Piers Morgan: A psychiatric assessment

This view that mental illness should prevent you from working is yet another example of mental health stigma. Perhaps it’s well meant, but it would mean we’d potentially lose 25% of all employees. But what if it’s just important, high-profile jobs that should be off-limits? Jobs like hosting TV shows or editing newspapers? Basically, would Morgan be allowed to keep his job(s)? Does he demonstrate signs of a mental illness? 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. …

Narcissistic personality disorder

Morgan 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. …