A New York City psychotherapist says he has received dozens of hostile messages, including explicit death threats, after publicly describing the growing number of patients in his practice who exhibit what he calls symptoms of “Trump derangement syndrome” (TDS).
Jonathan Alpert, a Manhattan-based licensed therapist and author of the forthcoming book “Therapy Nation,” revealed that the backlash began immediately after he appeared on Fox News last week to discuss a Wall Street Journal op-ed he wrote on Nov. 12.
In the piece, he described “patients across the political spectrum” who raise President Donald Trump in therapy sessions “not to discuss policy but to process obsession, rage, and dread.”
Alpert shared several messages he says he received through text and email over the past week.
Many were profane; some included threats.
One message told him to “eat s— and die.”
Another called him a “pedophile protector.”
A third read: “You’re a lowlife… pedophile who decent people hope is slaughtered.”
“It’s been intense,” Alpert said.
“I expected disagreement, but I didn’t expect the level of hostility, especially from people in the mental health field.”
He said the reactions highlight a contradiction he’s observed:
“Many of the people who speak the most about empathy, tolerance, and inclusion reacted with the least of it.
“That reversal tells us something about how emotionally charged politics has become.”
A Growing Pattern in Therapy Rooms
Alpert drew national attention after appearing on Fox’s “The Faulkner Focus” on Nov. 14, where he argued that “Trump derangement syndrome” is not simply a political insult but a real emotional pattern he’s seeing more frequently.
“This is a profound pathology, and I would even go so far as to call it the defining pathology of our time,” he said on-air.
“People are obsessed with Trump.
“They’re hyper-fixated on him.
“They can’t sleep. They feel restless.
“They feel traumatized by Mr. Trump.”
He recalled one patient who said she struggled to enjoy a vacation because seeing Trump appear on television or social media left her feeling “triggered.”
According to Alpert, roughly three-quarters of his current patients display some version of these symptoms.
He emphasized that “Trump derangement syndrome” is not a medical diagnosis and is not meant to pathologize someone’s political beliefs.
“People can support or oppose Trump for all kinds of rational reasons,” he said.
“What I’m describing is an emotional pattern.
“It becomes a problem when someone’s political feelings grow so intense that they interfere with their daily life.”
A More Emotional Climate Since 2017
Alpert says he has seen these reactions increase sharply since Trump first took office.
“People aren’t separating disagreement from threat anymore,” he said.
He attributes the escalation in part to the wider use of therapy language, like “triggered” or “unsafe,” in everyday political discussions.
“Those words escalate everything,” he said.
“They frame the other person as dangerous rather than different.”
He believes that for many people, attitudes about Trump, whether strongly positive or negative, have become tied to personal identity, making political disagreements feel existential.
“When politics begins to disrupt sleep, mood, and relationships, it stops being a political opinion and becomes an emotional preoccupation,” he said.
Alpert says his goal in therapy is to help patients separate emotion from fact, tolerate discomfort, and keep political reactions from overtaking their daily functioning.
WATCH:
Support and Pushback
Despite the threats, Alpert says he has also received supportive messages from people who say they know friends or family members affected by similar symptoms.
“Many patients are relieved to talk with someone who isn’t afraid to name what’s happening,” he said.
Some mental health professionals, however, have cautioned against framing political emotions as psychological pathology.
In a letter responding to Alpert’s op-ed, Baltimore psychiatrist Dr. Robin Weiss said clinicians should avoid “labeling political stress as illness,” though she agreed therapists must help patients remain emotionally stable regardless of political developments.
Alpert says his aim is to describe what he sees clinically, not to make a political judgment.
Politics, he notes, is increasingly intertwined with identity for many Americans, and that emotional intensity is now showing up in the therapy room in unprecedented ways.
Our comment section is restricted to members of the Slay News community only.
To join, create a free account HERE.
If you are already a member, log in HERE.