Are we witnessing a full-blown psychological breakdown in real time?

[skip fox]

I'm hooking this to his press conference of less than an hour ago in which he gleefully announced how the country was opening back up and the corona virus burning itself out. (And mentioned "washing hands" but never "wearing masks"!)

But yesterday he said it would all just go away just as he did last March.

No matter the reality, and even as it looks more and more dire Trump continues to do what he has done for months: deny.

How can someone who denies a reality which gets increasingly obvious and intrusive not be considered absolutely delusional?

He needs professional help and a vacation from Adderall.

[sunonmars]

1. and could not run away fast enough before they could ask a question.

[Claustrum]

2. Can't let a question based in reality get in his "alternative fact" world n/t

[Newest Reality]

3. This is the person,

This is the person who who would launch an all out major preemptive nuclear strike on other countries only because the world doesn't love him.

Now, if I would have made that statement any other time with any other President, you would have thought I was being partisan, hyperbolic, paranoid or maybe a bit touched.

I would hope the Secret Service is keeping the football at a distance and utilizing techniques, (shiny things, hamberders, mirrors to look in) to distract him from, "We have nuclear weapons! Why don't we use them."

We have a major threat to the United States and the rest of the world in the most powerful position. You talk about a bad movie plot.

[skip fox]

5. Trump's world-wide snuff flick.

[Merlot]

4. He's not denying reality, he's lying for his base.

He knows, he just doesn't care.

[skip fox]

9. Interesting . . .

Not that it gives me great insight, but I worked, as an attendant, in mental institutions (Columbus State Hospital and Toledo Mental Health Center) in the seventies for over six years, and one thing I noted was the continued insistence upon the delusional. Month after month, year after year.

Of course he could just be, going from your stance, a very persistent liar, even in the face of the fact that most people know he's lying. Maybe that's New York Tough, butt looks crazy to me.

You could e right, but the look I look, I seem to see highly significant mental blockages.

[Merlot]

10. I tend to not want to give him any psychological excuses.

In reality it's probably a mixture of the both - denying reality as well as denying that people know he's lying. I do think he knows he's lying.

[skip fox]

13. Good point.

We shouldn't let history simply enter the plea of "Not Guilty Due to Insanity."

[MoonchildCA]

6. He's channeling his Baghdad Bob.

[oregonjen]

7. Were his pupils dilated?

Can’t stand to watch him, so that’s why I’m asking.

[Mike 03]

8. I want this mystery solved too, but over the last few weeks I've been

rereading books about the end of the Nazi regime, and after 75 years people are still debating whether Hitler was delusional at the end and sincerely believed Germany could pull off an upset victory over the Allies or whether he knew the war was lost, and at what point. (Although the evidence points towards him recognizing reality, which makes the end of the war all the more puzzling in some ways.)

Drugs may play a factor in both these examples.

One difference: Trump's inner circle won't all commit suicide, so maybe we'll get answers to how delusional Trump really was during the last months of his administration.

[skip fox]

11. Maybe an unsolvable puzzle . . .

And it might even be significantly more complex.

Perhaps he started lying and ended believing.

or

Perhaps the two impulses don't operate independently but his deceptive and delusioal networks overlay each other such that they each contributing a percentage of influence.

or

Perhaps there are even more impulses like a histrionic one or one attracted to enigmas.

Perhaps.

Is it best to see it one way or the other? Which would be the best diagnosis in mind of treatment?

[spinbaby]

12. Yeah, burn itself out

Meanwhile Florida just reported over new 10,000 cases today for a new record.

[Paladin]

14. In real time, that breakdown already happened.

No need to be an MD to reach that conclusion. trump is a drooling psychotic, and has been for some time.

[2naSalit]

15. ...

[Baked Potato]

16. A stupid, ignorant man with money and power, half the country's dream life.

[Buckeyeblue]

17. He has painted himself into a corner

And he doesn't have the character to say, maybe we need to take a different approach. He's all-in on it will burn itself out. Whatever that means.

[Midnight Writer]

18. Nah, Hannity says Trump can't have psychological issues cause "He's the toughest man I know".

Tough guys can't get sick.