Exhibition Evaluation: Fill & Download for Free

I may not gain a lot of fans with this, but I'm going to give a raw, real answer to this question.My son lives with severe anxiety and depression. He was diagnosed with these at age 6. He had a psychological evaluation at 11 years old and was also diagnosed with Impulsivity, Impulse Control Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Intermittent Explosive Disorder. A second psychological evaluation at age 17 added Borderline Personality Disorder and “rule out” Bipolar (meaning he exhibited some signs of Bipolar but not enough for an official diagnosis). He cut from ages 13–18. His first suicide attempt was at age 11. His second was at 16. When he was 15 he self-cut his arm so badly we had to rush to the emergency room to have it put back together.There were days when my son was absolutely incorrigible. Defiant, disobedient, obstinate, rude, disrespectful, violent and downright mean. He seemed to lack basic human kindness, consideration, and empathy. For several years I was a verbal punching bag. He could look you square in the face, tell you to go kill yourself (and mean it) then go about his day as though you didn't exist. He honestly just did.not.care. I can't even say how many nights I cried myself to sleep fearing that I was raising a true sociopath, asking myself how this happened, and how I was going to stop it, for fear he was seriously going to hurt someone one day.He's 20 years old now. He's been working very hard at talk and medication therapy for the last year and a half. That in combination with maturity…. I can't even believe the progress he's made. He's like a completely different person. This is the son I raised.Do I love my son?Not even a question. I always have. I always will. There's not a single thing in the world that could ever change that.He is my life.But I can honestly say, I didn't always like him.

I don’t like this question one bit.This isn’t to say that I don’t think there’s plenty of cognitive dissonance in politics, or that I have any sympathy whatsoever for people who look at Trump and see a statesman worthy of admiration.My problem is that it’s framed in a needlessly insulting way.Nevertheless, let’s tackle its assumptions in turn:Genetically unable to comprehend facts, logic, and rational arguments? This is preposterous. It’s a heck of a claim. I think someone making such a claim is responsible for providing evidence, especially given that there’s not much evidence that Trump supporters are genetically different from the rest of the population.Is it that the environment in which they grew up that has caused them to exhibit cognitive dissonance? That’s not necessarily an unreasonable question, but everyone exhibits cognitive dissonance on some issues. Is it a matter of the environment one grew up in? To some degree, probably. Do Trump supporters exhibit more cognitive dissonance than other people? Again, you would have to furnish evidence. My guess is that they are behaving exactly how you would expect a human being with the same culture and upbringing to behave.Now, in my capacity as a member of the left, I am much better at identifying cognitive dissonance in members of my out-group than I am in perceiving it on my own side. Or rather, I am more apt to seeing nuance on my own side and simplicity on the other. We all do this. But whenever I’ve taken the time to analyze in depth, what the other side was saying, taking care to evaluate the arguments of its intellectuals rather than those of its uneducated masses, I’ve had to concede that there was, in fact, more nuance than what my preferred gotcha talking point was conceding.This does not mean that I don’t have fundamental divergences of opinion with conservatives, on matters ranging from what is the appropriate role of government to what constitutes morality. But I do not assume from this that they are less rational than I am.

I used to work for Adult Protective Services. We were trained to evaluate when a person was suffering from cognitive difficulties so we could refer them to doctors and services that could diagnose mental health problems and provide help for them. When someone speaks in a “word salad” it is one sign that they are probably suffering from cognitive decline. There are other signs that Trump exhibits as well, such as his short attention span in briefings, his dislike of reading reports, and his difficulty pronouncing words. If Donald Trump had been my client, I would have referred him for further evaluation by a mental health professional based solely on his speech patterns and vocabulary. They have deteriorated significantly in the past 10 years or so.I really do not like Trump as a person and hate his policies, but all that aside, it is pretty obvious to anyone who has ever worked in the mental health field that he really should have a thorough mental assessment. Many people who revile Trump may not realize that he is probably terrified and confused, because he likely realizes on some level that he is slipping mentally. Unfortunately, given Trump’s character flaws, he reacts by becoming increasingly belligerent, angry, and defensive. It is frightening and dangerous for the President of the US to have these problems. The most frightening part may be the refusal on the part of his party leaders and followers to acknowledge that he has a serious cognitive issue.