TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2025
Except in the New York Times: Is cognitive impairment a type of "mental illness?"
Also, is "cognitive impairment" a technical (diagnostic) term? How about "mental illness?"
Regarding "mental illness," the term may (or perhaps may not) be slipping out of favor. As we noted several months ago, Wikipedia redirects searched on that term redirects to a lengthy post which appears beneath a different name—a post which starts like this:
Mental disorder
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is also characterized by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotional regulation, or behavior, often in a social context. Such disturbances may occur as single episodes, may be persistent, or may be relapsing–remitting. There are many different types of mental disorders, with signs and symptoms that vary widely between specific disorders. A mental disorder is one aspect of mental health.
The causes of mental disorders are often unclear. Theories incorporate findings from a range of fields. Disorders may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain...
[...]
The definition and classification of mental disorders are key issues for researchers as well as service providers and those who may be diagnosed. For a mental state to be classified as a disorder, it generally needs to cause dysfunction. Most international clinical documents use the term mental "disorder," while "illness" is also common. It has been noted that using the term "mental" (i.e., of the mind) is not necessarily meant to imply separateness from the brain or body.
And so on, at great length, from there. For the record, Wikipedia uses the term "mental illness" with substantial frequency in its lengthy discussion of "mental disorder(s)."
That said, why might that term be losing favor on an international basis? Midway through its lengthy report, Wikipedia suggests a possible reason:
Stigma
The social stigma associated with mental disorders is a widespread problem. The US Surgeon General stated in 1999 that: "Powerful and pervasive, stigma prevents people from acknowledging their own mental health problems, much less disclosing them to others." Additionally, researcher Wulf Rössler in 2016, in his article, "The Stigma of Mental Disorders" stated:
"For millennia, society did not treat persons suffering from depression, autism, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses much better than slaves or criminals: they were imprisoned, tortured or killed."
That's the way we were back then! Later, we're told this:
"Efforts are being undertaken worldwide to eliminate the stigma of mental illness, although the methods and outcomes used have sometimes been criticized."
A stigma may be associated with the familiar term "mental illness." Our own discussion today continues along from there.
We offer this discussion today because of ongoing behavior by the sitting president. In yesterday's report, we noted the strange Truth Social post last weekend involving so-called magic beds.
Yesterday afternoon, more strange behavior occurred. Such behavior is typically ignored by the New York Times, which seems to prefer to whistle past the graveyard while proceeding along in the dark.
By way of contrast, here's Mediaite's report:
Trump Posts Deranged AI Video of Chuck Schumer Calling Democrats ‘Just a Bunch of Woke Pieces of Sh*t’
President Donald Trump raised eyebrows on Monday after he posted a bizarre, AI-generated video of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calling Democrats “a bunch of woke pieces of sh*t.”
In the video, Schumer could be seen standing next to a stereotypical Mexican version of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)—complete with sombrero and moustache—while saying:
We won't post what the fake version of Senator Schumer is shown to be saying. You can read the transcript—much more significantly, you can watch the actual tape—at the Mediaite report.
In all likelihood, the New York Times won't be reporting this latest bit of bizarre behavior by the sitting president. This is one of the many ways the people we Blue Americans are taught to trust refuse to perform their basic duties within the failing American system.
Nothing to look at! Just move along! So our major Blue American stars have persistently said, on our major cable and network news shows but also within our newspapers.
Last night, though, that latest post at the Truth Social site did produce instant pushback.
The post appeared during the 9 o'clock hour. During that hour, CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Senator Marshall (R-KS) what he thought of the post:
Kaitlan Collins Confronts Republican Senator With Wild AI Video From Trump: ‘Is That Appropriate?’
Is something "wrong" with President Trump? Weve persistently asked that obvious question, even as the New York Times (and other Blue American individuals and orgs) have insisted on looking away.
(Persistently, we've also done this: We'vesuggested you should "pity the child." And we've said that some such state of affairs would be a tragic loss of human potential and should be regarded that way.)
For today, we'll mention one basic point which we've mentioned before:
The finer people in Blue America's exalted elites are comfortable with the term "mental illness"—but only when such a possibility is involved in the occurrence of certain types of "street crimes."
When certain types of crimes occur, there is no general journalistic reluctance to consider questions of mental health, mental disorder, or even mental illness. Here for example is part of the report by NBC News about last weekend's mass shooting at that North Carolina waterfront bar. The apparent shooters was Nigel Max Edge, age 40:
'Highly premeditated' attack at North Carolina waterfront bar leaves 3 dead and 5 wounded
[...]
[Southport Police Chief Todd] Coring told reporters that Edge is a “self-described” combat veteran who was injured in the line of duty and has post-traumatic stress disorder.
Edge served in the Marines from September 2003 through June 2009, according to military records. He attained the rank of sergeant and was deployed twice as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Military records show he received numerous awards, including a Purple Heart, a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, a Combat Action Ribbon for Iraq and an Iraq Campaign Medal with two bronze stars.
District Attorney John David said Monday that Edge is a former Marine Corps scout sniper who was injured in the line of duty and has significant mental health issues, including a possible traumatic brain injury.
There is "nothing about his criminal background which suggests he could perpetrate such horrendous crimes," David said.
Edge’s ex-wife, Rachel Crowl, told NBC News that she has not spoken to her ex-husband in about a decade. Court records show their divorce was finalized in 2009.
Crowl said he had been “crying out for help for a long time” regarding his behavior and mental health. Referring to Edge by his previous name, she added that “what Sean did was very wrong.”
“I’m sad for these families. I’m sad nobody helped him and this could have maybe been prevented,” Crowl said.
To its credit, NBC News was willing to publish the public statements about the assailant's possible "mental health" issues. As we type, the corresponding report by the New York Times does refer to PTSD, but it omits explicit statements about "mental health," even the statement which was made by the local district attorney.
Given the nature of the crime and the apparent assailant, the omission of those statements strikes us as an outlier. We offer this fuller disclosure:
Most news orgs, including the Times, will freely discuss issues of "mental health" and "mental illness" when certain type of crimes are committed by certain types of "everyday / regular people."
For better or worse, a different standard has long obtained with respect to behavior by major political figures.
In a spin-off from the old "Goldwater Rule," major news orgs have long avoided any such discussion with respect to political figures. As with many rules, that strikes us as an extremely good rule—until such time as it isn't.
Have we entered such a time today? As O'Donnell directly noted last night, it seems to us that the conduct of the sitting president has moved us past that point. That said, our major journalists are unlikely to have the intellectual and emotional skills which would allow them to discuss the possibility in a constructive way.
We return to the concept of stigma:
Sad! The stigma which has long accompanied the notion of "mental illness" still lurks in our world today. Even within the minds of our Blue American greats, any talk of mental illness with respect to a major pol would almost surely come in the form of an insult, rather than what it more intelligently should be seen to be:
Any report on (severe) mental illness is a report on a tragic loss of human capability—a tragic loss which may also involve a very dangerous situation in the world.
PTSD is nobody's fault. As a general matter, neither is "mental illness," including severe mental illness.
Severe mental illness is a human tragedy, and it should be seen as such. That said, it can also become a dangerous matter—sometimes in a tragically afflicted military veteran, sometimes in a tragically affected major political figure.
Meanwhile, is "cognitive impairment" a mental illness / disorder? How about "dementia?" Is dementia a mental disorder?
The conceptual landscape is quite complex in this realm. It lies well beyond the analytical skills and range of empathy possessed by our major political journalists.
We close today with a reference to that profile in Sunday's New York Times. We refer to this profile of Kat Timpf, one of Greg Gutfeld's major enablers at the Fox News Channel.
Not unlike the sitting president, Gutfeld behaves in a highly unusual way on his nightly pair of Fox News Channel programs. It's hard to miss the possibility that a virulent form of woman hatred ("misogyny") is somehow eating the innards of this furious 61-year-old man.
Timpf is one of the players who enable this apparent "misogyny," in her case on a nightly basis. Unless you're reading the New York Times, which has now transitioned Timpf into an admirable feminist who is fighting off the various madmen within Gutfeld's right-wing audience.
That profile comes from a hall of mirrors. Of one thing we can assure you:
That cannot have been the original copy which was presented by Amanda Hess, the journalist of record. Hess has long been a writer on women's issues. There's no way that she produced the copy which appeared in Sunday's New York Times.
Plainly, some unnamed editor doctored her copy, creating the piece which appeared in the Times. In such ways, we run up against the intellectual shortcomings of our vastly imperfect species.
Before the week is done, we want to walk you through that hall of mirrors profile. Also, we want to share the unintentional humor found all through this presentation by the leading authority on our human powers of discernment:
Human
Humans, scientifically known as Homo sapiens, are primates that belong to the biological family of great apes and are characterized by hairlessness, bipedality, and high intelligence. Humans have large brains, enabling more advanced cognitive skills that facilitate successful adaptation to varied environments, development of sophisticated tools, and formation of complex social structures and civilizations.
That's the way the profile starts. The humor continues from there!
Too funny! That said, we humans have always loved to say such things about our highly intelligent selves.
"Man [sic] is the rational animal," Aristotle is said to have said. He'd never watched the Fox News Channel. We can assure you of that!
Tomorrow: What have they done with the real Amanda Hess? Inquiring minds want to know!
BalasPadamPeople post all kinds of shit they think is funny, on their social media pages, Bob. That's why I don't follow or read, even occasionally, any of them.
But you obviously enjoy social media pages of our President a lot, since you read and discuss his postings (and even re-postings!) all the time. Good for you, Bob, good for you.
And don't worry, Bob, nether your mental illness nor your retardation will ever cause me to stigmatize you. You are very special, and you will always remain my friend, Bob. My very special friend.
1. Trump has no sense of humor.
Padam2. There is no political advantage to mocking your own followers.
3. Q-Anon believers have no sense of humor about their own theories.
4. No one thinks Trump could have used AI to make such a video, so others were involved.
On the other hand, there is a bunch of cruelty in telling poor and elderly supporters that all their health woes will be solved by magic beds, so that makes it seem likely this did come from the right.
First Somerby says the NY Times doesn't discuss mental illness, then he praises the NY Times for discussing it in this recent shooter, who is speculated to have PTSD (not everyone who serves in Iraq has it).
BalasPadamSomerby doesn't mention it, but one reason the term mental illness is controversial is because it is unclear whether a medical disease model is appropriate for discussing behavioral symptoms that cannot be traced back to organic (physiological) causes. Many symptoms are situational and consist of non-normative behavior. Can these be disease symptoms when the behavior itself is defined by culture and conformity to standards that vary across time and place? That bothers psychologists and psychiatrists, but Somerby doesn't mention it at all.
For example, autistic people want to be considered neurodivergent, not diseased or ill or disordered. When someone displays behavior that is normal for them but different than other people, is that really an illness or disorder?
The problem of stigma arises because once you declare someone to be mentally ill, it will be hard for them to find higher level, better paid work at all. Thus the diagnosis shuts doors to work and social positions that may be beneficial to a person once they have changed the behavior that gave them the label. It also implies that a person cannot change. Negative stereotypes about mental illness will be applied to individuals who do not deserve them, including the pervasive belief that mentally ill people are violent when less than 5% are, and then they mostly attack their family and care providers, not the public. The unpredictability of violence, its lack of correlation with mental illness is what makes preventing it more difficult.