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PostPosted: 03/06/19 9:49 am • # 1 
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There is NO question that "something is off/wrong" with the DiC ~ I generally believe that docs need to examine a patient before diagnosing that patient ~ but mental health has clearly identifiable markers that pros pick up on ~ and there have been a LOT of mental health pros speaking out about that ~ this thread is intended to capture the myriad issues affecting the DiC based on his public behavior ~ Sooz

Why Trump’s ‘grandiose paranoid character’ appeals to his supporters — despite his broken promises: Harvard psychoanalyst
Tana Ganeva / 05 Mar 2019 at 10:22 ET

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump addressed the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), making multiple misleading claims about the economy, the wall and his tax cuts. According to the Washington Post, the speech contained 104 misleading claims, bringing his total number of false or fishy statements to roughly 9,014 over the course of his administration.

Raw Story spoke with Dr. Henry J. Friedman, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, about why the President finds it so easy to lie and the unique dynamic he has with his base that lets him get away with it.

Friedman is a contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” edited by Bandy X. Lee, the expanded edition of which is to be released this month. He brings a psychoanalytic perspective to understand the totalitarian mindset, which presents a multifold threat to the world.

Tana Ganeva: According to one report, Trump’s CPAC speech contained 104 instances of lies. Why do you think the President finds it so easy to lie?

Dr. Henry J. Friedman: When facing an audience that responds to him with adulation, he is inclined to present his worst tendencies in excess because he knows it pleases his base if he is extremely opposed to established standards of truth and politeness.

Trump’s base love him for liberating them to hate illegal immigrants and indulge their hatred of social change, of same sex marriage or woman’s rights and the rise of African Americans as a powerful political and social presence in the United States. His stance against equality for disavowed minority groups is exactly what they find attractive in him. He liberates their worst inclinations and fights against those who want to see the best in humanity dominate our society.

Tana Ganeva: How is the President different in front of his supporters?

Dr. Henry J. Friedman: He is empowered by such an audience to state things he wants to believe in as facts, as truths. He flirts with open totalitarian positions because these please this particular audience who find his authoritarian positions compatible with what they desire in a leader.

His base prefers a leader who is authoritarian and ruthless about getting what he personally wants, as this often reflects their experience with parents, particularly fathers who insisted on obedience. Trump demands that the world operate as he wants it to be, not as it actually is. Authority isn’t authoritarianism, hence it is easy to confuse a strong leader who represents all of our citizens from an authoritarian leader who panders to the worst desires of some groups in terms of their destructive impulses directed at other less powerful citizens.

Tana Ganeva: Can you explain why the President still has such a fervent following, despite arguably breaking a lot of his campaign promises, such as having Mexico pay for a wall at the Southwest border?

Dr. Henry J. Friedman: They respond not to his campaign promises or even to his actual accomplishments, which may be against their actual interests, but because his grandiose paranoid character appeals to them.

He always is ready to attack anyone who opposes him. His enemies are constructed by him, but they are what many individuals personally do in their own relationships with those around them. What his followers want is his immoderate, rash and destructive “self directed against an enemy.”

His followers are pleased with his leadership because they believe in the dangers that he insists are present when in fact they are non-existent except in his paranoid thinking. A grandiose paranoid leader appeals to and preys upon the paranoid fears of the many citizens who constitute his base.

Tana Ganeva: How does your psychoanalytic background inform you about what is happening?

Dr. Henry J. Friedman: Absolutely, this kind of grandiose paranoid character is frequently encountered in our work with patients, but in a much attenuated form or only directed at those in the grandiose paranoid individual’s family or who are employed by him or her. Those of us who work with paranoid patients understand the insistent need to find an enemy, to see an exaggerated form of danger coming from the hated others who will damage you unless they are contained and ultimately destroyed either by deportation or simply being kept out of the country.

Tana Ganeva: How can mental health expertise help the nation?

Dr. Henry J. Friedman: By giving words and concepts from our work that help the public in putting words and concepts to the anxieties that they feel, without being able to label it in such a way that they understand why Trump must be opposed, not allow to do his “Hitler routine” and destroy the free press and any criticism of his behavior and desires.

The more Trump is able to destroy the free press by denouncing it as fake news, the more he will be able to keep the public uninformed and unable to oppose his draconian approach to anything or anyone who threatens his domination and control. We in mental health can see more clearly what others see, because we recognize it from our work in treating and evaluating those who are fearful and aggressive because they are filled with hatred and loathing of all who are different from them.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/trumps-grandiose-paranoid-character-appeals-supporters-despite-broken-promises-harvard-psychoanalyst/


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PostPosted: 03/06/19 9:59 am • # 2 
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Here's more ~ Sooz

‘Trump is a sociopath’: Harvard psychiatrist breaks down the president’s ‘severe, continuous, mental disturbance’
written by Tana Ganeva / Raw Story / March 1, 2019

This week, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified before the House Oversight Committee about his role in facilitating Trump’s potential crimes and misbehaviors.

At the same time, Trump met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The summit failed to secure a de-nuclearization deal and Trump drew criticism when he said that he believed Jong Un’s claim that he hadn’t been aware of Otto Warmbier, the American student imprisoned in North Korea, who died soon after his release to the US.

Raw Story spoke with Dr. Lance Dodes, a Training and Supervising Analyst Emeritus with the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He recently retired as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Dodes is a contributor to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. His chapter makes the case that Trump suffers from a dangerous sociopathic disorder.

Tana Ganeva: Following what was largely seen as a failed summit with Kim Jong Un, Donald Trump said he believed the dictator when he said he hadn’t known about Otto Warmbier. Do you see strains of Trump’s sociopathy in this?

Lance Dodes: Mr. Trump is a sociopath, in that he meets every diagnostic criterion for the official diagnostic term “Antisocial Personality Disorder.” The fact that this is a personality disorder, rather than simply a single symptom such as anxiety or depression, means that all his actions are signs of this severe, continuous, mental disturbance.

To understand his actions, it is essential to keep in mind that sociopaths have only one goal: to enhance themselves, and that in pursuing their self-interest, they lack both normal human empathy for others and a normal human conscience. Cheating, conning, lying, stealing, threatening are all done with no remorse.

When stressed with facts that would require them to admit failure, or even that others know more or are more capable than them, sociopaths lose track of reality, becoming delusional with insistence on the truth of what they psychologically need to maintain their superior view of themselves. Indeed, nobody matters except to the degree they can serve the sociopath’s personal needs.

That’s why loyalty is demanded, but as soon as an associate disagrees, the sociopath turns on them with a fury; there was never a real relationship to begin with.

Mr. Trump’s denial of the facts about Mr. Warmbier is consistent with his sociopathy. He ignores reality, is unremorseful about lying and does not hesitate to sacrifice the feelings of others such as Mr. Warmbier’s family. We don’t know exactly why he lied in this case, but one possibility is that Mr. Trump has heavily promoted his relationship with Kim as evidence of his superior ability to manage world tensions and thinks that confronting Kim would interfere with that, hence personally diminishing Mr. Trump. In any case, Mr. Trump’s absence of feelings for Mr. Warmbier or his family is the same as his absence of feelings for the disabled reporter he mocked, for religious and racial minorities, for children separated from their parents at the border and on and on.

Tana Ganeva: What made you first consider that Donald Trump is a sociopath?

Lance Dodes: Mr. Trump has a long history that proves his diagnosis. If you consider the 7 traits that define Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-5, he meets every one of them:

1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors.
2. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying … or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
4. Irritability and aggressiveness
5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.
6. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations
7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.

Tana Ganeva: What’s the danger of having a sociopath in charge of the US?

Lance Dodes: Sociopathy is the most serious mental disability possible for the President. Other conditions do not lead to continual disregard for the welfare of others, lying, cheating, and repeated loss of reality under stress.

The bogus argument made by some that Abraham Lincoln is known to have suffered with depression, so Mr. Trump is not different, fails on this point. Lincoln’s depression did not make him cruel or indifferent to the feelings of others, cheat, lie, lose track of reality when stressed, or have a need to be an absolute ruler over everyone.

There are two major risks from Mr. Trump.

First, there is a serious risk that he will start a war to distract the country from his multiple failures and his attempts to become a one-man ruler. This is most likely to occur as he is stressed by challenges to his position as President. Other tyrants have plunged their nations into war, sometimes by creating an international incident as an excuse, to avoid internal disputes and solidify power.

Second, there is a serious risk of his destroying democracy in this country. He has already eroded it by attacking the principle of balance of powers, attacking the judicial system and the Congress, attempting to gather all power to himself. He has tried to destroy our free press by claiming that its criticisms of him are “fake news” and that a free press is the enemy of the people. These are well-known tactics of would-be tyrants, and are signs of sociopathy with his single-minded concern for himself and absence of conscience or concern for the feelings or lives of anyone else.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/trump-is-a-sociopath-harvard-psychiatrist-breaks-down-the-presidents-severe-continuous-mental-disturbance/


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PostPosted: 03/06/19 10:42 am • # 3 
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"Second, there is a serious risk of his destroying democracy in this country. He has already eroded it by attacking the principle of balance of powers, attacking the judicial system and the Congress, attempting to gather all power to himself. He has tried to destroy our free press by claiming that its criticisms of him are “fake news” and that a free press is the enemy of the people. These are well-known tactics of would-be tyrants, and are signs of sociopathy with his single-minded concern for himself and absence of conscience or concern for the feelings or lives of anyone else."

It is not only mental health pros who are aware of his mental state - but what is most concerning is there are so many people who blind themselves to it. I still can not get over the fact how too many people seem to be sheep in the long run and will happily drink any cool-aid offered to them, even if it tastes poisonous they will rationalize it.


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PostPosted: 03/06/19 12:41 pm • # 4 
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Hate to use the comparison again but all this is eerily similar to Germany in the 30s.


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 5:28 am • # 5 
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Something is seriously wrong with Donald Trump: Let's stop kidding ourselves about that
Whether it was genuine madness or all an act, Donald Trump's CPAC creepshow was evidence of profound crisis
BOB CESCA

If you’ve only watched the clips and highlights from Donald Trump’s CPAC speech last Saturday, you’re not getting the full picture of the explosive horror show that is the worsening status of the president’s mental health. For reasons that defy comprehension, I decided to watch the whole thing live. At the outset, I tweeted that given the Michael Cohen testimony in the immediate rear-view mirror, Trump’s CPAC speech was going to be “next level crazy.” In hindsight, I feel like I low-balled it.

Before we continue, I’d like to emphasize that I’m not a mental health professional, nor am I an expert in the pharmacological effects of cognitive enhancers like Adderall or Provigil to make a judgment call on the specifics of what’s wrong with the president. However, I can say with confidence that something’s extraordinarily wrong with him, and it’s only getting more dangerous for the nation and by extension the world as time advances.

At CPAC, Trump ricocheted from his prepared teleprompter remarks into what can only be described as a herky-jerky, stream-of-conscious creepshow -- a Willy Wonka ride into the dark, twisted world of Trump’s increasingly haunted and scattered brain. There was sweaty red-faced performance art; American flag leg-humping; bizarre and often shouty anecdotes leading nowhere; insults and obscenities directed at his enemies, both real and imagined; mean-spirited attempts at jokes; unabridged fear-mongering about infanticide and murderous immigrants; bug-eyed facial contortions more terrifying than the Momo Challenge; and other kneejerk outbursts that defy description.

http://twitter.com/bobcesca_go/status/1 ... 2694160386

Remember during the 2016 campaign when Trump mocked Serge Kovaleski’s disability? Imagine that for two hours and 20 minutes, from a man who now has the nuclear launch codes in his pants pocket.

vid at site

The president is unfit to continue serving. This is a crisis.

Indeed, no president before and especially since Trinity has acted like this in public until Trump. Why? It’s chiefly because presidents with access to weapons of mass destruction, specifically an American nuclear arsenal that could destroy the world a thousand times over, are elected partly based on their sobriety and mental stability. We need our presidents to have immensely sound judgment so that the use of the aforementioned nuclear codes is preceded by sound thought, emotional clarity and informed deliberation. Trump appears to possess none of these traits. Nor is he inclined to even fake it. His judgment was never stellar (ask any New Yorker) and it’s only disintegrating further as the rigors of the job worsen while law enforcement closes in.

Again, I don’t possess the psychological expertise to diagnose whether his behavior is reflective of mental illness or whether it’s a politically-motivated act for the enjoyment of the Red Hats. If it’s an act, it’s just as bad, and still perhaps indicative of a mental health condition. In and of itself, acting like a mentally ill chief executive, a Mad King, displays an absence of sound judgment, highlighting a disconnect from social and political norms, as well as telegraphing a profound degree of ignorance about why such an act is unacceptable.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/g5HHZI_pe3w

[that vid from the UK papers - the world is watching]

Somewhere along the line, though, this became perfectly acceptable behavior inside the Fox News biosphere. At some point, Fox News disciples were successfully conditioned to abandon reverence for presidential decency and decorum in favor of whatever-the-hell-that-was at CPAC.

If I were to quiz Fox News viewers about Trump’s unspooled madness at CPAC, I’d ask them in particular whether they’d ever accept this kind of behavior from their doctor, their kids’ teachers or their own bosses at work; whether they’d accept it from a member of the clergy or the bus driver who picks up their children for school every day. The honest response would have to be no way -- that is unless it’s okay for our doctors, mid-prostate exam, to snap off a bunch of insulting impressions of the nursing staff, followed by paranoid threats about Hollywood types and racist blurts about competing physicians. As indoctrinated into the Fox News cult as they are, I don’t believe they’d be OK with that. And if it’s unacceptable conduct for their doctors and teachers, why on earth is it acceptable for a world leader cloaked in immense power and backed by the most powerful military in the history of civilization?

Baby Boomer Trump voters in particular, the men and women who taught my generation, Gen X, about how to properly behave in public; how to recognize and surround ourselves with people of strong character, modesty and good will -- the ideals of contrition, sportsmanship, expertise, rationality and reason -- don’t seem to hold their current president to any of those standards. Indeed, they expect to Trump reject all those values in order to own the libs, among other ridiculously infantile justifications.

When I observe these people, as I did on Saturday, wildly swooning when Trump mockingly impersonates everyone from his military generals to his political foes, when they cheer for his childish flailing and his total rejection of the dignity of the presidency to the point where he insultingly mocks the very notion of being presidential, I wonder to myself whether they grasp how badly they’ve sold out their own morality for the sake of petty grievances and racial entitlement. I wonder if they realize that they’ve forsaken the social compact in order to support this glorified street hustler. Tens of millions of Americans have abandoned it all for the sake of propping up a well-documented con man who’s only in this, in Michael Cohen’s words, for “the world’s greatest infomercial.”

The normalization of Trump's unpredictable, spasmodic presidency, as well as the fact that so many of us don’t have the stomach to tolerate two-plus hours of watching him, are perhaps the only reasons why more Americans aren’t gathered as we speak, devising how best to legally remove him from office. For what it’s worth, I propose here and now that this conversation must begin in earnest.

Trump’s obvious mental instability and emotionally erratic behavior has reached a harrowing new depth. They need to be addressed by our political leadership with the same urgency as the myriad investigations into his crimes. This has to begin now before it’s too late. He will clearly do and say whatever it takes to secure his status, and it’s the presidency alone that’s keeping him out of federal prison. He’s at least competent enough to understand this, and he might be crazy enough to do anything to avoid accountability. We’re in new territory. There is no road map, and what we do now will determine whether Trump is the last Trump, or possibly the first of many Trumps along the not-so-lengthy journey into a permanent form of lunatic authoritarianism. It’s time to take his madness seriously now before he levels-up again.

SOURCE

live links and vids at source


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 6:13 am • # 6 
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When I observe these people, as I did on Saturday, wildly swooning when Trump mockingly impersonates everyone from his military generals to his political foes, when they cheer for his childish flailing and his total rejection of the dignity of the presidency to the point where he insultingly mocks the very notion of being presidential, I wonder to myself whether they grasp how badly they’ve sold out their own morality for the sake of petty grievances and racial entitlement. I wonder if they realize that they’ve forsaken the social compact in order to support this glorified street hustler. Tens of millions of Americans have abandoned it all for the sake of propping up a well-documented con man who’s only in this, in Michael Cohen’s words, for “the world’s greatest infomercial.”


That's the real problem, isn't it? Not that there is a man like Donald Trump but that so many could envision him as a good leader and that after all this time in office still support him, still want to reelect him.

And if these people - who are such poor judges of character - support Trump, then who are they voting for in state and local elections?


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 9:23 am • # 7 
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The Bob Cesca commentary in post #5 above is well worth the read, along with watching the attached videos ~

The DiC is obviously/correctly the focus ~ he is a con man, thru and thru ~ always has been/always will be ~ he has perfected identifying who is most susceptible and most easily swayed into blind adoration and obedience ~ he is incapable of NOT playing on the insecurities and bigotry of his "true believers" ~ he has no filters, no conscience, no ethics, no morality, no empathy/compassion for others ~ he willingly lies about anything/everything ... to get what he wants at any given moment ~

He absolutely/positively does NOT recognize just how toxic he is ~ to him, life is a game and, in his own mind, he's the "winner" ~ :eek

Sooz


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 11:33 am • # 8 
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It's amazing how many mentally deficient, psychopaths get elected. Grabem, Obama, Bush, Clinton. The list goes on and on.


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 12:02 pm • # 9 
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jimwilliam wrote:
It's amazing how many mentally deficient, psychopaths get elected. Grabem, Obama, Bush, Clinton. The list goes on and on.

Do you really believe Obama and Clinton belong on your list? ~ :eek

Sooz


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 12:28 pm • # 10 
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sooz06 wrote:
jimwilliam wrote:
It's amazing how many mentally deficient, psychopaths get elected. Grabem, Obama, Bush, Clinton. The list goes on and on.

Do you really believe Obama and Clinton belong on your list? ~ :eek

Sooz


They're on shrinks' lists.


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 2:50 pm • # 11 
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I didn't say they were on my list. It's just that whoever is opposed to whoever the current president is dredges up a bunch of psychologists who claim the incumbent is batshit crazy.


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PostPosted: 03/07/19 4:55 pm • # 12 
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jimwilliam wrote:
I didn't say they were on my list. It's just that whoever is opposed to whoever the current president is dredges up a bunch of psychologists who claim the incumbent is batshit crazy.


And sometimes they're 100% correct, as is the case with Trump.


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PostPosted: 03/18/19 9:03 am • # 13 
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Dr. Lee has been very open about the problems she identifies in the DiC ~ this explains it all ~ Sooz

Yale psychiatrist explains the most ominous fact about the violent societal sickness emanating from Trump
Tana Ganeva / 18 Mar 2019 at 10:17 ET

President Donald Trump has drawn criticism for downplaying the white nationalist ideology that led a gunman to kill over 50 people in New Zealand. The killer cited Nazism and Donald Trump in a manifesto and online video while murdering worshippers at two Mosques in New Zealand.

Although Trump sent his condolences, he chalked up the attack to a small number of individuals with problems rather than the demonization of immigrants and refugees. In fact, in the same press conference in which he addressed the attacks, Trump also described immigration at the Southwest border as an invasion.

In addition to his refusal to condemn the Nazis who marched on Charlottesville, Trump’s reaction to the New Zealand massacre once against raised doubts about his leadership and his fitness for office.

Raw Story spoke with Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine who has taught at Yale Law School for over 15 years and has consulted with the World Health Organization on violence prevention since 2002.

She edited the New York Times bestseller, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” to be released in an expanded edition on March 19, 2019—the same day as a major, interdisciplinary conference on presidential fitness, sponsored by the World Mental Health Coalition, of which she is now president (for more information on the conference, go to: dangerouscase.org).

Raw Story: You have been warning about the dangers of this presidency since the beginning, and now your bestselling book is coming out with a new edition. Do you feel differently about the dangers since you first put the book together two years ago?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: Actually, no. It gives me no pleasure to say that the dangers have manifested and increased exactly as we foresaw, according to the timeline we estimated, and now our greatest fear seems to be coming true: that the pathology he spreads in society would eventually render society incapable of containing him, even if it were to recognize that he is dangerous, which it is beginning to do.

But recognition is falling too far behind the realities, in spite of many people speaking up now, including Yale Law School graduate George Conway, who said: “Whether or not impeachment is in order, a serious inquiry needs to be made about this man’s condition of mind.” He is right—it is a separate issue and a dangerous one to continue pretending it is all political strategy.

Raw Story: Can you talk about the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the President’s response?

Bandy X. Lee: The recent white nationalist shooting at a mosque, while declaring “common purpose” with Mr. Trump, is an example of the adverse outcomes of having a dangerous individual in a high office and what we will be discussing at the conference. It is not unrelated to North Korea’s threat to resume nuclear testing—which we predicted also—as soon as Mr. Trump revealed that he was not really interested in peace talks but in the accolades they bring, which have now abated.

This is all on top of the unprecedented spikes in hate crime, widespread schoolyard bullying in his name, a rise in white supremacist killings, record mass shootings and gun murders, and the recent “pipe bomber” who sought to assassinate all major Democrats and critics of Mr. Trump. It follows what we know about violence: social and cultural changes cause violence in ways that are not explainable through individual risk factors alone. Violence is predictable and preventable, especially at societal scale. Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and conspiracy theories, propagated from an influential position, are some of the most powerful ways of laying down the groundwork for violence.

Raw Story: Can you really blame Trump for a mass killing just because the gun man invoked him though?

Bandy X. Lee: One does not have to commit violence oneself to have it be carried out. As pressures mount from the impending special counsel’s report, numerous House investigations, and a slowing economy and job growth, Mr. Trump did not hesitate to say: “I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump—I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough—until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”

Henry II did not have to lift a finger to have his followers assassinate the Archbishop of Canterbury. All he said was: “What miserable … traitors have I nourished and promoted in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born clerk!” Those in influential positions do not need to give explicit orders for their supporters to get the point and execute what they want done.

What is most ominous—and the most telling sign of collective pathology—is the extents to which followers will go to explain away empirical evidence or discount what the see before their eyes. It is like climate change: no amount of settled science or visible signs in the form of natural catastrophes will convince the mind to turn away from beliefs it invests in—not even death or the extinction of the species. And the complexity of reality means that there is always some level of doubt one can always cling to.

This is how powerful the human mind is, and how delusions (fixed false beliefs) and psychosis (losing touch with reality) are possible. When House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi says she wants the evidence to speak for itself, rather than pursue impeachment, it seems like a sensible political strategy, but it is oblivious to the dangerous pathology we are witnessing and what can happen between now and the next election.

Raw Story: What do you hope to accomplish at your conference?

Bandy X. Lee: It’s an unprecedented conference for unprecedented times. There has probably never been a conference where 14 top experts across such diverse fields urgently came together on a single panel, let alone the unprecedented topic. Also, it is open to the public and for the public. From nearly all walks of life and from every disciplinary perspective, the adverse impacts of Mr. Trump’s mental impairment, such as an inability to have empathy when so many lives depend on him, are undeniable. We are in uncharted territory where the greatest injury to our nation is being done by our own leader. Panels like this and other multidisciplinary efforts are essential to shed light on the ways the president’s actions have harmed and continue to harm the nation, and to find ways to minimize the damage.

I’ve organized it through the World Mental Health Coalition because, as a mental health professional, I am responsible for two types of psychiatry: clinical psychiatry and preventive psychiatry. Clinical psychiatry deals with individuals, but preventive psychiatry, as a branch of public health, deals with the mental health of whole populations.

Dealing with the social, cultural, economic, and political conditions that worsen mental health is far more effective than trying to treat one individual at a time only after they have fallen ill and are suffering. Currently, the problem has become bigger than what any one field can handle. We have to first “diagnose” the problem, but because it is so large scale, multiple fields must share their knowledge across boundaries and with the public for this to be possible.

Raw Story: Who’s featured, beyond mental health professionals? And what about the so-called Goldwater rule, which posits that it’s unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures the haven’t personally examined?

It’s important to note that Mr. Trump is not our patient; society is our patient. A Washington reporter said to me, “The American Psychiatric Association did a very effective PR campaign” in getting the Goldwater rule to become a household phrase. The first thing even a layperson says is, “How can you know what you do without having examined the president?“

The truth is, there is a lot we can know, especially with respect to dangerousness, and you have to consider whom and what the Association was working for when it created the new Trump rule (the “gag rule”) so shortly after inauguration. The effect was to stop psychiatrists from meeting their primary responsibility to society—there is no primary responsibility to a public figure, but there is to society—and to deprive the American people of critical information at a critical time. And panelists are in the fields of law, history, political science, economics, social psychology, journalism, philosophy, nuclear science, and climate science. Dr. Jerrold Post and I are the only psychiatrists.

I have more than a duty to warn and to protect society, for as my primary responsibility, according to our code of ethics, I must care for its entire wellbeing. Public health approaches, which involve multisectoral collaboration, are what I have applied over my 20-year career in violence prevention, and that is the approach we are taking at the conference. Mr. Trump as a violence risk factor is no different than widespread lead contamination in the environment giving rise to increased rates of violence as it compounds other risk factors.

Registration is free and available online through dangerouscase.org.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/yale-psychiatrist-explains-ominous-fact-violent-societal-sickness-emanating-trump/


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PostPosted: 03/18/19 12:10 pm • # 14 
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This thread says exactly why i cannot understand anyone here not wanting him impeached. Yes I know it doesnt fire him automatically. Its a process. And impeachment is first. Everything else can come after and impeachment can happen now. I think its important.

Donald Trump's craziest day ever on Twitter
Chris Cillizza
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 1:17 PM ET, Mon March 18, 2019

Washington (CNN)On Sunday, President Donald Trump sent out 29(!) tweets and retweets. Which, in and of itself, is a remarkable thing to say about the chief executive of the United States. (A prolific tweeter and retweeter myself, I sent out 15 tweets on Sunday. And, relatedly, I am not the president of the United States.)

But, it's not just the sheer quantity of Trump tweets and retweets that are so mind-boggling. It's what he said in them. Here's a brief summary:

The Federal Communications Commission or Federal Election Commission should investigate whether "Saturday Night Live" and late-night talk shows are in collusion with Democrats and/or Russia because they attack him so consistently.

Attacked late Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, for allegedly sending the FBI the Steele dossier before the election -- and working with Democrats to do so. (Also, Trump called McCain -- who, it's worth noting, is dead -- "last in his class" at the US Naval Academy.)

Urged Fox News Channel to reinstate host Jeanine Pirro after she was suspended for questioning the patriotism of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who is Muslim.

Urged FNC to stand up for host Tucker Carlson, who has seen some advertisers pull out of his show following the release of a series of caustic and offensive remarks he made on a radio show between 2006 and 2011.

Accused General Motors of having "let our country down" in the wake of the news that the company was relocating four American factories.

Attacked FNC anchor Shep Smith and two other weekend anchors at Fox, alleging they had "been trained by CNN prior to their ratings collapse."

Alleged that Democrats tried to "steal a presidential election," calling it "the biggest scandal in the history of our country."

Retweeted Jack Posobiec, who among other things, is a leading promoter of the Pizzagate and Seth Rich conspiracy theories.

All of this -- and lots, lots more -- in the space of a single day.

Now. Trump has had lots of oh-my-God-did-you-see-what-he-just-tweeted days. I still remember when he took to Twitter, with no proof, that President Barack Obama had ordered Trump Tower wiretapped during the 2016 election. Or when Trump said that MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski was bleeding badly after a face lift.

But, for the most part, these were one-offs -- a single nutty tweet amid Trump's usual daily mix of propaganda and mistruth. Never before -- or at least not as far back as I can remember -- have we seen such a sustained day of wildness and wackiness from Trump.
Which is saying something. Because Trump has long turned to Twitter as his preferred method of communicating -- with his supporters, with the media and with the country. And Twitter -- I've long argued -- is where the truest form of Trump comes out. It's his Twitter feed -- not official White House statements or signing ceremonies -- where we find out what is on Trump's mind and what he really thinks about his presidency and the world.
When you think of it that way, what we witnessed on Sunday is somewhere between concerning and absolutely terrifying. The most powerful man in the country -- and maybe the world -- spent his day touting unproven conspiracy theories about stolen elections, suggesting collusion between Democrats and comedians, attacking a military hero and Republican senator, and trying to program his favorite cable network's broadcasts. And he did all of this while failing to send even a single tweet about the tragic mass shooting in New Zealand.

George Conway, the husband of White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, tweeted an image to the diagnosis for "Narcissistic Personality Disorder" and said bluntly of Trump: "His condition is getting worse." Brian Klass, a political scientist at UCL, was slightly more expansive: "We have a seriously dangerous normalcy bias, where we move on because we desperately want to pretend it's okay. Trump's Twitter meltdown today—which shows a deranged and unhinged person—will just be forgotten by Monday afternoon. But the deranged man will still control the nukes."
Trump's critics questioning his decision-making -- or mental heath -- isn't all that new. What was new, however, was that the White House felt the need to mobilize some of its most senior officials to push back on the idea that Trump was slipping mentally.

"No, I don't share those concerns," Kellyanne Conway told reporters Monday of her husband's worries about Trump's mental health. Conway's assertion came less than 24 hours after acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was forced to insist that "the President is not a white supremacist." Mulvaney also said, "I don't think anybody can say the President is anti-Muslim."
When, in the space of 24 hours, two of the top officials in the White House are going public to claim that the President isn't a) crazy b) a white supremacist or c) anti-Muslim, you know Trump is going through a very rough patch.
And, as with many of Trump's problems, this latest series is self-created. His willingness to take to Twitter to air grievances, promote conspiracy theories and, well, just riff rightly raises questions in the mind of any thinking person about how he thinks, what he cares about and how all of that impacts his leadership of the country.
If Trump's Sunday on Twitter doesn't raise some concerns for you, you aren't paying close enough attention.


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PostPosted: 03/18/19 1:23 pm • # 15 
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*** The link to BEP's source on her above post is https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/18/politics/donald-trump-twitter-sunday/index.html ~ we ALL need to provide the url to the c/p'd material to keep us within the "fair use" laws ~ ***

FTR, I do NOT favor impeachment now, mostly because I believe the vote would fail in the Senate, and even possibly in the House too ~ and the process would create a rabid circus ~ and a failed impeachment attempt would likely boost the DiC's chances of "winning" a 2d term IF he's dumb enough to run again next year ~

Sooz


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PostPosted: 03/18/19 1:23 pm • # 16 
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Is Trump cracking under the pressure of personal scrutiny?


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PostPosted: 03/18/19 4:08 pm • # 17 
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oskar576 wrote:
Is Trump cracking under the pressure of personal scrutiny?

Probably ~ I'm convinced he's finally figuring out the Ds retaking the House means real trouble for him and his family ~ and I'm keeping my fingers, toes, and various other body parts crossed that the Ds can/will keep the pressure on ~

Sooz


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PostPosted: 03/20/19 8:23 am • # 18 
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sooz sorry i forgot the link


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PostPosted: 03/20/19 5:33 pm • # 19 
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oskar576 wrote:
Is Trump cracking under the pressure of personal scrutiny?


He was cracked long before he started this adventure.


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PostPosted: 04/03/19 2:00 pm • # 20 
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While I generally discount diagnoses from docs who "diagnose" patients they have not examined, I see "mental health" as being the only health condition with obvious markers to diagnose from afar ~ this Q/A explains a lot ~ Sooz

A renowned psychiatrist explains how Trump’s disordered personality forces him into absurd battles
Tana Ganeva / 03 Apr 2019 at 11:16 ET

On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee voted to issue subpoenas for the full Mueller report. Their vote caps a contentious battle following Attorney General William Barr’s conclusion that there’s not sufficient evidence that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

The President declared full exoneration and complained about being the unfair target of a Russia hoax.

Raw Story spoke with Dr. Steven Moffic about the President’s reaction to the findings of the Mueller probe and his pivot back towards the Southwest border and eliminating the Affordable Care Act, as well as the alarming spike in hate crimes.

Dr. Moffic is a graduate of Yale School of Medicine, one-time designated “Hero of Public Psychiatry” by the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association, recipient of the Administrative Psychiatry Award, and founder of Climate Psychiatry Alliance. He contributed his insights on leadership styles and climate stewardship to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Professionals Assess a President,” edited by Bandy X. Lee, which was released last month alongside a major, interdisciplinary conference on presidential fitness in Washington, DC (dangerouscase.org).

Raw Story: After AG Barr issued the brief memo that found no evidence of collusion with Russia, Donald Trump gloated and claimed he’d been the target of a “Russia hoax”. What accounts for the president’s mean-spirited reaction to a valid investigation?

Dr. Steven Moffic: The expected reaction might be to be relieved and thankful for the findings. However, those with extreme narcissism can feel attacked just by the very nature of the investigation in the first place, and therefore gloat as if they’ve won the battle. Surely, then, the other side was stupid in wasting time and money. On top of that, those who feel publicly humiliated in the process will often react with some sort of pushback and a desire for revenge. And what if there is still a possibility of something undesirable to be found? Get onto something else, quick!

Your question really gets at something important as far as psychiatrists are concerned. Why is it so important for psychiatrists to be involved in our society’s politics and our political leaders in the first place? It is really not to publicly diagnose. After all, when you look at personality disorders, most of the criteria is in the overt behavior that anybody can see. Secondly, how much does a psychiatric diagnosis matter anyways in terms of being a successful politician and leader? As psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi has researched and reported in his book, “A First Rate Madness,” sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t.

Raw Story: Trump also returned to his major priorities, gutting the Affordable Care Act and taking action on the Southwest border, including threats to completely shut it down. Why do you suppose the President is so desperate to enact these agendas, even against the wishes of advisors and experts?

Dr. Steven Moffic: Once people with extreme narcissism win a battle, whether that’s in politics, corporations, or sports, it’s time to move on and try to win another to show how great they are. Giving up on a project or promise is losing, so naturally such priorities still need to be addressed. Advisors and experts who disagree are once again a threat to an underlying shaky self-esteem that has to be boosted up again and again. People like that just want “yes” people.

Raw Story: The latest controversy revolves around the unorthodox way that individuals gained security clearances in the White House. 25 individuals reportedly got high-level clearances against the advice of career staffers. Once again, it’s Trump flouting traditional channels, which many worry puts national security at risk.

Dr. Steven Moffic: “Once again,” as you say, is the key phrase. Why go through traditional channels when you can get those security clearances done in another way? Sure, some say that can put national security at risk, but those with extreme narcissism feel that they know better anyways. They are the security. No one else is really needed. If you add in a little tendency for sociopathy, then there is no sense of guilt for taking a risky or unethical path. Add in a little impulsivity, and the process can’t wait for the usual timetable. And, if that goes awry, just blame someone else for the bad result. It couldn’t possibly be you.

Raw Story: Speaking of national security, the Washington Post reported research revealing that counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent rise in hate crimes. What do you make of this new information?

Dr. Steven Moffic: Last fall we in the United States had the worst hate crime of all, the cold-blooded killings in the Pittsburgh synagogue. Such hate crimes have even spilled into New Zealand with the recent killings of so many Muslims in the mosques of prayer. Both tragedies were conducted by so-called white nationalists.

I have recently edited the book, “Islamophobia and Psychiatry,” and have started work on its sequel, “Anti-Semitism and Psychiatry.” There is no surprise that there seems to be such a rise of hate crimes, many of them directed against Jews and Muslims, but also toward other immigrants and Black Americans. When a leader does not criticize such behavior, followers tend to feel that it is appropriate and possible to do so. When there is verbal animosity and belittling of the “others”, that makes them fair game, too. When leadership says that they are invaders, invaders must be stopped one way or another.

In the case of narcissistic-based leadership, there are very close emotional ties between followers and leaders. The followers tend to either idealize the leader who promises to make things better for them, or the followers will mirror the behavior and ideas of the leader. To loosen that bond, other leaders have to emerge that will convince the followers that their new plan is better.

So, what kind of leadership is needed to stop such scapegoating and solve such global threats as climate change? That is called servant leadership, where the leader is not serving him or herself first and primarily, but where the leader views their role as one of being a servant to the needs of all: of all people, other living things, and the environment.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/04/renowned-psychiatrist-explains-trumps-disordered-personality-forces-absurd-battles/


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PostPosted: 04/04/19 3:47 pm • # 21 
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Dr. Lee spells it out for us ~ :st ~ Sooz

Trump’s mental incapacity more obvious than ever post-Mueller: Yale psychiatrist
Tana Ganeva - COMMENTARY / 04 Apr 2019 at 10:48 ET

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team claim Attorney General William Barr downplayed the conclusions of the Russia probe, telling the Times that the full report contained far more damning information than is evident in the memo.

President Trump and his associates celebrated the Barr statement as a full exoneration — even though the document explicitly stated that the probe had not exonerated Trump on obstruction of justice charges.

Raw Story spoke with Dr. Bandy X. Lee about the wrap up of the years-long investigation and how the President and his critics have responded.

Lee is a psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine who has taught at Yale Law School for over 15 years. She is an authority on violence prevention and President of the World Mental Health Coalition. Her New York Times bestseller, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” has just been released as an expanded edition, alongside a major Washington conference on presidential fitness (dangerouscase.org).

Raw Story: Liberals are awaiting the release of the full Mueller report. But it seems increasingly likely that expectations of criminal wrongdoing — at least when it comes to Russia — aren’t really contained in the report. What’s a good way for people who are opposed to the Trump Presidency to respond?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: Imagine an ocean liner. You need many components to be functioning so that you can get to where you need to go and not sink into the sea. You have to have an intact body, the internal mechanics or software has to be working right, and you have to have an able captain. Let’s say you inspect the body, and it is found to be intact. You still have to check the software and the captain.

A former White House ethics counsel told me there are “Three C’s” plaguing this presidency: collusion, corruption, and capacity. We don’t know if collusion is out, but criminal conspiracy seems to be—so far.

Now, is Robert Mueller’s report—at least the reporting of the report—free of corruption? The attorney general appeared to be cherry-picking what he wished to highlight, attempting to redact not only classified and ongoing investigation information but plenty of other material. He resisted the demands of numerous experts, 83 percent of polled Americans, and an overwhelming 420-to-0 vote on a House resolution calling for release of the full report. Meanwhile, he used the delays to set a certain tone. All this is important, as we have been saying that the president’s psychology will be reflected in those he appoints: Jeff Sessions, as we saw, was pushed out for not being corrupt enough.

Raw Story: Does this also apply to his appointment of Supreme Court justices?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: Absolutely. We need both preservation and innovation to survive, and so it is not about being liberal or conservative: it is about health versus disease. That Donald Trump would appoint a justice—Neil Gorsuch—who would argue that the death penalty need not be painless, defying American norms against cruel and unusual punishment, is unsurprising given the president’s propensity for cruelty. When he was about to nominate Brett Kavanaugh, a group of mental health professionals wrote to Congress that a president so apparently lacking in mental capacity would likely choose a justice who similarly lacks capacity, and indeed the confirmation was besieged with sexual assault allegations and thousands of law professors opposing him for lack of “judicial temperament.”

Raw Story: So how does “capacity” relate to the Mueller report?

The report reveals many potential problems regarding mental capacity. For example, the absence of conspiracy with Russians does not eliminate past behavior, such as siding with Russian adversaries over our own intelligence agencies, or actively taking measures that increase Russia’s global standing and diminish ours. Absent a rational explanation, such as conspiracy, what was he doing? We have to consider incapacity as an explanation.

So imagine you are having a heart attack. You don’t go to a dietician to work on your diet; you go directly to a heart doctor. In any other setting, you would take someone with the president’s symptoms of impulsivity, erratic thinking, and belligerent behavior for a mental health evaluation.

Currently, Mr. Trump’s rally speeches have been growing steadily less coherent, with rambling sentences, repetitions, and word-finding difficulties. A few weeks ago, there was the “Tim Apple” episode, and the other day he referred to Venezuela as a company, confused his father’s birthplace with his grandfather’s, and repeatedly pronounced “oranges” instead of “origins.” He even defensively said, “I’m very normal.”

Signs of mental incapacity were numerous even before recent declines, and we have not investigated them like collusion or corruption. Just a few include:

* There’s impairment in his ability to stay grounded in reality: Mr. Trump’s notions of what is real seem driven by his own internal thoughts, emotions, and needs, such as when he declares a national emergency without evidence or dismisses official death tolls in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

* Impulsivity: from spontaneously mocking those he disapproves of, such as calling San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz “crazed and incompetent,” to making announcements of international consequence via Twitter without consulting any advisors, Mr. Trump shows problems inhibiting his behavior on a daily basis.

* He has an investment in getting his way rather than serving the public: Mr. Trump appears to be unable to let go of personal vendettas even after they are proven detrimental to the nation, such as when he brought up dismantling the Affordable Care Act without a plan for the millions of lives he would put at risk.

* And he’s shown an inability to perceive his limits: Mr. Trump shows a severe inability to reflect realistically on the limits of his own knowledge, frequently declaring that he knows better than the experts.

* Then there’s his attraction to conspiracy theories: Mr. Trump recurrently espouses and encourages conspiracy theories, such as that “the deep state” is out to get him or that “invading migrants” are threatening the country, claiming that these warrant violent uprising or closure of the borders.

Raw Story: What can be done?

We know what to do and need not feel helpless. He is long overdue an evaluation, as even non-mental health professionals starkly revealed at the Washington conference. Mental health evaluations are very similar to legal investigations: even when a crime is obvious, you need an investigation to measure against existing standards and determine the precise indictment. Likewise, you need an evaluation to assess severity of symptoms and establish a definitive diagnosis. The course of treatment then follows.

I don’t believe we should declare a diagnosis without an examination, just as we shouldn’t indict someone without the proper legal process. One cannot use one’s own hired doctor to declare oneself “fit to serve,” as Mr. Trump has done, just as one cannot make one’s own hired lawyers prosecutor and judge. Capacity evaluations do not require consent, and the people, as the president’s employers, can demand one. If he is unwilling, he can resign. A pilot flying 300 passengers should have an intact mind; he is the pilot of 300 million citizens.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/04/trumps-mental-incapacity-obvious-ever-post-mueller-yale-psychiatrist/


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PostPosted: 04/05/19 5:56 am • # 22 
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Tim Apple. Oranges. German Dad. Mental Health Experts Warn That Trump Is Losing It.
Some say that the president’s language and behavior suggest cognitive decline, possibly associated with pre-dementia.

By S.V. Date

vid at source

President Donald Trump’s recent confusion with words and facts, including about his own father, could be signs of pre-dementia and deteriorating cognitive skills, mental health experts warn.

“The ‘Tim Apple’ episode a few weeks ago, his calling Venezuela a company, and then yesterday, confusing his grandfather’s birthplace with his father’s, mispronouncing ‘oranges’ for ‘origins,’ and stating out of the blue, ‘I’m very normal,’” recited Bandy Lee, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University who has been waving red flags about Trump’s mental state for years. “There is no question he needs an examination.”

“I think he’s suffering from pre-dementia. And it’s only getting worse,” said John Gartner, a clinical psychologist with practices in New York City and Baltimore.

Both acknowledged that they have not given Trump a full examination and could not offer a definitive diagnosis, but Gartner noted that the president’s behaviors are on full view every single day. “The evidence is right in front of our eyes,” he said.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley denied that Trump had any cognitive difficulties and said that those who actually work with Trump “see his total command of complex issues” on a daily basis. “These ‘doctors’ are disgusting, and they should be ashamed of themselves for trying to use their titles to push their own personal political views.”

Speaking in the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump said that his father was “born in a very wonderful place in Germany.” In fact, his father was born in the Bronx. It was his paternal grandfather who emigrated from Germany. The president also said repeatedly that he wanted to take a look at the “oranges” of the special counsel investigation against him, when he clearly meant “origins.”

Last month, Trump called Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” ― but later claimed that he had, in fact, said “Tim Cook Apple,” but people missed “Cook” because he’d said it very rapidly, and finally claimed that he was trying to save time by skipping some words.

“That was real cognitive slippage,” Gartner said. “And then he tried to cover for it.”

The White House this year did not make available the doctor who performed Trump’s annual physical exam and released scant information about its results.

In contrast, last year Trump authorized physician Ronny Jackson to field questions about his health for nearly a full hour. The president himself bragged about his performance on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a screening tool for Alzheimer’s disease that asks the patient, for instance, to identify a camel and to draw a clock.

“There aren’t a lot of people that can do that,” Trump said days later, boasting of his 30-out-of-30 score to a Republican National Committee audience.

That test, though, was never designed to be an in-depth analysis of cognitive function, Lee and other experts said. “Ronny Jackson declared his boss and commander-in-chief ‘fit for duty’ based on a 10-minute cognitive screen on which full-blown Alzheimer patients and hospitalized schizophrenia patients are known to score in the normal range,” she said.

Large numbers of Americans who are not mental health professionals have also started to question Trump’s mental condition, including prominent critics like George Conway, the husband of top White House aide Kellyanne Conway. They’ve noted both the president’s actions and his televised speeches and public remarks, in which he is frequently incoherent and goes off on long, unrelated tangents.

On Tuesday night, during his speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee spring dinner, Trump, who was then in the middle of 90 minutes of rambling remarks, veered off on a two-minute, 22-second detour that touched on how wind turbines kill bald eagles and other birds, moved on to how North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was not ready for a deal, came back to how people who use wind power can’t watch television if the wind doesn’t blow, and finished with former President Barack Obama playing golf in Hawaii:

Quote:
Hillary wanted to put up wind. Wind. If you ― if you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations: Your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. You tell me that one, OK? “Rrrrr, rrrrr” ― you know the thing that makes the ― it’s so noisy. And of course it’s like a graveyard for birds. If you love birds, you’d never want to walk under a windmill because it’s a very sad, sad sight. It’s like a cemetery. We put a little, we put a little statute for the poor birds. It’s true. You know in California, if you shoot a bald eagle, they put you in jail for five years. And yet the windmills wipe ’em all out. It’s true. They wipe ’em out. It’s terrible. And I told the other day at CPAC. Great people at CPAC. We had an incredible thing. I had nothing to do. It was early on a Saturday morning. I had just gotten back from dealing with Kim Jong Un. We had a walk. He wasn’t ready for a deal but that’s OK because we get along great. He wasn’t ready. I told him, you’re not ready for a deal. That’s the first time anybody has ever told him that and left. It never happened to him before. Nobody’s ever left. But I said you’re not ready for a deal, but we’ll make a deal. We have a good relationship. We have a good relationship. But I told a story about, at CPAC. The woman, she wants to watch television. And she says to her husband, “Is the wind blowing? I’d love to watch a show tonight, darling. The wind hasn’t blown for three days. I can’t watch television, darling. Darling, please tell the wind to blow.” No, wind’s not so good. And you know, you have no idea how expensive it is to make those things. They’re all made in China and Germany, but the way, just in case you’re ― we don’t make ’em here, essentially. We don’t make ’em here. And by the way, the carbon, and all those things flying up in the air, you know the carbon footprint? President Obama used to talk about the carbon footprint, and then he’d hop on Air Force One, a big 747 with very old engines, and he’d fly to Hawaii to play a round of golf. You tell me, the carbon footprint.

“He has been growing less and less coherent,” Lee said, pointing to Trump’s appearance a month ago at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which Trump referenced on Tuesday night. “His two-hour CPAC speech revealed a lot of rambling sentences, tangential thought trails, word-finding difficulties and repetition.”

On Twitter last month, George Conway wrote: “*All* Americans should be thinking seriously *now* about Trump’s mental condition and psychological state, including and especially the media, Congress ― and the vice president and Cabinet.”

That exhortation followed up on a string of Conway tweets listing the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.

Gartner, though, said Trump’s condition appears to be an even worse variant of that disorder and a condition that is common to dictators: malignant narcissism, whose traits include narcissism, paranoia, sociopathy ― exhibited by constant lying ― and sadism.

“He has been getting worse in the last few months,” Gartner said, adding that he agrees with Conway that earlier interviews show how far Trump’s decline has progressed. In the past, Gartner said, “he not only spoke in complete sentences, he spoke in complete paragraphs.”

Lee and Gartner are among the relatively few mental health professionals speaking out about Trump’s apparent condition because of guidelines against speculating about patients a doctor has not personally examined. Both said those standards should not apply in situations where the safety of the nation is at stake and the president’s behavior is on public display.

Gartner pointed out that one of the symptoms of narcissism is repeated lying. “Donald Trump is the most documented liar in human history,” he said. “We observe his behavior every day.”

SOURCE

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PostPosted: 04/05/19 8:37 am • # 23 
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"Gartner pointed out that one of the symptoms of narcissism is repeated lying. “Donald Trump is the most documented liar in human history,” he said. “We observe his behavior every day.”

As long as his behavior is tolerated and given the deaf-dumb-blind response from his party and followers, to know he is unbalanced does not seem to matter, or that anything can be done unless he goes totally off the rails where it cannot be spun or denied.


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PostPosted: 04/05/19 11:31 am • # 24 
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Karolinablue wrote:
... totally off the rails where it cannot be spun or denied.

Even then his base will deny it. Trump himself has declared that reports of his statements are fake news - and he's continued to do so even when presented with a recording of him making the statement in question.


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PostPosted: 04/05/19 11:46 am • # 25 
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shiftless2 wrote:
Karolinablue wrote:
... totally off the rails where it cannot be spun or denied.

Even then his base will deny it. Trump himself has declared that reports of his statements are fake news - and he's continued to do so even when presented with a recording of him making the statement in question.


this reminds me of the "thousands of Muslims" cheering in New Jersey statement he made. he never repudiated that, either, even though there is no proof whatsoever it is true (and, candidly, it doesn't make any sense to any reasonable person that it WOULD be true).


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