Re: "Trump Says he Got Only One Word Wrong"

To the editor:

When someone is telling the truth he has only one story to keep straight in his mind. This is not  a complicated intellectual task; the story does not change over time because the events that comprise the story - remembered and part of history - have not changed.  We hope to learn from history but do not engage in revisionism - either for ourselves or others. Our well-being, our sanity, requires that we grasp reality and tolerate it especially when painful. If not, important judgements as to how to deal with reality cannot be made.

President Trump (NYT, 7.19.18, Trump says he got only one word wrong), with help from his inner circle, repeatedly changes his stories though his true sentiments often reveal themselves. He is a confabulator-in-chief who creates stories that suit his audience and his own emotional needs. In Helsinki, Vladimir Putin was his audience.  Back home, his audience became Americans and his story shifted accordingly. He constantly seeks to dismiss news stories not to his liking by creating his own story - 'fake news' - manipulating the minds of his supporters.

The multitude of confusing and contradictory statements of 'fact' are comprehensible only through a psychological lens: President Trump will say or do whatever he has to based on his internal emotional needs. Whether this is based on a purely psychological problem, a problem with past behavior he is trying to conceal, or some combination of the two is impossible to know at this point. Regardless, deception including self-deception, appears to be a frequently used coping mechanism.

When neurological patients confabulate it is poignant to see how they fill their gaps in memory with more pleasant stories than are warranted by their state of illness.  When the President of the United States repeatedly makes things up we are dealing with an emergency.  To view it otherwise is to collectively deny reality.

Respectfully submitted

Larry S. Sandberg MD