July 18, 2018--President Munchausen

We were in New York City most of last week to do some routine doctoring and to see a few close friends and family members.

Good news on all fronts though it seems, without symptoms, I may have Lyme Disease again and either had or have Shingles.

One other thing--we were reminded again that while up in Maine we spend very little time watching cable news or pretty much anything else but when in NYC we watch too much. And, so, in town we did some reverting. At 6 a.m. I automatically turned on Morning Joe and we found ourselves watching Nicole Wallace's show later in the day.

This brought Trump front and center back into our lives. 

Halfway into Morning Joe Monday morning we realized why we keep the TV off most of the time during the six months we spend in Maine--what's available is too boring and/or too depressing.

Monday was all about Trump in Europe. First, there was a live feed from the NATO meeting in Brussels where over what appeared to be breakfast without food Trump in a monologue berated NATO members for not spending enough on their own defense. How they take advantage of us, expecting America to pick up the tab while they devote much of their GNP to overgenerous welfare programs for their citizens and the millions of refugees they foolishly allow to flood into their countries. 

The headline from that meeting was Trump slandering Germany and chancellor Angela Merkel for being held "captive" by Russia since Germany spends "billions and billions, many billions" of dollars for natural gas that flows into Germany from Russia. Germans, Trump claimed, get "70 percent" of their energy this way and thus are in effect hostages of Russia.

When I said to Rona that this figure is much too high (it turns out to be that "only" 13 percent of German's energy is supplied by Russia), she said, "More Munchausen Syndrome."

"You've referred to that before," I said, "Since I never heard of this I should have looked it up. Tell me, what is it?"

"It's a fictitious disorder, a mental disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if they have an illness when he or she isn't really sick."

"Like being a hypochondriac."

"Similar but there's a key difference--people with Munchausen's know they are faking it whereas hypochondriacs believe they are sick."

"So how does this work with Trump, who you say has a version of Munchausen's?"

"In many cases people with Munchausen's make illnesses up in part to elicit sympathy but also to 'cure' themselves when they want to boast by 'getting over' illnesses which they in fact never had. Like Trump does with facts or the truth. Unless he is more pathological than most people think, he knows he's making this stuff up. Like with Germany and Russian gas."

"Interesting but are their also parallels between classic Munchausen's where people 'cure' the illnesses they made up and Trump's relationship to the truth?"

"Take the business with Angela Merkel. He made up the 70 percent number, using it to verbally beat her up all day and then after they met one-on-one later that day or on Tuesday, he backed off from criticizing her and was full of praise for her and Germany. So among his followers he got credit for what he claimed while lying (his people hate the Europeans) and then later among the better informed, more serious crowd, he got some begrudging credit for appearing to have listened and moderated his position."

"I like this," I said.

"He did the same thing with British prime minister Theresa May. First he mocked her for getting in trouble when trying to implement Brexit because she didn't 'take his advice' but then after private meetings with her later in the week in England, he took much of it back, praising her for the way she is struggling with this complicated issue. First he made up the situation (her not taking his advice) and then took it back--in a sense overcame it in true Munchausen fashion."

"Is Munchausen a real person?"

"Of course not! That's half the fun. There's a fictional Baron Munchausen, an 18th century German nobleman who made up stories about the remarkable feats he performed like riding a cannonball or fighting a 40-foot long crocodile. Much like Trump's boasting. Then when caught in the lie that he knew was a lie he simply backed off.

"And when in the 1950s it came time to study and then name a new syndrome that had Munchausen-like aspects to it the psychiatrists named it for him. If they were doing that now I suppose it could be called Trump Syndrome."

Now, back in Maine, the TV is off except for Wimbledon and the World Cup. Thankfully, both are over.

But then there was the disastrous meeting with Vladimir Putin and . . .

Baron Munchausen