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Psychotherapist Calls 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' a Mental Health 'Epidemic,' Reports Backlash

The label is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, making his account an anecdotal report.

Overview

  • On Fox News' The Sunday Briefing, Jonathan Alpert said Trump-focused preoccupation now dominates about three-quarters of his therapy sessions.
  • He described patients experiencing anxiety, anger and insomnia, and he reported divisions in families and friendships tied to the political fixation.
  • He emphasized a treatment approach centered on separating fact from fiction and challenging unproven beliefs about Trump.
  • He noted that the phrase is widely used by Trump and his supporters as a partisan insult even as he applies it to a clinical pattern he says he observes.
  • After his Wall Street Journal essay and the Fox segment, Alpert says he received hostile messages and death threats that he cites as evidence of the phenomenon.