For most of us, there was a moment during the 2016 election that we’ll never forget. A moment when we understood, deep down inside that there was something deeply wrong with American politics. For some, it was when President Donald Trump described Mexicans as rapists. Perhaps it came later as we listened to the man who would become the 45th president of America brag about sexual assault. For others, it was watching him openly mock a disabled journalist.
Yeah, that one sucked.
But what if we are doing the same?
According to the Neurocritic, a blogger whose main area of focus is neuroscience, we might be doing just that.
As was highlighted in a recent episode of the David Packman Show a recent posting on the blog entitled ‘Using Discourse Analysis to Assess Cognitive Decline,’ suggested that Donald Trump might be suffering from the early stages of dementia, a condition commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
The absurd tweets, the lack of clarity over policy. His child like rants, his attention span, and shamelessly brazen hypocrisies.
Even the seemingly pathological lies.
Might our disdain over all things Trump be marred by the simple fact that he is unwell?
No Great Mind…
The approach put forward by the Neurocritic in his blog post stands in stark contrast to earlier attempts to suggest that Donald Trump is suffering from a mental illness.
Indeed as Neurocritic points out, much of the discussion to date has centered on:
“The possibility of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), as speculated in The Atlantic and Vanity Fair and The Guardian.”
Not that he disputes that Trump is in possession of many of the qualities that typify someone with NPD. What he does question is the need to:
“Diagnose him with a quasi-psychiatric disorder, as in this NY Times letter signed by 35 mental health professionals?”
Diagnosis of a specific condition from a distance is after all, fraught with dangers, conflicts of interest and questions of ethics.
The Neurocritic was quick to distance himself from such tactics:
“Am I going to diagnose him with anything? Of course not. That’s unethical!
He was, however, prepared to offer an alternative approach. One that sidestepped the need for the need for medical ethical practice.
Without A Touch Of Madness
The theory he cited is in itself non-controversial.
In 2015, researchers from the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, Canada developed a method of diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease that relied on the examination of the interplay between four linguistic factors.
These factors were defined as:
Semantic impairment – the use of overly simplistic words. Acoustic impairment – e.g., speaking more slowly. Syntactic impairment – using less complex grammar. And information impairment – not clearly identifying the main aspects of a picture they were told to describe.
At the time of publication, their method achieved a more than 80 percent accuracy rate. The exact same factors at play in a clinical diagnosis might, for example, be apparent be revealed in an unscripted interview.
And since, as the Neurocritic pointed out:
“Mr. Trump has been a public figure for nearly 40 years.”
An opportunity exists that allows us to:
“Objectively analyze his spontaneous speech and quantify any changes over time.”
In short, thanks in part to Trump’s love of self-promotion, examples of Trump’s use of spontaneous speech over time are both plentiful and easily accessible.
Still, whether Trump’s capacity for spontaneous speech is falling victim to normal age-related decline, or as a result of pathological decline is separate to the task of quantifying the rapidity of the decline.
And the decline in Trump’s cognitive ability seems rapid indeed.
Madness In Great Ones…
For the Neurocritic the best corpus of evidence came from Trump’s appearance on the Dave Letterman Show. Citing evidence from multiple appearances, as well as an analysis of material from the Trump Archive, he was able to quantify the decline in Trump’s ability to communicate.
This is probably my favorite part so far pic.twitter.com/n61y5I8UrN
— Rachel Riederer (@readerer) February 16, 2017
According to the Neurocritic, the above clip taken from Trump’s first solo press conference represented only:
“The most egregious example in the one hour, 17-minute train wreck.”
During the course of the conference, many more red flags surfaced. Indeed, as the Neurocritic pointed out:
“He used the construction “very, very” 20 times. The word “thing” (and its variants) was uttered 102 times.”
Must Not Unwatched Go
All of which points to a serious decline in Trump’s mental faculties. He not only exhibits all four of the linguistic characteristics identified by the Canadian scientists, but the deterioration of his ability to respond in cogent ways is striking.
It’s actually quite scary.
Which leaves us with… With what exactly?
Certainly, not a case of all-is-forgiven. The man has been a pig for most, if not all his life; not wishing Alzheimer’s upon your worst enemy does nothing to change that. However, the suggestions that his faculties might be impaired does raise some serious questions.
Is the mental health of the Commander-in-Chief a matter of public interest?
Considering the bullshit conspiracy theories surrounding Hillary Clinton’s health during the run up to the 2016 presidential election, the answer has to be a uniform yes. Given sufficient evidence backed by the opinion of experts an investigation into the President’s physical and mental well-being is always going to be justified.
And if such an investigations reveal that the President’s mental faculties are indeed impaired?
Well, the Constitution has a contingency plan for just such an eventuality.
Only, Trump is not going to like it.
Watch David Packman’s take on The Neurocritc’s Blog:
Featured Image: Screenshot Via YouTube Video.
