Gareth O'Callaghan: Donald Trump has opened the door for people to weaponise mental health at work
President Donald Trump has opened wide a dangerous door that has always been sneakily ajar, namely the subliminal abuse that people with mental health issues are often subjected to in the workplace. Photo: AP/Mark Schiefelbein
My father was a great man for first impressions. “You only ever get one chance to make a first impression,” he often told me.
It was only as the years passed I realised that at the heart of that first impression is integrity — a trait that is slowly finding its way into the museum of lost values. I would often watch him shaking hands with someone for the first time as he looked them straight in the eye. I know now that it was integrity he was looking for.
I often wonder what he would have made of Donald Trump. The integrity of a structure depends upon a sound foundation. The same goes for humans. If ever there was a classic example of a man who screams the opposite of integrity — think of duplicity, improbity, disrespect, immorality — it’s Trump.
I find Trump fascinating — in the same disturbing way that I found the story of the life of mathematical genius John Nash fascinating. Nash was the subject of a book called by Sylvia Nasar, which starred Russell Crowe in its big screen version.
It told the story of Nash’s devastating breakdown and his descent into schizophrenia. Every mind is as dangerous as it is beautiful; and that’s where the similarity ends.
Perhaps the reason I see a similarity is because of the highly questionable state of Trump’s own mental health. Could his ongoing demonisation of people who are mentally ill be a clever decoy? Could it possibly be connected with how he rebuffs comments about his own mental stability?
While his intention to round up “dangerously deranged” criminal immigrants and lunatics is commendable, he has yet to acknowledge the bigger picture; but will he? Considering that 23% of adults experienced a mental illness in 2024 — nearly 60 million Americans — the dangerously deranged account for only a minuscule percentage of the population.
Whether he is aware of it or not, Trump has just given his blessing to the weaponisation of mental health on a scale never imagined. He has opened wide a dangerous door that has always been sneakily ajar, namely the subliminal abuse that people with mental health issues are often subjected to in the workplace.
It’s worth remembering that many employees have fallen victim to mental health slurs and false accusations that fall far short of legitimate diagnoses in an effort by employers to get rid of them. Whistleblowers come to mind; also women who become targets for misogynistic bosses, of whom there is no shortage.
According to US research, over three-quarters of bullies in the workplace are men, with 60% of that portion targeting women; while women bullies — often called “mean girls” — bully women at twice the rate they bully men. Over two-thirds of women who bully target women. 65% of bosses are bullies.
In many cases, misogyny is a bully’s best friend. You could say it comes naturally to them. As many as a third of decision-makers agreed that sexist behaviour exists in the workplace. For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 86 women break the glass ceiling.
Borderline is a word that used to worry me; now it scares me. I hear it used in casual conversation more and more, mostly aimed at other people. “She’s borderline.” To flippantly call someone borderline is nothing short of dangerous.
Or “he’s bipolar,” commonly used in urban slang to describe someone who suddenly changes their mind. This is very worrying stuff.
An effective way to bully someone is to undermine their emotional disposition, or their mental health, even if that stretches to grounding them with medical conditions they don’t have. It's not uncommon in recent years to have an employee diagnosed as “unfit for work” because of employer grievances towards them.
I’m reminded of the story of Karlene Petitt, a senior pilot flying commercial jets for 35 years. She received a letter from her employer, Delta Airlines, on Christmas Eve 2016, which informed her she was mentally unfit for duty and therefore banned from flying forever.
Her achievements up to that point were nothing short of impressive. She was raising three young children, was the proud owner of two masters degrees and a university doctorate, seven type ratings, and had written a stack of books, including , all while displaying perfect performance as a long-haul pilot.
Petitt had become a thorn in Delta’s side, criticising the company’s safety culture, including concerns she had over issues involving her piloting colleagues, which she had detailed in a number of emails she had sent to her bosses. In March of that year, she had been grounded pending a medical assessment by a company-assigned doctor.
Delta’s vice president of flight operations, Captain Jim Graham, a few days after she had been taken off duty, informed a colleague by email that he would put a stop to Petitt’s criticisms by inciting a ‘Section 15’ — a process that can label pilots too mentally unstable to fly.
Delta’s letter that Christmas Eve informed her that she was mentally unfit for duty and her piloting career was effectively over, following a “Soviet-style” psychiatric evaluation that diagnosed Petitt with bipolar disorder.
Petitt, who is now retired, fought a six-and-a-half-year legal battle to overturn the diagnosis and restore her career. Two years before, in 2020, evidence in court, supported by administrative law judge, Scott Morris, suggested Delta had manipulated its process “to achieve a desired outcome”.
Morris also agreed with Petitt that Delta had ordered the psychiatric review to punish her for her criticisms, which included forcing pilots to fly while exhausted.
Stephen Dickson, who became head of the Federal Aviation Administration in 2019 following Donald Trump’s nomination, had helped Delta retaliate against Petitt while he was an executive with the airline.
Dickson was aware of and approved the reprisal measures against Petitt, the judge ruled, while Jim Graham and attorney Christopher Puckett, who were “the two key actors”, subjected the pilot to a psychiatric evaluation, selecting a doctor at a cost of €74,000 who they knew would be inclined to find her unfit to fly, even though other independent doctors later testified that the examination was unwarranted.
Dr David Altman later testified that his diagnosis was driven by Petitt’s achievements — her degrees, her books, and her piloting career — all while raising three children under three. It was “well beyond what any woman I’ve ever met could do,” he told the court.
Her huge workload suggested to him she was manic, instead of just acknowledging she was an over-achiever. Altman later surrendered his medical license to avoid charges.
Independent doctors later cleared Petitt of any disorder. She won her case, forcing Delta to reinstate her as a pilot.
Trump has sent out a dangerous message to employers — misogynists in particular — who use mental health as a weapon to settle scores. This man who treats women like doormats gave me a reason during the week to look for a book I bought years ago called by Susan Faludi, a shocking assessment of how women were treated in Reagan’s America.
Now the flames of misogyny are being fanned even higher in the land of Trump. It’s a book that’s more relevant than ever in today’s America, as much as it is here at home.
In the author’s words: “When the enemy has no face, society will invent one.” My lasting impression of Donald Trump will be his nasty belittling attempts to defeat people whose only violation was to say the word “no".
