Democracy Anxiety Disorder: A new diagnosis?

Over the years of my practice as a psychoanalyst, teens and adults have come to see me for troubled relationships, parenting difficulties, depression, social anxiety and the many other challenges of everyday life. Until just recently, though, no one had ever called with the chief complaint that they were grieving for our country and, so, for their future here. This month, however, a bright graduate student began her session with this memorable phrase: “Well, I figured it out: I have Democracy Anxiety Disorder.”