When an organic system falls ill, what is sometimes needed is a pathogenic catalyst to create conditions for something intensely cathartic to occur. This allows the toxicity that’s been building to be released and permits the organism to heal.  I believe that in our current political system, Donald J. Trump is that pathogen, and ironically has the potential to provide a healing of the body politic.

It’s not that he has healing powers, please don’t misunderstand. No, he is definitely what he appears to be: a narcissistic, adolescently impulsive egomaniac that cares only about advancing his own self interests. It is because he is such a damaged individual that he exhibits all of the characteristics of a pathogen, i.e. an agent that causes infection or disease.

There is no mystery as how Trump as a political reagent will behave when caused to react: thoughtlessly and rudely. He’s a self-scripted character perfectly suited for reality television--thus his dramatic appeal. Much of this charismatic persona was created by his ghostwriter, Tony Schwartz, in The Art of the Deal. Schwartz remorsefully admits he co-created a complete fantasy. It was given traction by the desperation of America’s near dying middle class which has been struggling for years to merely survive. Trump’s role is certainly not to lead this country forward; he is plainly not the great business man he claims to be, given the vestige of multiple bankruptcies, fraudulent businesses, and innocent people he’s taken advantage of. But he has definitely galvanized a wide populace of hopeless Americans to participate in an anti-politics as usual revolt intended to help reverse our current national malaise.

In this way Trump can be seen as an antidote to our ailing politico-economic status quo that’s been based on immense economic privilege for the few thus creating continuing declining opportunity for the many. He has given a voice to middle class, disenfranchised Americans who have not been taken seriously for quite a long time. Of course this is not his voice, since he is one of the privileged few who have successfully managed to manipulate the system for his best interests, usually at the dire expense of others less fortunate. In this fiction, Trump’s own caricature of self-created success (his brand) looks so good, even unbelievably so, that it speaks to America’s desperation that then believed it into reality.  

From an overall perspective, Trump is part of a system attempting to correct itself. Instead of thinking of him as a leader, which he hasn’t the temperament, discipline or committed interest in being, perhaps we might think of him as a pathogen created to help our country heal. By galvanizing American politics in ways we’ve never experienced, this could conceivably be the election with the highest turnout of all time.  Ironically, he has the potential to create great change by being a cathartic means to flush the inequities out of a bloated, ailing political and economic system.

Sadly we’ve grown accustomed to divisive politics and the stalemate of entitled partisanship with an uptick in unprecedented mean-spiritedness. Not being a politician but an unexpectedly popular interloper, Trump initially said things that no one dared to say. This is because he had nothing to lose, except for his humongous ego, which he’s braced to save if necessary with his accusations of a rigged election.  He’s the chemotherapy which kills every cell in its path compared to Bernie Sander’s surgical, laser-like approach intended to end economic paralysis of unfair, costly small business regulations, update the tax code designed to advantage the top 1%, and  stop detrimental partisan lobbying ushered in by Citizens United.

I believe we as a country need to come out of our denial which has lead to such dis-ease and find alternate means to move forward and heal ourselves as a nation. We need to look at how we’ve been living with a sobering awareness to see how we seem to have lost touch with our humanity. It is our discipline, integrity, and respect for others that helps make us great and the lack thereof that has caused such unhealthy economic and living conditions for so many. Together we can create a unified America by participating fully in this healing process. We will then transform the way we see ourselves, see other Americans, and model to the rest of the world the best of who we have the capability to be when living up to our fullest potential and exhibiting our most humane selves.

Michael Mongno MFT, Ph.D, LP is a holistic psychoanalyst and couples therapist in NYC and the founder of PresentCenteredTherapies.com