Manhattan based psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert recently appeared on FOX News and confirmed that Trump Derangement Syndrome is a very real thing.
If he looks familiar, it’s because a few weeks ago, he provided some analysis about a particular demographic at the ‘No Kings’ protests.
In terms of TDS, Alpert not only says it’s real, he calls it the ‘defining pathology of our time.’
FOX News reports:
Psychotherapist says ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ is real pathology, plaguing 75 percent of his patientsDuring an interview with “The Faulkner Focus,” Alpert said patients have come into his office exhibiting symptoms of mental distress stemming from their fear or anger toward President Donald Trump.”This is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far to call it the defining pathology of our time,” Alpert said.TDS is a term generally used by Trump supporters to disparage what they view as hysterical or irrational critics of the president.Alpert described some of the symptoms he’s observed in patients he believes are suffering from TDS.”It doesn’t take long for me to pick up on this: people are obsessed with Trump, they’re fixated, they’re hyper-fixated on Trump. And they talk about some of the features of this disorder — they can’t sleep, they feel traumatized by Mr. Trump, they feel restless,” he said.”I had one patient who said she couldn’t enjoy a vacation because anytime she saw Trump in the news or on her device, she felt triggered,” he added.Alpert explained that for these patients, the mere mention or image of Trump triggers intense mental distress.”And Trump is the trigger for many of these people, and to be that fixated on a figure, on a person, it’s simply not healthy,” he said.
Watch the video below:
Alpert recently wrote about the condition in a piece for the Wall Street Journal:
Is “Trump derangement syndrome” real? No serious mental-health professional would render such a partisan and derogatory diagnosis. Yet I’ve seen it in my own psychotherapy practice. Patients across the political spectrum have brought Donald Trump into therapy not to discuss policy but to process obsession, rage and dread. Their distress is symptomatic, not ideological.Clinically, the presentation aligns with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders: persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation and impaired functioning. Patients describe sleepless nights, compulsive news checking and physical agitation. Many confess they can’t stop thinking about Donald Trump even when they try. They interpret his every move as a threat to democracy and to their own safety and control.Call it “obsessive political preoccupation”—an obsessive-compulsive spectrum presentation in which a political figure becomes the focal point for intrusive thoughts, heightened arousal and compulsive monitoring.I initially viewed this as an ideological reaction, an understandable response to a polarizing figure. But over time the symptoms took on a more clinical shape. What once looked like outrage now presents as a fixation that distorts perception and consumes attention.
Can you even imagine what this guy has to listen to in his office every day?
Featured image via Twitter/X video.
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