XPost: comp.os.linux.advocacy, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: MeanDog@BiteMe.dash   
      
   Mental health experts sound the alarm on Trump’s potential ‘cognitive   
   decline’ as he’s ‘lost touch with reality’   
      
   Exclusive: After President Biden’s cognitive decline was heavily   
   scrutinized, mental health experts tell The Independent they have similar   
   concerns about Trump   
   Rhian Lubin   
   Wednesday 25 September 2024 14:24 BST   
      
      
   Leading mental health experts, including a former White House doctor, have   
   expressed alarm over Donald Trump’s mental faculties, suggesting he’s   
   showing signs of “cognitive decline.”   
      
   Several experts told The Independent their concerns about the Republican   
   presidential nominee are similar to those they had about President Joe   
   Biden before he dropped out of the race, warning Trump appears to “have   
   lost touch with reality,” as exhibited by the 78-year-old’s “rambling”   
   speeches and “erratic” debate performance.   
      
   They join a growing number of mental health professionals calling for   
   independent and objective cognitive testing as November’s election edges   
   closer.   
      
   Biden, 81, faced a deluge of questions about his mental fitness for another   
   four years in office following his disastrous debate against Trump in June   
   when he repeatedly stumbled over his words and trailed off. Now, all eyes   
   are on Trump, who is prone to incoherent tangents and bizarre musings.   
      
   That was on full display at Monday night’s rally in Pennsylvania, where   
   Trump was mocked for his “word salads.”He said of Kamala Harris: “She had   
   the other interview with the other guy who was a nice guy I think from   
   Philadelphia from Pennsylvania, he was a nice guy, he was asking her all   
   these [inaudible] — the daily take — they don’t take like I do! Anybody   
   wants to go, go what the hell differences they make — they have — and how   
   dishonest was ABC...”   
      
   But Trump insists he is “cognitively very strong.”   
   On the campaign trail in Potterville, Michigan, Trump leapfrogged from one   
   random topic to another   
   On the campaign trail in Potterville, Michigan, Trump leapfrogged from one   
   random topic to another (Getty Images)   
      
   Earlier this month a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical   
   College, Richard A. Friedman, said he was “alarmed” by what he witnessed   
   during Trump’s debate performance on September 10. In an op-ed for The   
   Atlantic, he said Trump “displayed some striking, if familiar, patterns   
   that are commonly seen among people in cognitive decline.”   
      
   Dr. Ben Michaelis, a clinical psychologist who has previously carried out   
   cognitive assessments for the New York Supreme Court, agrees. He told The   
   Independent that Trump is “really not in a strong cognitive place.”   
      
   Michaelis — who stressed he has not examined Trump in person and could not   
   offer any formal diagnosis — watched the former president’s debate against   
   Kamala Harris earlier this month, noting that it started at 9 p.m.   
      
   “There’s a term when you’re talking about people with dementia called   
   sundowning, it’s a lot harder for them as the day goes on,” he said,   
   suggesting it appeared Trump could have been experiencing those symptoms.   
      
   “It’s very difficult for them to maintain focus on a topic,” he continued.   
   “The idea of being able to maintain that level of focus for that amount of   
   time, that late in the day…you wouldn’t think twice about it if that was   
   your grandfather. It’s just he happens to be running for president.”   
      
   When it comes to Trump’s rambling speeches, where he has often veered from   
   one unrelated topic to another, Michaelis said it struck him as   
   “logorrhoea” — the Greek word meaning excessive talking — which can be   
   associated with dementia.   
      
   An example of this was at a speech in Potterville, Michigan, where Trump   
   leapfrogged from talking about how he lost billions of dollars in San   
   Francisco to where he ranks in a list of “horribly” treated presidents. In   
   another speech, he began talking about bacon and within a minute had moved   
   on to wind turbines.   
      
   Trump has addressed his tendency to venture off topic, bragging about what   
   he calls “the weave.”   
   Psychiatrists observed Trump in the debate and said he displayed patterns   
   seen in people in cognitive decline   
   Psychiatrists observed Trump in the debate and said he displayed patterns   
   seen in people in cognitive decline (AP)   
      
   “When I do the weave...I’ll talk about nine different things and they all   
   come back brilliantly together,” he said. “Friends of mine that are English   
   professors, they say: ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.’”   
      
   But the experts don’t agree. “It’s excessive incoherent talking,” Michaelis   
   said.   
      
   “Again, I am not diagnosing him with anything, but it can be a symptom of   
   significant mental illness or dementia. [It is] that inability to maintain   
   focus and to move in a sort of tangential way from topic to topic.   
      
   “If you’re observing him, [the topics] don’t seem at all connected but they   
   may have some random connection in his mind, that’s what seems to be   
   happening.”   
      
   Allen Frances is a professor and the chair emeritus of psychiatry at the   
   Duke School of Medicine as well as the architect of the DSM-IV — the manual   
   for diagnostic criteria of a range of mental disorders.   
      
   Frances is “very much opposed to the misuse of the diagnostic system,” and   
   in 2016 he did not believe Trump displayed symptoms of a mental health   
   disorder.   
      
   But, from what he has observed from afar, Frances told The Independent he   
   believes the dial has now shifted, and it is likely Trump “has deteriorated   
   a great deal” since he was in office.   
      
   “First off, he seems pretty incoherent,” he said. “It’s hard for him not to   
   be tangential, circumstantial, not to stay on message. He’s all over the   
   place.”   
      
   Frances cited examples of unfounded claims Trump made in the debate: that   
   babies are “being executed” after birth, schools are performing surgery on   
   children, and Haitian immigrants are eating pets. “The things he’s saying   
   suggest he’s really lost touch with reality,” he said. “It seems to me   
   likely — although we can’t be definitive about saying anything about anyone   
   at a distance — it seems likely he has deteriorated a great deal.”   
      
   The psychiatrist, who conceded there is a possibility Trump’s behavior can   
   also be explained as a deliberate attempt to appeal to specific voters,   
   argued there should be “an upper age limit” for candidates running for the   
   presidency.   
   A number of experts believe there should be an age limit on candidates   
   running for president   
      
      
   Former White House physician Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who has cared for   
   Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, agrees there should be a cap on the   
   age of presidential candidates if they will not agree to undergo objective   
   cognitive assessments.   
      
   “We don’t let you be an airline pilot because of public safety past the age   
   of 65, we don’t let you be an FBI agent past the age of 57,” he told The   
      
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