Re “Trump’s Method, Our Madness” by Joel Whitebook in New York Times: Perhaps “dissociated statements and actions” indicate a dissociative disorder.

“Sometimes, when psychoanalysts begin treatment with a new patient, they quickly find themselves feeling that they can’t make sense of what is going on. The patient’s statements and behavior simply don’t add up, and the flurry of dissociated statements and actions can quickly begin to produce something like a disorienting fog” (1).

“During initial interviews of patients who later proved to have MPD [multiple personality disorder], I have noticed a recurring pattern: I find it difficult to obtain a coherent history…much of the information is inconsistent or even contradictory…” (2, p. 72).

When someone has “dissociated statements and actions,” evaluate for dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality), found in the diagnostic manual in the chapter on Dissociative Disorders (3).

1. Joel Whitebook PhD. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/opinion/trumps-method-our-madness.html

2. Frank W. Putnam MD. Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder. New York, The Guilford Press, 1989.

3. American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition [DSM-5]. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.