The Psychology of Trump Contagion: An Existential Threat to American Democracy and All Humankind, Chapter Ten

A Preview of My New Book, by Paid Subscription

Chapter Ten

First Solution: Accountability and Limit Setting

At long last, we enter the section on “Cures”.  In the “Consequences” section, or the last four chapters, we covered the consequences of having a severely mentally-impaired person being given power beyond his capacity to handle.  Through influence and exposure, symptoms can spread into becoming a shared psychosis, or group-level loss of contact with reality.  Simultaneously, sociopathic tendencies represent both predatory exploitation of these vulnerabilities as well as symptoms that are the most contagious.  Like any epidemic, Trump Contagion is best approached as a public health problem that we can intervene with at multiple levels.  The first proposed intervention that is necessary in the immediate term is the most dramatic and costly but the least effective.  Yet, at an advanced stage of disease, this step cannot be skipped.  It is the approach that the public will find most understandable and impressive—but is actually the least effective.  Examples at the level of the body would be surgery or medication.  This approach is called tertiary prevention, which in public health indicates interventions with those who have already fallen ill, so that the focus is on treatment of symptoms and on alleviating the progression of disease.  The next-level intervention is intermediary, less dramatic and less costly but more efficient, through the use of a targeted approach.  It is called secondary prevention, or interventions with groups that are at risk of getting ill.  Examples might include the prevention of cancer by convincing a smoker to give up the habit or encouraging mammograms and colonoscopies to patients of a certain age.  Finally, the least costly and the most effective of all is primary prevention, or interventions at the population level that aim to improve health and to prevent illnesses before they occur.  This may include nationwide vaccination programs, seatbelt laws, sanitation of the water supply, or public health education campaigns.