Disclaimer: The author is not a licensed medical professional and this piece is not intended to be a diagnosis of Mrs. Trump. Battered Woman Syndrome is a very serious condition and if Mrs. Trump, you, or anyone you know is a victim of abuse, either physical or emotional, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233 or TTY 1−800−787−3224.
Melania Trump, the third wife of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, sat down with CNN’s Anderson Cooper for a rare public interview. This was her first interview since we all heard Trump brag about his exploits as a sexual predator and sadly, she used the vast majority of her time to defend her husband.
While she said she was surprised, she dismissed Trump’s comments as “boy talk,” saying:
“I heard many different stuff — boys talk. The boys, the way they talk when they grow up and they want to sometimes show each other, ‘Oh, this and that’ and talking about the girls. But yes, I was surprised, of course.”
She continued to blame nearly everyone except her husband:
“I said to my husband that, you know, the language was inappropriate. It’s not acceptable. And I was surprised, because that is not the man that I know. And as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on — it was only a mic. And I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on.”
She even went so far as to blame former Access Hollywood and recently fired Today Show host, Billy Bush, saying:
“He [Trump] was led on — like, egged on — from the host to say dirty and bad stuff.”
This behavior of deflection and denial has been studied extensively in social and medical science. A 2009 article in INQUIRIES Journal by Rebecca A. Demarest cites multiple studies exploring the relationship between Stockholm Syndrome and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in abused women.
Among these is a 1994 study by Auerback, Kiesler, Strentz, Schmidt, and Serio, whereby the researchers recreated a hostage situation which resulted in the formation of Stockholm Syndrome symptoms. According to the article:
“The researchers were also able to determine that Stockholm Syndrome was caused by the dynamic interplay of domination (the aggressors’ control of their hostages) and affiliation (the victims’ identification with the aggressors). The researchers concluded Stockholm Syndrome was a combination of defensive self-delusion and an effort to ‘get along’ with their captors which is similar to some forms of coping such as wishful thinking or avoidance coping.”
Domination by an aggressor and defensive self-delusion.
Is there a more domineering and aggressive personality than that of Donald Trump? We all hope that Melania Trump’s reckless dismissal of Trump’s own descriptions of his abhorrent behavior toward women, as well as her rapid fire willingness to decry the claims of the many women who have come forward to corroborate Trump’s own words, is not an indication that she too is trapped by a domineering male personality and is simply coping by defensive self-delusion. Let’s hope it’s just gutter politics.
Watch Mrs. Trump’s interview with Anderson Cooper below:
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
