A Coronado-based psychiatrist who was one of the experts who developed the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder has penned a letter to the editor of the New York Times asking people to stop using the disorder to describe President Donald J. Trump.
"Most amateur diagnosticians have mislabeled President Trump with the diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. I wrote the criteria that define this disorder, and Mr. Trump doesn’t meet them," the letter reads.
"He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesn’t make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder," the letter to the editor continued.
Read the entire letter here.
The NY Times cites the author as Allen Frances, M.D. A professor emeritus at Duke University, Frances was the chair of the DSM-IV Task Force and of the department of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC.
The DSM is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders used by psychologists and psychiatrists.
Frances has also written for Psychology Today and posted a link to the article stating that he's "tired of amateur analyses" to his Twitter account.
During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump's personal physician released a one-page letter.
Long-time personal physician Dr. Harold Bornstein stated in September 2016 that the candidate was in "excellent physical health."
