also cannot see any features of psychosis in Trump. This condition is not associated with aggressive or sadistic component to be consider an affective disorder. Few years ago, a British medical journal published a research on autism stipulating the existence (or none existence !?) of a Genetic factor associated with the autistic total lake of emphatic qualities. This is prevalent state in autism and very obvious in Trump's human relationships.

After two years he still has nothing presidential about him (except those funny head posture of grandiosity). The man is not even aware that he constitutes a reality to others and what he says or does is not taken as coming from him personally but from the person he has become (the president).. He is not even narcissistic to be concerned about his image.

All this could be boring or interesting. However, we should not just stop at Trump’s autism. There are tens of millions in the US who do not see how ‘strange’ and unfit Trump is.  The Republican party too supports The President blindly to cover up his  faults. Normally, leaders try to achieve the objectives and aspirations of his people. The situation raises straightforward questions in regard to the trump phenomenon: 

1. Could a country like the US elect someone like Trump by mistake or should we look for other reasons for that the mistake?

2. Could there be social or historical factors behind the Trump phenomenon?

3. If there are what could psychoanalysts say about them?

In the next section I will try to answer the first two questions.