From 2013, it appears that there were already obvious problems with Piers:-"Piers Morgan: a psychiatric assessmentPiers Morgan’s recent comments suggest he thinks people with mental health issues shouldn’t be allowed to perform meaningful jobs. However, given his history, does this mean he himself shouldn’t be employed?""As a demonstration of the cack-handed and unhelpful approach to psychological assessment those in the media seem to regularly adopt, let's assess Piers Morgan.[N.B. For many, there is a distinction between mental illness and personality disorder. Whether personality disorders count as a “mental illness” is uncertain, but the NHS refer to personality disorders as a “mental health issue”, so that umbrella will be used for the remainder of this largely inconsequential article. Also, we’re talking about Piers Morgan here, a man not known for his dedication to subtlety and nuance]Narcissistic personality disorderMorgan has shown a long-standing pattern of grandiosity, a seeming fundamental need for admiration (or at least attention) with what appears to be a total lack of empathy toward others. He has also often demonstrated a disdainful or patronising attitude toward others, such as publicly mocking those more well-liked, or banning people from his show who are more famous than him. This is almost a textbook description of narcissistic personality disorder. Other symptoms include being exploitative of others, and demonstrating envy towards others. They could basically put Morgan’s picture next to this disorder in textbooks and have done with.However, in defence of Morgan, this description could likely be applied to any number of high-profile media personalities, columnists or people with a Facebook/Twitter account. Obviously, we only see the public persona of Piers Morgan, and he's far from alone in the world he inhabits, so there are likely mitigating circumstances.Bipolar disorderJudging by his public behaviour, Morgan often feels quite self-important and is easily irritated or agitated. He is often described as delusional (eg on what grounds is he qualified to be a talent judge?), and does things that have disastrous consequences (eg Google “Piers Morgan” and “scandal”). He is certainly driven to achieve as much as he has, and his fluctuating career path suggests he is easily distracted but doesn’t really think logically about things. All of this could be sufficient to diagnose hypomania, which can lead to full-blown mania and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.He has made no mention of suffering from depressive phases and seems to show no particular empathy for those who do, so this would suggest it’s not Type 1 or Type 2 bioplar disorder, but perhaps cyclothymia? More information would be required for a thorough diagnosis. He appears to have been in this hypomania phase for several years now, which is quite unusual. Borderline personality disorderMorgan’s habit of criticising someone then later backtracking could be caused by a fluctuating emotional state. He also demonstrates an unstable sense of identity, ranging from paternal authority figure on televised talent shows to aggressive interviewer on his CNN show to condescending Twitter personality. His foray into television could be seen as a big risk given his previous media dealings, and he couldn’t have known it would pan out.All told, this could suggest borderline personality disorder. Admittedly, Morgan shows no indication of being unable to form long-term relationships, and you'd be hard pushed to argue that someone who so is known for being abrasive fears rejection, which are other indicators of BPD, but you don't need ALL known symptoms to get a diagnosis, which is helpful for this spurious article. PsychopathyMorgan may be a psychopath. Psychopathy is very popular these days (maybe thanks to Jon Ronson), and some people are even happy to claim to be psychopaths. It has often been observed that traits psychopaths demonstrate include a grandiose sense of self-worth, persuasiveness, superficial charm, ruthlessness, lack of remorse and the manipulation of others. This describes any number of politicians, media personalities and powerful straight white men in general. Morgan would be a good example of all of these. So he might be a psychopath.Not saying he definitely is, but it’s hard to rule out, as is often the case with this.Given all the above evidence, Piers Morgan may be showing signs of not one but several mental conditions, so, according to his views, should be removed from all his jobs at once.Or, an alternative (ie accurate) explanation would be that Morgan isn’t mentally unwell, but when you select individual characteristics of a person to the exclusion of all else and apply some pretty blunt definitions of mental health concerns, you can come to some pretty harsh conclusions. Not that such a thing would be condoned by someone with a media platform, of course...The symptoms and behaviours of mental illness are far more subtle and diffuse than a simple binary ill-not ill arrangement. Saying people with a known condition shouldn’t be allowed to perform important jobs is tantamount to putting someone who looks like they have the flu into permanent quarantine, “just to be safe”; you wouldn’t stigmatise someone with, according to your untrained assessment, a respiratory condition as a permanent plague carrier in this way. Yet, apparently, it is fine to do this with someone with a mental health condition?Doesn't seem right." https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/26/piers-morgan-a-psychiatric-assessment
David Ainsworth ● 1880d