Side Effects  From quirky to serious, trends in psychology and
psychiatry  Bitterness: The Next Mental Disorder?  Should
bitterness become a mental disorder?   Bitterness is "so common
and so deeply destructive," writes Shari Roan at the Los Angeles
Times, "that some psychiatrists are urging it be identified as a
mental illness under the name post-traumatic embitterment
disorder." "The disorder is modeled after post-traumatic stress
disorder," she continues, "because it too is a response to a
trauma that endures. People with PTSD are left fearful and
anxious. Embittered people are left seething for revenge."  Now
I grant that there's a lot of anger and bitterness out there.
How much of it should be attributed to the last Republican
administration? The question straddles psychology and politics,
I concede, but in the eyes of many Americans that administration
managed in eight years to bring a largely healthy economy to its
knees.  To many Americans, there are additional reasons for
bitterness at that outcome.