Bipolar Today

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As Newt Gingrich has become the leader in the Republican primaries, questions about his mental health have started to be raised in the media. Specifically, journalists are starting to ask whether or not he has bipolar disorder. His mother was known to have had bipolar disorder, so there has always been some speculation. However, in the last week, the amount of speculation has increased greatly. Slate, an online political magazine, has openly argued that Newt Gingrich has bipolar disorder in an article called “Is Newt Gingrich Nuts? Consider the Symptoms“. They cite past behaviors that they claim fit the symptoms of hypomania and, to a lesser extent, depression, and argue that some of the statements that Gingrich have made in the past were “completely bonkers-bananas-barking-bats**t loony tunes”.

Commentary

American political rhetoric is not known for its civility. If Newt Gingrich is bipolar, then the presidency of the United States is one of the few positions for which bipolar disorder is relevant. However, political commentators in the United States need to be careful of is that, when they ramp up their rhetoric to call people “nuts” and “loony tunes”, they are not simply insulting Newt Gingrich, but are insulting everyone who has a mental illness. They can’t fall back on the incivility of the political discourse as a justification of this way of speaking because it is “part of the game.” People with bipolar disorder have never signed up for this particular game, and journalists need to be aware of when they are insulting a particular candidate and when they are insulting millions of people with mental illnesses.

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