Time for Basic Checks for Public Office

Trump's father had a personality disorder; Millions are now watching Trump's descent into a most grandiose megalomania .

Dealing with persons who have personality disorders that are or are likely to become a threat to others is notoriously fraught with difficulties, not the least of which is reliable diagnosis - certainly when the disorder is progressive;

Trump has been watched perhaps as much as any human being from the West in the last century suffering from such a disorder, and the deterioration over the time since his first election to office to the present is stark. The United States, it is reasonable to say, now has a good old-fashioned madman as its president, to the chagrin of that great nation and to the peril of us all. The risk of global catastrophe as a direct result of this is very clear, and the deaths of many innocents have already been allowed by Trump’s direct rescript to violence.

The power of presidential office has up to now cowed the two Houses of government from implementing the constitutional provision for removing a President incapacitated by illness. All the greater as a result is the need for any person being considered for high office to be carefully screened psychologically before appointment.

It is a measure that I believe should become absolutely standard everywhere; psychopaths are a small but significant percentage of the population, and are very often adept at concealing their anti-social tendencies, hiding in larger enterprises and in public service. They usually have toxic effects on those around them with wide-ranging and disastrous consequences.

The recognition of the existence of this very real threat to our humanity from the horrible spectacle of this man’s public descent into madness might at least be one benefit from this grotesque episode.