Books by David Laing Dawson

We live in a moment of history when the leader of the free world (as the president of the United States is so often called) may hold in his hands the future path of democracy, the fate of millions all over the world, and, ultimately, the fate of our planet. And that fact, I think, trumps (sorry) all the caveats about diagnosing someone whom you have never seen. It is a time that anyone who can see the dangers posed by this man has a duty to speak up. I started these blogs before Donald J. Trump was improbably elected. The most popular among them has been my assessment of Donald J. Trump's mental and emotional age. I arrived at an age simply from observations of his behaviour and his statements, while asking the question, "At what age in development would one expect, or not be too shocked, to observe this behaviour?" I came up with an average of 14. Though occasionally his displays of sibling rivalry and his assessment of his own greatness are definitely pre-pubescent. We become easily inured, desensitized. The outrageous and abnormal can be made to feel normal. A step at a time. The German government enacted something like 50 laws over a short historical period, starting with restricting Jews from Union Leadership. Some of the political pundits on television comment regularly on the "abnormal" becoming "normal". But the very presentation on TV contributes to the desensitization.These blogs constitute my interpretation of the journey we are on with the Presidency of one Donald J. Trump as it is happening.

The blog has had about 75,000 views and has been read in 151 different countries since 2014. The posts reflect ideas about mental illness,health and life that can be debated and discussed so that we can come to a higher understanding of the issues. And, we have separated out mental illness from mental health because, despite their often interchangeability, they are distinct. Mental illness as a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life. Serious mental illnesses include major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder. In contrast, mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. That is quite different from mental illness. Unfortunately there is a tendency to confuse these. Unfotunately, there tendency to talk about mental health issues and problems which are not the same as mental illnesses.