Is Donald Trump Unstable? There Are No Clear Answers

"Is Donald Trump OK?" asked the Toronto Star's morning headline.

I may be Canadian, but as one of the many who are quite concerned should Donald Trump become the next President of the United States, I was quite drawn by the headline, and not really all that surprised to learn a few things.

First of all, psychiatrists in the United States are prohibited by their organization from publicly assessing public figures, so effectively, if a psychiatrist goes in to assess Donald Trump's mental competence to hold the office of President, there will be nothing disclosed to the public at large about his mental state. Secondly, there are a growing number of public figures who are wondering if the Donald is at all competent mentally - never mind competent enough to be the next president.

Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy were apparently medically treated for anxiety, and Abraham Lincoln had depression. These are things I didn't know, but find interesting and somehow reassuring that even those who hold the highest office will struggle with mental health concerns.

But back to Donald Trump.

Now, Gawker is questioning whether the Republican presidential candidate deliberately leaked nude photos of his wife to deflect attention from his ongoing feud with parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son was killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004. Vox writer Ezra Klein questioned whether Trump was crazy or overwhelmed by his own apparent mania - particularly after he asked Russia to engage in cyber espionage in his press conference this week. Fellow billionaires Mark Cuban and Michael Bloomberg openly asserted that Trump was crazy, with Cuban using strong language to describe just how crazy Trump appears to have gotten at this point.

Gawker also asserts that it would not be inconceivable for Trump to throw his own wife under the bus for the second time; he is too busy trying to assert things like how he has made sacrifices for the United States and that he knows more about what's going on behind the scenes of the United States government than he really does.

The New York Post endorsed Trump back in April, so it seems odd that the newspaper would decide to run nude photos from 1995 of the presidential candidate's wife, a move which some on social media decried as "neanderthal".

"Shame on you #NewYorkPost for slut-shaming Melania Trump. The US needs no more neanderthal input to this already disgraceful election," read one tweet.

But then, it would not be the first time that Melania Trump was thrown under the bus for the sake of her husband, which also seems to highlight Donald Trump's potential instability. Why would a man allow his wife to be embarrassed publicly, first by apparently plagiarizing part of Michelle Obama's speech from eight years ago and then by running what are classy but still nude shots of his wife?

"Initially, I really hoped he would be something different, that as a businessperson, I thought there was an opportunity there. But then he went off the reservation and went bats--- crazy," Cuban said of Trump, implying that perhaps that Trump is not exactly the most stable of individuals.

Narcissism personality disorder is definitely a possibility as far as Trump is concerned, according to Toronto Star. Scott Lilienfeld, a psychology professor at Emory University, looked at narcissism in 42 presidents leading up to the presidency of George W. Bush.

"High levels of the grandiose variety of narcissism, he found, have been associated with superior crisis management, public persuasiveness and overall success — but also with abuse of power, ethics scandals and impeachment resolutions," according to Toronto Star writer Daniel Dale.

Lillenfeld did note, however, that Trump is quite likely sane, but with his ongoing grandiosity, fingerpointing and reluctance to take full responsibility for the missteps in his campaign (such as the plagiarism involving Melania's speech), the American public could be in serious trouble.

With the release of the nude shots, some conservative pundits could be put off, especially the evangelical Christian sect that may have been supportive of Trump in the past. If Trump himself did authorize the release of the shots to deflect attention from the Khan imbroglio, though, it could speak to simply wanting to win at any cost, regardless of who he happens to step on in the process - a probable indicator that, in Trump's mind, at least, the Trump machine is far more important than anything else on the table.

If Trump were to become President Trump, what would such narcissism ultimately mean for the American public?

The answer to that question could be too scary to contemplate.

Trump has left the North American public with lots of questions, and there are not always answers.

• Is it worth having a highly narcissistic individual in office and relating to other countries?
• Does the American public want someone who is entirely consumed with how great he is running the country?

We will never figure out the real Donald Trump, and the questions may always be there.