#1545 - W. Keith Campbell

W. Keith Campbell (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:14)

Thanks for coming.

W. Keith Campbell (0:16)

This is great.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

It's polarizing. Some like it, some do not.

It has a weird effect on people. I never thought it was going to be a big deal. I just thought people would go, oh, this place looks weird. And that would be the end of it.

W. Keith Campbell (0:31)

Well, it's kind of an interdimensional hyper tube. The Red Pill, what's the name?

Joe Rogan (0:37)

Some people call it The Red Pill.

I don't know. It's just the studio for now.

W. Keith Campbell (0:42)

It's cool.

Joe Rogan (0:42)

Thank you.

W. Keith Campbell (0:43)

It feels good to be here. It feels good. Nice studio.

Joe Rogan (0:45)

It feels good to have you here.

W. Keith Campbell (0:46)

Thank you.

Joe Rogan (0:47)

We tested you up. What were you saying about testing, that it's not, unless you're sick, it's not good to test often?

W. Keith Campbell (0:53)

Well, I mean, as a psychologist, you know, when you're doing psychological testing, if I wanted to see if somebody has a mental disorder, I just don't go screen a bunch of people. I wait for somebody to show up in a hospital that's got troubles. Because if I go give the screen to a bunch of people, I'm going to find a bunch of people who test as mentally ill but aren't. They're not doing anything wrong.

They just have some symptoms, but they might not have all the trouble that brings them to a hospital.

Joe Rogan (1:18)

Or maybe they do, but they just never make their way to a hospital?

W. Keith Campbell (1:21)

Well, it's working out for them. So part of the, I'm just kidding. I mean, the thing is, you can be weird and it works, or you can be an angry person or a mean person or a self-absorbed person or whatever. If it works for you, then it's not a disorder. You kind of just go through your life.

If it's impairing, it becomes a disorder, and then we treat you.

Joe Rogan (1:42)

But how does one define whether or not it's impairing you? Like you could argue that the President of the United States has some psychological disorders, but clearly, it hasn't impaired him from being successful, unless you check his taxes.

W. Keith Campbell (1:56)

This is a debate I've had or a discussion I've had a lot.

And the question is, so with somebody like Donald Trump, somebody says he has a disorder, and you say, well, is billionaire President of the United States who doesn't pay a lot of taxes, guy sounds like he's kind of killing it to me. How's that a disorder? You know, and somebody else says, well, imagine how good he'd be if he was, didn't have any disorders and was totally sane. Imagine if he was doing that, but had Pence's personality. He'd really be killing it.

And somebody says, but Pence doesn't do it because he's not wired that way. You got to have Trump's personality to do that kind of craziness. So it's a debate.

Joe Rogan (2:37)

Well, not only that, I don't even know what personality Pence has.

W. Keith Campbell (2:40)

That's the point.

Joe Rogan (2:41)

I have no idea what's in there.

W. Keith Campbell (2:43)

He comes across as somebody with a very balanced personality, not very extroverted, but probably very conscientious, you know, very probably moral and upright. So he come across as somebody with rectitude, you know. So in personality terms, we might say somebody who's conscientious and probably agreeable, but not really extroverted, calm.

Joe Rogan (3:05)

Is there debate on whether someone should be treated or even someone should be discussed as someone who has mental health issues or personality issues if they're doing well? Because like the way you're describing it, you're saying like, well, someone's successful, they're doing well, why bother looking at these things?

W. Keith Campbell (3:27)

To be treated, you need to have clinically significant impairment to get the diagnosis. So if there's no impairment, it's really not, you're not supposed to treat somebody. At that point, you're just coaching them.

Joe Rogan (3:39)

What if someone is like super successful, but they're like, you know what, I've been talked to lately, and people sat me down and said, hey man, you're a narcissist. There's something wrong with you.

And then they come to see you, and you start talking to them and say, well, you have all this good stuff going for you.

W. Keith Campbell (3:57)

Right.

Joe Rogan (3:57)

You would still treat them, right?