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As a general rule, a psychiatrist should not make diagnoses based on public behaviors. I am not a psychiatrist, but I am “psychiatry adjacent” as an internist. So I will make some observations on Natalie Harp, which may be inaccurate. But, hey, this is my Substack.

I have learned about Ms. Harp through descriptions of her in the Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan book “Regime Change”, as well as in the New York Times and The Atlantic magazine. Her letters to President Trump have recently emerged.

Some background on the “patient”. Harp had bone cancer which was apparently cured by experimental chemotherapy. She credits Trump for her cure through his signing of a piece of legislation. She lost her father in 2020, when he committed suicide. She has an estranged brother who states that his sister has written letters to other presidents (likely Dubya).

She appears to be attached to Trump’s hip, and is known as the “human printer” because of her immediate printing of information for his excellency at his every request. She carries a portable printer with her at all times.

Let’s explore this relationship. Her letters and her behavior show that she is very obsequious and concerned that she may upset Trump. The president is clearly a father figure to her, and it appears on the surface that, at least on Ms. Harp’s part, their relationship is platonic. Who knows what Trump feels. He is the very definition of a dirty old man.

The Electra Complex was described by the psychiatrist Carl Jung in 1913 as a counterpart to Freud’s Oedipal Complex. Jung felt that in early childhood, girls develop an unconscious psychosexual attachment to their fathers, and a jealousy towards their mothers. Despite this very Freudian view of childhood development, Dr. Freud did not feel that the Electra Complex was real. Of course many, if not most of these psychoanalytic theories of the late 19th and early 20th century, do not stand up in the light of rigorous science. They are, however, interesting, if you don’t take them too seriously.

In my view (or as the kids would say, IMHO), Harp would benefit from therapy and psychoanalysis. Does she have unresolved feelings towards her late father? How does she feel about her father’s death by suicide? What is at the root of her obsession with presidents? Does the Trump/Harp relationship represent a co-dependency on both their parts? Ms. Harp appears to love Trump unconditionally, like you would a parent. Trump has a narcissistic personality disorder which is satisfied by Harp’s devotion to her. He included her as one of the passengers on that flight from Ankara, Turkiye where he switched planes through a food container (I can’t wait to see the dramatization of this scene in a future movie).

All in all, this is a very bizarre relationship in an administration that is full of strange characters. Stay tuned.