WATCH: This is why President Trump's anxiety is giving you anxiety

Author and psychiatrist Justin Frank on how Trump's psychological issues might be his own biggest enemy

By Mary Elizabeth Williams

Senior Writer

Published March 13, 2017 12:00PM (EDT)

President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump

Wondering what goes on in the mind of the man who inhabits the White House has always been a popular American pastime -- but lately, the quest to understand Donald Trump's psyche feels like a national necessity. Now Dr. Justin Frank, a psychiatrist and author of "Bush on the Couch" and "Obama on the Couch," brings an expert's eye to his current project, "Trump On the Couch."

What concerns Frank is Trump's apparent relentless anxiety. "I think that he needs people to help him calm down and to help him," Frank says. And, he adds, "Trump is person who undermines through his behavior because any thought that makes him anxious he has to get rid of." Frank sees Trump isolating himself from associates and from media outlets that don't affirm his views, in an ever narrowing -- and unreliable -- circle of sources of information. "It's a dangerous situation when you're the president of the United States."


By Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a senior writer for Salon and author of "A Series of Catastrophes & Miracles."

MORE FROM Mary Elizabeth Williams


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Donald Trump Justin Frank Original Video Psychiatry Psychology