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Madeleine Albright said a phrase I often use: “Fascism is not a political ideology.” I usually add: “It is mental pathology writ large.” It would be good if we could finally recognize what we are seeing: disease taking over a system, political or otherwise.
Fascism is merely the result of political power being handed to a person who cannot handle it. Surely, the disease causes the person to seek power in the first place, but once given the power, the limits of his or her sense of self will lead only to its abuse.
The pathological pursuit of power is in the first place to compensate for the inadequacy in handling one’s own affairs. If one cannot even handle one’s own affairs, how can one handle a nation’s? Paranoia then takes over, and quickly follows the use of force.
This is why it is critically important to screen in advance for mental pathology, to detect the warning signs that are familiar to mental health experts but not always obvious to the untrained eye. We should not gamble with matters of health and disease, or life and death.
Donald Trump legally bears all criminal responsibility. But we as society should recognize that he is also handicapped, as are his followers, and not give into their pathological drives. We should count neither legitimate choice as pathology, nor pathology as legitimate choice.
