I had the privilege of attending the APA’s 2018 Annual Conference a few weeks ago here in San Francisco. I am a relatively new member to this professional body and felt obliged to attend since it was scheduled in my “back yard”. It was an impressive event, well-orchestrated with each of the association’s 54 divisions represented through an overwhelming number of learning and information venues. I particularly appreciated the organization’s helpful smart phone app which allowed participants to schedule and attend those sessions that most interested them.
Great conference “spirit” aside, my thinking kept centering on what would the pragmatic outcome of this massive event be at its conclusion? Would the APA enhance its public reputation and finally get beyond the blemish of the George W. Bush era association with “enhanced interrogation techniques” (torture)? Would my research focus on multicultural leadership and related practice start to have a voice and position regarding what we are currently witnessing about our national and, by extension, global leadership behavior?
Regarding this second question, I did find some clarity. In what I suspect was one of the more emotionally charged sessions at the conference, the International Psychology Division’s gathering titled “The Impact of Global Politics and the Trump Era on Psychology” proved to be insightful. With standing room only and hosted by a panel of well-versed international psychologists, the presentations they shared offered our professional community an outsider’s perspective on how President Trump and his Administration are affecting their work and impressions of US leadership across the globe.
Before I proceed, I am not interested in offending anyone’s political orientation here. To be transparent regarding mine, I have always struggled with our labels (Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative, etc.) and have never been able to earnestly subscribe to any one extreme of our two dominate parties. Honestly, I cannot endorse what I consider the shrill excesses of both sides where the emotional rhetoric blocks the capacity for a constructive conversation. Ultimately, the generation of good policy that supports most Americans takes the back seat to our intertribal inclination to blame the other for our current difficulties. In the end, the result is very little progress towards resolution of the emergent challenges we all face which are not party affiliated. When I frame all this as one who spends his professional time trying to help leaders and their organizations, the primary “takeaway” I gleaned from APA 2018 was that psychologist need to decide if they are going to maintain a hushed status quo with regard to the psychological impact Trump and his Administration is having on Americans and, by extension, those across the globe who look towards this country as a center of democratic values and healthy individual and organizational mental health. In this session, Trump’s narcissism was raised as cause for concern as witnessed in how his decision making and associated polices are having serious impact on our internal immigrant community and those outside of the country who have always looked towards us as a moral compass as they struggle with their own, often deadly, political realities. As we did in this session, one only needs to consider the diagnosis process for Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and line the 9 qualifiers up to our President’s well documented public behavior. Without suggesting a definitive clinical diagnosis (that would be bad practice from afar) there is certainly enough data for concern regarding his leadership. As social creatures we can easily be swayed by leaders who simplify complexity down to a binary analysis of emotional good verses bad – it makes our sense making so much easier and helps us avoid the uncomfortable analysis that perhaps we need to change ourselves, too.
So, what can Psychologist do? Well, beyond meeting our commitment and professional responsibility to individual clients, we need to extend our awareness and our voice to the national political environment in which we operate. People are suffering here in the United States and across the globe based on the mean-spirited words and unilateral policies emerging from our President’s leadership. The Administration’s behavior is generating resentments and associated resistance which can have long lasting implications and ultimately undermine the kind of objectives both parties could be agreeing on while operating from the comfort of a decent economy. For the most part, America has always been a place of generosity and hope. I suspect that is why we have been a successful nation. However, there are clouds on our horizon generated by our current national behavior. Regardless of your political affiliation, if you cannot draw a direct line between your personal leadership behavior beyond your immediate clients and execute it in the political realm in which we currently reside, then you are complicit in how the forces at that level are affecting those who look towards our profession for better well-being. Mental health is suffering under the Trump presidency so as professionals let’s get to work by first explicitly admitting it.
