Kamala Harris’s “word salad” speech may be a symptom of a little-known but common psychological disorder called logorrhea, also known as verbal diarrhea.
The US vice president, who received the endorsement of Joe Biden after withdrawing from the presidential race on Sunday, is known for her confusing and sometimes incoherent speaking style.
Some of his most infamous speeches include those about “the importance of the passage of time” and the “need to go and be able to get where you need to go.”
His nonsensical statement that “it’s time for us to do what we’re doing, and that time is every day” and his baffling anecdote about falling out of a coconut tree have also been a rich resource for Internet meme creators.
Kamala Harris has become known for her sometimes nonsensical speeches.
Republican strategist Matt Whitlock has previously accused Harris of not being able to speak “normally.”
But while it may be a symptom of anxiety or overconfidence, logorrhea is no laughing matter and can indicate a brain injury, autism or a serious illness.
In a 2009 study on this disease in Spain, it was found that age and sex played no role in the prevalence of logorrhea, but the level of education did.
Those with lower educational attainment were more likely to “talk in circles.”
Logorrhea is also associated with laughing out loud at random moments, something Harris has become known for, with Donald Trump even dubbing her “Giggle Kamala.”
American behavioural specialist Gregg Levoy wrote in a blog on Psychology Today that for people who ramble on and on, speech can become “a barrier rather than a connector”.
He wrote: ‘It’s easy to dismiss them as merely narcissistic, but it’s immensely difficult to undo that and it’s not necessarily their fault.
“It’s a remnant of that original egocentric stage, around one or two years old, when children naturally feel great and at the center of the universe.”
But logorrhea is also a common frontal lobe deficit suffered by many survivors of traumatic brain injuries and is linked to several serious psychiatric and neurological disorders.
These include schizophrenia, brain lesions, damage to areas of the brain related to language, and ADHD.
A Washington bar began offering $5 ‘Pina Kamala’ coconut drinks all night after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday.
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz posted a photo of himself climbing a coconut tree, a reference to Harris’s infamous anecdote about something she said her mother used to say.
People with autism may also have logorrhea, defined as uncontrollable or slurred speech, due to an inability to organize their thoughts or read other people’s social cues.
In a study analyzing Harris’s speech during a vice presidential debate, Ratu Annisa of North Sumatra University concluded that “social factors” were the most likely cause of her rambling “word salad.”
Ms Annisa wrote: “There was no slip of the tongue. The causes of Kamala Harris’s speech errors are social factors, both situational anxiety and social circumstances.”
Ms. Harris was left speechless during a speech on “expanding access to transportation” at the White House in July 2022.
She said, ‘You have to be able to go and be able to get where you need to go, get the job done and get back home.’
That same year, he gave a speech about high-speed Internet in Louisiana that was widely ridiculed: ‘The Governor and I and everybody were taking a tour of the library here and talking about the meaning of the passage of time.
‘The meaning of the passage of time.
‘So when you think about it, the passage of time is of great importance in terms of what we have to do to lay these cables, what we have to do to create these jobs.
“And there is great significance in the passage of time when we think about a day in the life of our children.”
Harris’s concern about time surfaced again last April at a political event on reproductive rights.
She told attendees: ‘I think it’s really important… for us in every moment of time and certainly in this one, to look at the moment in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize that, to understand where we exist in history and in the moment in relation not only to the past but to the future.’
Last March, she said that during Women’s History Month, “we celebrate and honor women who made history throughout history, who saw what could be alleviated from what had been.”
On at least two occasions, he has spoken of his baffling love of Venn diagrams, a simplistic illustration that uses overlapping circles to show the relationship between two or more sets of elements.
Last year he said: “I love Venn diagrams. I really do. There’s something special about those three circles and the analysis of those circles, at the point of intersection, isn’t there?”
And last year, he made his most famous nonsensical statement at a White House swearing-in ceremony.
‘My mother used to… sometimes give us a hard time and say, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. Do you think you fell out of a coconut tree?’ he said, laughing. ‘You exist in the context of everything around you and everything that came before you.’
On Sunday night, after Biden, 81, announced he was dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Harris, the boogeyman comment went viral online.
A Washington bar has started offering $5 ‘Pina Kamala’ coconut drinks all night long.
And Hawaiian Senator Brian Schatz posted a photo of himself climbing a coconut tree with the words: “Madam Vice President, we are ready to help.”
Republican strategist Matt Whitlock previously accused Harris of not being able to speak “normally.”
He posted: “It’s pretty amazing that she’s just unable to speak normally. Is she actually smoking marijuana before grabbing the mic? That would explain a lot.”
And Fox News’ Laura Ingram said: “As Joe slides into dementia, Kamala slides into a different dimension.”