Your Second Opinions

In a month of truly varied feedback, two pieces of commentary caught our attention most. Both concerned senior editor Ben Rowen’s April issue story, “Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Real.” A therapist in North Texas, who asked that his name be withheld out of concern that his clients would identify him, responded by saying that he’d “never read anything . . . that more fully paralleled my own experience. This has been my life as a therapist since last November, and I deeply appreciate the confirmation that I’m not alone.” Another reader had a different take. 

Thanks for the article. Political issues surface in nearly one hundred percent of my cases in a way I’ve never seen before—not even during the first Trump administration. 

My background in Texas state politics before becoming a therapist helps, I suppose, in terms of familiarity with the subject matter. Interestingly, I had one conservative client in the early days of the Biden administration who was genuinely worried that the “deep state” might run rampant. Part of assuaging their fears was pointing out, with some (semi-educated) humor, that expecting the government to be efficient enough to sustain a complex cabal was—given the overwhelming evidence to the contrary—pretty laughable. 

I use roughly the same tack with my clients who approach the subject from the opposite direction—those with (pretty relevant) fears about what might be regarded as the present-day “shallow state.” It doesn’t seem to be as effective. Perhaps I need new material. 
A Therapist in North Texas

I read your article on Trump Derangement Syndrome.  I found it interesting, but is there a reason you didn’t address Trump Devotion Syndrome?  It is important to cover both angles!
Kathy Wood, via email

A New Way to Respond to a Story

The March 2025 issue featured “A Deadly Passage,” about the deaths of 53 migrants in San Antonio and the tragic aftermath for the victims’ families. Since publication, the story’s author, Elliott Woods, has spent a significant amount of time responding to readers who want to send money to those families, a first for the longtime journalist. 

One reader, for example, said she was moved to offer support because part of the story reminded her of the Jim Crow South where her mother was raised. The thought, Woods says, mirrored his experience reporting in parts of Guatemala. She added, “I still have my Texas Monthly on my desk because I can’t get those stories out of my mind. I believe that I have to help them.” 

Texas Monthly doesn’t currently have a process for assisting subjects of our stories, but Woods is coordinating present and any future requests, which can be sent to roar@texasmonthly.com.

Editors’ note: An article in the April 2025 issue, “Something Went Wrong,” about a double murder in Austin in the sixties, inaccurately described the relationship between Lynette Berg Robe, who was interviewed for the story, and one of the victims, Keitha Morris. Robe is Morris’s cousin, not her niece.  

This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Texas Monthly. Subscribe today.