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PostPosted: 04/06/19 10:50 am • # 26 
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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).

That one just demonstrates the greatness of the man. His uncanny ability to be in three places at once. According to him he was in New Jersey watching the Arabs dance in the streets, rushing down to the site with hundreds of Trump workers to drag the dead and dying from the towers and in his apartment watching the whole thing unfold. He probably would have been able to use his superhuman strength to hold the towers upright himself if it wasn't for his damn bone spurs and PTSD from fighting off STDs.


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PostPosted: 04/06/19 11:08 am • # 27 
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jimwilliam wrote:
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).

That one just demonstrates the greatness of the man. His uncanny ability to be in three places at once. According to him he was in New Jersey watching the Arabs dance in the streets, rushing down to the site with hundreds of Trump workers to drag the dead and dying from the towers and in his apartment watching the whole thing unfold. He probably would have been able to use his superhuman strength to hold the towers upright himself if it wasn't for his damn bone spurs and PTSD from fighting off STDs.


i can't believe that he just doubled down on that story and never took back a word of it. he even went so far as to say that he would PRODUCE proof that it happened.

it didn't happen. there was no proof. and it was an outrageous thing to say.


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PostPosted: 04/07/19 8:54 am • # 28 
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More from Dr. Lee ~ what I find VERY surprising is that there has been no uproar from the DiC nor his WH shills damning/demeaning her or her commentaries, which are widely published ~ :ey ~ Sooz

Opinion
Trump’s mental condition seems to be getting worse: He should subject himself to a rigorous assessment now
By Bandy X. Lee | New York Daily News | Apr 05, 2019 | 10:00 AM

Two years after organizing a conference at Yale about how mental health professionals could warn the public ethically and effectively, our predictions have borne out to be true: Donald Trump in the office of the presidency has proven more dangerous than people suspected, has grown more dangerous by the day, and, without proper treatment, is becoming increasingly uncontainable.

People feel overwhelmed and helpless, and I wish now to say that there are things we can do. To know when to embark on a journey, we need meteorologists to tell us when a storm is coming and when it is safe to travel. To ensure that the captain is sharp and able, we need mental health professionals to examine signs that are in need of a check-up. What feels daunting to the general public is routine for the experts.

So why would we not call upon mental health professionals now, especially when many of us are saying that avoiding an evaluation is itself a sign of mental impairment?

And it is only one of many signs.

Trump’s tweets are some of the best, unfiltered information on his mental state. They are reactions to real-life situations in real time, over an extended span of time. Their growing frequency is an alarming sign, with an astonishing 52 tweets over 34 hours recently. Their content has also become more vitriolic.

Trump’s rallies are also very revealing. They are events he insists on doing, often against advice, and the adulation of crowds seems to ease, at least temporarily, an insatiable emotional need. These, too, have been increasingly more vicious in attacks against Hillary Clinton or John McCain, indicating that neither defeat nor death can satisfy the envy for what he may believe he could never have.

Trump’s rhetoric has been growing more violent. Attacking others seems to be a chief mode of coping for him; his accusation of “Democrats” behind Robert Mueller’s team as being "all killers” and his calling on “the police,” “the military,” and “the Bikers for Trump” to get tougher, appear to indicate that the stress of the presidency is getting to him.

Trump has been espousing and encouraging conspiracy theories. These may be signs that he has a harder and harder time tolerating reality, as beliefs that “the deep state” is out to get him or that “invading migrants” are threatening the country may be easier concepts to cope with than his inner fears.

Most markedly, he has of late been growing less and less coherent. His two-hour Conservative Political Action Conference speech revealed many rambling sentences, tangential thoughts, repetitions and word-finding difficulties. There was also the “Tim Apple” episode a few weeks ago, and then his calling Venezuela a company, confusing his grandfather’s birthplace with his father’s, mispronouncing “oranges” for “origins,” and stating, out of the blue, “I’m very normal.” These are signs of cognitive decline, the source of which we cannot know without examining him, but there is no question he needs an evaluation.

We did not know this would happen years ago because of random guesses, because we are smart, or even because we are opposed to the president. Health professionals are pro-human, and in our professional capacity, we care for everyone equally according only to medical need. We based our predictions on science and on years of clinically observing real impairments — and since there are things we cannot know without a full evaluation, we have long been recommending this for the president.

People of far less consequential jobs are examined every day for fitness. All military and police officers take fitness-for-duty exams before they take their jobs. Those who handle nuclear weapons must go through especially rigorous testing and renew it every year.

If an employee showed the kind of impulsivity, erratic thinking and belligerent behavior that the president does, the employer would likely have demanded testing right away before the employee could resume work. In the United States, the people are the president’s employers. An unprecedented Washington conference on fit leadership revealed that even non-mental health professionals agree that the president needs urgent mental health intervention.

So the choice now seems clear: the president needs to submit to a proper, independent evaluation of fitness, or if not, he can always resign.

Lee is a forensic psychiatrist and expert on violence at Yale School of Medicine. She edited the bestseller, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-trumps-mental-condition-is-getting-worse-20190405-xzpzzhwbrncfdbbkq3i7d3xdgq-story.html


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PostPosted: 04/20/19 9:01 am • # 29 
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There is no question in my own mind that the DiC's mental state is declining rapidly ~ it's evident every time he opens his mouth ~ this commentary is alarming but explains a lot ~ :ey ~ Sooz

Trump facing ‘psychic collapse’ after Mueller’s report puts more pressure on his unstable mind: Psychoanalyst
written by Tana Ganeva / Raw Story / April 19, 2019

On Friday, as the full weight of the Mueller report sunk in, proving far more damning that Attorney General William Barr’s memo, Trump dismissed the findings as “total bullish*t.”

That statement seems at odds with Trump’s earlier claim that the Mueller report exonerates him of all wrong-doing.

Raw Story spoke with Howard H. Covitz, Ph.D., a psychologist-psychoanalyst, about the President’s likely state of mind.

Covitz was for many years Director and Training Faculty of the Psychoanalytic Studies Institute and the Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies in Philadelphia, and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis. His Oedipal Paradigms in Collision was nominated for the Gradiva Psychoanalytic Book of the Year.

He’s also taught university-level mathematics and psychology in the past. His connectedness to his wife, grown children, and grandchildren motivates his activism.

He contributed his wide-ranging insights to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Professionals Assess a President,” edited by Bandy X. Lee, which was re-released last month alongside a major Washington conference on presidential fitness (dangerouscase.org).

Raw Story: How did you come, as a psychoanalyst to enter public discussion about a public figure? Isn’t there a rule against professionals speaking in psychiatric terms about public figures?

Howard H. Covitz: I am a staunch advocate of that rule in all situations when there is no risk of catastrophic danger to others. I have chosen to speak out because a man was elected President (and given unimaginable powers to do good and evil) who shows the signs of those people who are prone to doing others harm.

For him, if I take his words seriously, life is a zero-sum game, and he must win all the time. The Psalmist said not about Trump but about the God that so many of his followers devoutly worship: “To God belongs the Earth and all that it contains” (Psalm 24). That’s not the way God-complex Trump sees it…. Furthermore, I must say, that any armed person who is not President and who is doing and saying what Donald Trump says often and openly would be whisked off by the gendarmes to a psychiatric facility for testing.

Raw Story: The Mueller report appears to at least legally clear Trump of collusion with Russia, although obstruction is still an open question. How do you explain Trump’s extreme negative reaction?

Howard H. Covitz: Since Donald Trump was a presidential candidate, we in the mental health community noted in him, one, an inability to see others as people in their own right (subjects with their own needs and intentions) but rather to see them as instruments for his use. Two, a splitting of the world into with-me and against-me camps, and three, an apparent lack of impulse control. He also appears to have no respect for extant organizations, laws or accepted wisdom. He’s shown an absence of nuanced thought (in addition to any question of cognitive decline). He’s demonstrated having only one truth, namely what he wishes to be true. The fact that he has nearly unlimited powers that are not being checked by the Senate or anyone else leaves the values of the Republic and the welfare of the world arguably in grave danger.

Raw Story: How do you think this information will land on the President’s supporters, given Trump’s unique relationship with his base?

Howard H. Covitz: We know the power of the mob and its allegiances to tribal beliefs. But beyond this, we know that the Fourth Estate, to a significant extent, has been wittingly or unwittingly complicit in treating many of Trump’s positions AS IF they were reasonable … they have been complicit, that is, in normalizing the pathological as during the rise of authoritarian regimes.

Having said that, it is difficult to believe that there will not be defections from the Trump cult, if room is made for these people who saw in Trump hope for a better day. I expect there to be efforts (either from the Right or from Russian bots) to paint the progressive camp as seeing half or more in the MAGA camp as “deplorables.”

Speaking not as a psychoanalyst but as a citizen, father and grandfather, it is absolutely necessary for us to avoid any further alienation of the right, including the Religious Right.

Raw Story: Do you envision the President doubling down on his agenda, including severely restricting immigration? Plus, today the President called the report “total bullshit” even though he also claimed it exonerated him. Why can’t the President stop while he’s ahead?

Howard H. Covitz: If, indeed, the elected President’s publicly displayed behaviors are indicative of severe pathology (and I have no reason to believe otherwise), the likelihood of his responding to the pressure of being exposed in any constructive manner is essentially zero.

We have made inroads into treating some such people with success, but this is a lengthy process and is not accomplished under the type of duress that the President is being exposed to with the damning pictures in Mueller’s report. We see from even the redacted report that, without the likes of John Kelly and teams of legal consultants, the six characteristics mentioned above would have moved him to even more dangerous and illegal positions.

He is being portrayed in the report as one who can be controlled – the Emperor, in the report, does indeed have small hands, so to speak. How someone like he will be able to integrate the public shaming that this brings forth for him is not predictable but should be a source for grave concern.

That having been said and, again, assuming again that his pathological behaviors are not all a show, we may presume either an increase in these disturbing behaviors (pulling out of NATO, declaring national emergencies for whatever he chooses to do, ramping up tensions with Iran, using the full-force of the executive branch to leash friends and whip foes, … ), or a psychic collapse.

We saw a notable change in his behavior when he left the White House on Thursday for Mar-a-Lago and refused to take any questions. The next days and weeks should clarify which of these paths he chooses and how much and what kind of violence he chooses to promote. It is impossible to precisely predict the future actions of someone who apparently lives under the belief that après moi le deluge.

These are, in my estimation, the most dangerous times thus far in Trump’s presidency … Dangerous for the republic with dangers for the world and dangerous for my grandchildren.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/trump-facing-psychic-collapse-after-muellers-report-puts-more-pressure-on-his-unstable-mind-psychoanalyst/


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PostPosted: 05/07/19 2:42 pm • # 30 
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Another important read from Dr Bandy Lee ~ :st ~ FTR, I have not [yet] read the full report [live-linked below] ~ Sooz

Yale psychiatrist explains how Trump’s mental incapacity was exposed by Mueller
Tana Ganeva / 07 May 2019 at 12:06 ET

On Tuesday, former FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress that he would not characterize the FBI probe into the Trump campaign as “spying.”

Attorney General William Barr stirred up controversy when he used the fraught term to describe the agency’s investigation, sparked by information that Trump associates were compromised by foreign powers.

President Donald Trump has long maintained that he’s the victim of various conspiracies to undermine the administration. And he’s often said so, causing alarm that his followers might resort to violence.

Cesar A. Sayoc Jr. sent bomb threats to media outlets and public figures perceived to be Trump’s enemies. The President’s paranoia, evident in non-stop Twitter blasts and aired at rallies, has caused mental health professionals to question his fitness for office.

Raw Story spoke with Yale psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee about what prompted her — and other mental health specialists — to speak out about the president’s psychological problems, despite the so-called Goldwater rule that prohibits psychiatrists to diagnose public figures.

Lee is a renowned expert on violence and forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine. She has been a consultant to the World Health Organization since 2002 and is author of the authoritative textbook, “Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Causes, Consequences, and Cures.” She has done numerous forensic reports for criminal and civil cases, as well as on institutional analyses, most notably of New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex, which helped to initiate reforms.

She is also president of the World Mental Health Coalition and editor of the New York Times bestseller, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.” She and several co-authors have submitted a mental health analysis of the Mueller report to the people via the press (Huffington Post covered it) and to Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The report (currently posted here) will be highlighted and hosted by the Boston Globe later this week for wider dissemination.

Raw Story: You did a “report on the Special counsel’s report,” which has a serious title but then a provocative subtitle: “If One is Too Incompetent to Commit a Crime, despite Trying Hard, is One Competent to be President?” How did you come to do this report, and what does it cover?

Lee: The special counsel’s report was replete with information for a mental health interpretation. Seldom do we have such voluminous information on a person’s behavior, verified at the level of sworn testimony. Hence, my colleagues and I saw this as a part of our ongoing, primary professional responsibility to protect society and to warn against potential harm to public health, as our ethics and the law require. The report is an attempt to continue educating the public.

The special counsel’s report could not be more informative about mental capacity, which is what the report addresses. Mental capacity is the ability to make sound, rational, reality-based decisions free of impulsivity, recklessness, paranoia, and false beliefs.

Since it is about function, not diagnosis, it has less to do with what specific illnesses are affecting someone. Rather, it has to do with whether one possesses the ability to do one’s job. A person can have a severe mental illness, for example, but be receiving proper treatment and function perfectly well—the presence of mental illness really says nothing about job performance. On the other hand, someone may not have a mental illness but still be incompetent and lacking in the basic capacities to do a job.

For a functional exam, a personal interview is not as important as observations by the person’s coworkers and colleagues of one’s actual performance, and this is why the special counsel’s report is so valuable. It is full of detailed and relevant information through the direct testimony of multiple allies and opponents, which allows us to make an appraisal with a level of confidence that far exceeds anything we can hope for in our ordinary practice.

Raw Story: Who wrote the report?

Lee: We are all authors of the public-service book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which came out of what we saw as a medical need, and was one of our first efforts to try to fulfill our societal responsibility. The fact that the book predicted much of the course of the current presidency and has received high acclaim among our peers and the public should give us credibility.

Writers of the report included myself; Dr. Edwin Fisher, clinical psychologist and professor in the Department of Health Behavior at the Gillings School of Global Public Health of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Dr. Leonard Glass, psychiatrist, associate clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, and senior attending at McLean Hospital; Dr. James Merikangas, forensic neuropsychiatrist, clinical professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and research consultant for the National Institute of Mental Health; and Dr. James Gilligan, forensic psychiatrist, adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, and consultant to the Violence Prevention Alliance of the World Health Organization. All are of the highest caliber, if not at the very top of their fields.

Raw Story: What does the report say?

Lee: Our report is quite damning. What the special counsel’s report revealed, through consistent and abundant data, was a pervasive and profound pattern of lack of capacity.

This was demonstrated by: lack of basic comprehension (or the ability to take in information and advice without undue influence from false beliefs or emotional need); faulty information processing (or the ability to appreciate and make flexible use of information and advice without false representation); lack of sound decision making (or the ability to consider consequences based on rational, reality-based, and reliable thinking without interference from impulsivity, false beliefs, or fluctuating consistency); and behavior that places oneself or others in danger (such as inciting one’s followers to commit acts of violence and boasting of one’s own repeated violence). These are crucial failures in the basic components of mental capacity test, which in his position constitute a medical emergency that requires a response.

Raw Story: Is the Goldwater rule relevant here?

Lee: There are many misinterpretations of the Goldwater rule, and it is important that we make clear: the Goldwater rule is a call to action, for psychiatrists to fulfill their primary responsibility to society by participating in activities that improve the community and better public health.

Our obligation is not to a public figure but to society, and the rule states that, when asked about a public figure, we educate the public in general terms while refraining from diagnosis (or the equivalent). We adhere to the Goldwater rule by refraining from any diagnosis and, more importantly, uphold its principle by acting for the benefit of society and by doing what we can to protect its health and wellbeing.

Raw Story: What can health professionals do?

Lee: We will continue to use our skills as expert witnesses to educate the public so that it can lean on its representatives to act. They are the ultimate authorities now, and we are doing our ethical and legal duty to report danger. As for now, given the serious concerns we and others have raised, we have recommended that the president agree to undergo a formal evaluation by an independent, nongovernmental panel of experts. Neither the president nor his associates have documented a valid mental health evaluation. With the preponderance of evidence and the extreme dangers implied in presidential incapacity, it is critical that he clarify this issue for the good of the country.

We at least have to make a reasonable attempt to obtain a personal interview. We have recommended that he agree to one within three weeks. Since this is a functional, not diagnostic, assessment, an interview is not as central or even necessarily informative as observations of performance by colleagues and associates. Therefore, in the event that he refuses, we believe that we will still have sufficient evidence to come to a conclusion that the president lacks the fundamental mental capacity to discharge the duties of his office. It may become necessary that we move ahead with that conclusion.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/yale-psychiatrist-explains-how-trumps-mental-incapacity-was-exposed-by-mueller/


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PostPosted: 05/16/19 5:07 pm • # 31 
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An excellent explanatory commentary with an excellent definition of "gaslighting" ~ :st ~ Sooz

Psychologist explains ‘Trump anxiety disorder’ and why he continues to brainwash his supporters
Tana Ganeva / 16 May 2019 at 12:51 ET

On Thursday, President Donald Trump pardoned Conrad Black, a former media mogul convicted of fraud.
In 2012, Black wrote a piece for National Review headlined “Trump Is the Good Guy” and Trump had pledged on the campaign trail that he would free him.

Presidents have been known to pardon allies, but usually stack controversial pardons for the end of their terms.

The President’s unpredictable behavior continues to add to an atmosphere of unease.

Jennifer Contarino Panning, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and owner of Mindful Psychology Associates in Evanston, Illinois. Panning coined the term “Trump anxiety disorder” for the emotions people are experiencing in volatile political times, including by kids who fear school shootings, which are increasingly on the rise.

She specializes in the treatment of mood disorders, eating disorders, college student mental health, stress, and trauma using an integrative approach of cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, dialectical behavioral therapy, and clinical hypnosis. She has been widely interviewed for her insights into public anxiety triggered by Trump. She is a contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Professionals Assess a President,” edited by Bandy X. Lee (dangerouscase.org).

Raw Story: At a vigil held in Colorado about the recent school shootings, the students walked out on DC politicians, chanting, “MENTAL HEALTH! MENTAL HEALTH!” What happens to the mental health of students when they are confronted with such widespread school shootings?

Jennifer Contarino Panning: Students who have survived a school shooting are likely to be directly traumatized by such an event, but American students who haven’t been directly involved in school shootings are also struggling. Students nationwide regularly participate in school lockdown drills, see or read news coverage of school shootings in our country, and hear their parents voice frustration and sadness at the lack of any real efforts to address how to prevent school shootings.

This is all contributing to increasing stress levels, and childhood is already increasingly more stressful with bullying and social media comparison as contributors, so dealing with this additional stress on top of normal childhood stress is difficult. The helpless feelings that students experience can lead to chronic stress and even develop mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I imagine these students who walked out on the politicians at this rally are struggling with the lawmakers’ “thoughts and prayers” refrain after shootings take place without any real follow-up action for prevention or addressing this epidemic. Our country is not focusing on actionable ways to prevent these mass shootings from happening, such as stricter gun control laws, and the students who have directly experienced the terror of surviving a school shooting are fed up with this inaction.

Raw Story: Can you explain “Trump Anxiety Disorder”?

Jennifer Contarino Panning: Therapists in their practices started seeing anxiety in many clients leading up to the 2016 election, immediately after, when Trump took office, and continuing to the current day. As mental health professionals, this is not something that we witnessed before with the election of a presidential candidate of either party affiliation. Trump Anxiety Disorder is a phrase referring to a specific set of anxiety symptoms directly related to the uncertain sociopolitical climate that resulted after Trump became President.

These symptoms can include: lack of sleep, a feeling of losing of control, and helplessness in an unpredictable sociopolitical climate, hopelessness, ruminative worry, irritability, and even excessive time spent on social media or consuming news.

We see certain people who are more vulnerable to this disorder, including immigrants, undocumented people, individuals in the LGBTQ community, people of color, and members of certain religious communities such as Muslims and Jews–people who have been directly targeted by this administration or whose existence is at risk.

Raw Story: Part of that is that Trump quite regularly seems to lie and cheat.

Jennifer Contarino Panning: A good leader demonstrates credibility, dependability, integrity, intelligence, humility, self-reflection, and responsiveness to concerns.

Great leaders know they cannot do anything all on their own and depend on a group of trusted advisors. If a nation of people is under poor leadership, they begin to lose trust.

Humans like and need predictability in their lives, so a leader who is brash and unpredictable creates chaos and resultant stress. Security and safety is considered a basic need (along with access to food, clean water, and sleep) in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, so when basic needs are not being met, stress, anxiety, and dread can become regular feelings in a population of people.

Gaslighting is a term that refers to a tactic in which a person, in order to gain more power, makes victims question their reality. We have seen this phenomenon with Trump and his tactics of stating that everything is terrific while people knowing the things he says aren’t true. People start to question their own view of reality and need to refer to facts from an unbiased source to confirm that they are indeed experiencing reality correctly.

Raw Story: Is there anything useful that people can do?

When faced with a situation that can elicit feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, it is important to try to become empowered in whatever way possible. For some people, this may be interacting with their congressional representatives to advocate for causes that are important to them and specific to their values. One good thing that has happened since Trump took office is that more people have been active in political advocacy groups or running for local offices. There are many national and local grass-roots organizations that are politically motivated. People can also donate money to causes or advocacy groups to further their cause. On a day-to-day level, it is important to watch our consumption of social media and news… It is good to be informed but detrimental to be flooded with anxiety and dread, which can result from reading or watching too many upsetting news stories. If you are finding yourself flooded and demoralized, it is good to acknowledge those feelings and then connect with others, either directly expressing feelings and worries with trusted loved ones, or taking a break from the flood of feelings by doing fun or relaxing activities with loved ones. Additionally, when there is so much negativity and stress in the news and in our culture, it is even more important to connect with loved ones (assuming these are healthy relationships) and expressing our caring and love towards people who are important in our lives.

Raw Story: What’s happening with his supporters? Why are they so uncritical of the President?

Jennifer Contarino Panning: I think there are several things happening with his supporters. Some are lifelong staunch Republicans who are loyal to the party above all else and would support any Republican in office. Others are “one issue” voters (such as anti-abortion) or belong to certain religious groups who adhere to conservative beliefs.

However, there is still a large group of Trump supporters who sadly seem to have been brainwashed by the President. This is not their fault. Certain biased news sources such as Fox News contributes to this brainwashing, as does Trump himself with his manipulation tactics. Some of these followers are angry, feel disenfranchised and powerless, and feel like they have been sold a bill of goods by past politicians who made promises that went unfulfilled and who were elitist and didn’t “get them.”

Trump has appealed to these Americans by fueling their fear and anger while also creating exaggerated threats of the other (for example, Mexican immigrants and trans people). He has also manipulated them to go against their own self-interest by making promises he will never follow through on (for example, promoting coal miners’ future jobs). He talks a good game as a “regular guy,” although he was born into wealth, but people buy into this narrative that he is “one of us.” Trump has the charismatic ability to make his false statements believable and preys on the fears and angers of his followers.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/psychiatrist-explains-trump-anxiety-syndrome-and-why-he-continues-to-brainwash-his-supporters/


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PostPosted: 05/17/19 12:50 pm • # 32 
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I really admire Dr Bandy Lee for her courage to publicly point her finger at the APA [her own professional association] for the role it's playing here ~ :st ~ Sooz

Yale psychiatrist explains how to deprogram Trump supporters who’ve been sucked into the vortex of his lies
Tana Ganeva / 17 May 2019 at 14:07 ET

Even as President Donald Trump is battered by controversies, including a recent report that his self-proclaimed business acumen is largely a sham — he lost money starting in the 1980s — his approval ratings among his supporters remain high.

Raw Story spoke with Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine, about why Trump supporters are so loyal to the President. She and several co-authors recently submitted an analysis of what the Mueller report revealed about the President’s mental health, covered here and here. Their summary of the report was the number one article in the Boston Globe.

Dr. Lee has also been a vocal critic of the American Psychiatric Association’s alteration of the Goldwater rule since the Trump administration, so much so that she held a conference on it in April 2017, inviting the most preeminent psychiatrists in the nation.

Their critique of the altered Goldwater rule led to a book in defiance of the change, which became the New York Times bestseller, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” Since then, thousands of mental health professionals joined her to form the World Mental Health Coalition (dangerouscase.org), intended as an alternative to the American Psychiatric Association, and named her president.

Raw Story: If you had the chance to speak with Trump supporters, what would you say to them?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: I am already in contact with many, and have worked with, shared meals with, and “hung out” with several while working in Alabama. Contrary to the stereotype, they are often some of the most humane and most innocent people I have met, which is why they trusted so easily.

It is heartbreaking to consider how they have been exploited—over the years by a politics that retains power not by serving them but through psychological manipulation, and now through a predatory president.

I would say to them, it has become time to ask ourselves: do we have the self-respect to demand a leader who is even capable of leading? Our recent test on his capacity was intended as a service to the public, based on the rigorous information in Robert Mueller’s report: he failed on every criterion. We also just learned of the president’s spectacular business failures during the years he flaunted himself as being the biggest success, while he lost more than any other American on record.

It is difficult to make this shift, especially when we have invested so much, but after a while, it takes less energy to change than to continue making excuses to protect “our guy.”

Policy-wise, he is hurting his everyday supporters the most (not the billionaire supporters). If we stopped to think for a moment—doesn’t it bother us that he deceived us into believing he was a successful businessman, the only qualification he brought for being a successful politician, when all he did was go to his father when in trouble? Doesn’t it disturb us that he so lies, cheats, and defrauds the public, that it is safer to assume that every word out of his mouth is the opposite of what is true? Should we tolerate a president whom more than 800 former federal prosecutors, of both parties, would call a criminal?

Raw Story: Is there anything you would advise them to do?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: The transition will be gradual and painful, but the moment they realize they hold the power and do not have to submit to a strong authority to be safe, they won’t be so easily fooled any more. This is all understandable; working in the criminal justice system, I know how good serial predators can be—they can create powerful emotional bonds.

This is what they thrive on.

I rather hold responsible the institutions that propped him up for their short-term profits, and the American Psychiatric Association is chief among them. Given that the insidious effects of mental pathology defined this whole presidency, the Association was in a unique position to prevent vast suffering. Psychiatrists understand not just mental illness but criminal behavior, violence, capacity to serve in an office, and many other things. By aggressively shaping a milieu where mental health professionals would not be able to share their knowledge as a national mental health crisis was unfolding, the Association instead primed the public to become the president’s prey.

Raw Story: Those are strong words. How do you make that claim?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: The public has a right to know what the American Psychiatric Association has done. Imagine if a high official contracted Ebola. One would not think twice about deferring to doctors about proper management. The doctors do not make political decisions but medical ones, and based on recommendations, political bodies would coordinate. The important, immediate issue at hand is to contain the disease and spread of harm.

I have described the current president’s condition as worse than Ebola—and yet, imagine if the Ebola doctors were prohibited from even uttering a word of caution, for fear of upsetting the high official, and leaving the disease to its natural course. By propagating popular misconceptions that mental health issues are somehow different than other health issues, that it is imaginary or subjective—or worse, just an insult—the APA has effectively stigmatized the entire field of mental health. By allowing a serious condition to continue without even educating the public, it has allowed pathology to spread unchecked.

Raw Story: Why did you decide to boycott the very symposium you helped to organize at the American Psychiatric Association?

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: I have lost faith in the Association’s ability to have an honest discussion. Psychiatrists were never supposed to be beholden to public figures—our primary responsibilities are to patients and to society. The actual Goldwater rule says this: work to improve the community and public health, and when asked about a public figure, educate the public—just don’t diagnose.

Instead, the APA expanded the “don’t diagnose” part out of proportion to silence an entire profession and to change public expectations. Its timing and aggressive public relations campaign make clear that it intended to protect Donald Trump, not ethics.

That said, I should clarify that the leadership did this by fiat, against member protests. We are now in a constitutional crisis, about to enter catastrophic wars, and economic breakdown is looming—all in ways that were wholly predictable from having a mentally unstable president.

Science now shows that even diagnosis does not require a personal interview. By distorting ethics and falsely intimidating experts, it deprived the public of critical knowledge at a critical time. Edmund Burke said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” And what better way to serve tyranny than to institutionalize this silence?

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/yale-psychiatrist-explains-how-to-deprogram-trump-supporters-whove-been-sucked-into-the-vortex-of-his-lies/


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PostPosted: 06/14/19 9:03 am • # 33 
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More from Dr. Bandy Lee ~ :st ~ Sooz

Yale psychiatrist Bandy Lee: Trump's mental health is now a "national and global emergency"
Dr. Bandy Lee convened experts to study the Mueller report. They conclude that Trump "can no longer see reality".
Chauncey DeVega / June 14, 2019 12:00PM (UTC)

Robert Mueller's report is 448 pages long and took almost two years to complete. Nineteen lawyers and at least 40 other people assisted with the investigation. It involved interviews with 500 people. Thirty-four people were indicted, seven have pled guilty and one was convicted at trial. The facts presented are damning: Donald Trump obstructed justice. Trump and his inner circle both publicly and privately sought to collude with Russian agents to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Beyond the particulars of Trump's likely illegal behavior, the Mueller report is also a compendium of Donald Trump's state of mind.

Dr. Bandy Lee, who is a professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and editor of the bestselling book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" convened a panel comprised of leading mental health experts to evaluate Donald Trump based upon his behavior as detailed in the Mueller report.

Their definitive conclusion: Trump is mentally unfit, a threat to the United States and the world, and as such should have his powers severely restricted while he is put under a doctor's care. At the invitation of several Democratic members of Congress, Lee and other mental health professionals will present their findings about Donald Trump's mental health in a public meeting in Washington next month.

Does Donald Trump pose a significant threat to both American society and the world? By what standards is he mentally unfit to serve as president? Should a person with Trump's apparent mental health issues and other behavioral problems be allowed to command the United States military and order the use of force — up to and including nuclear weapons? Why are more Americans not actively resisting Donald Trump's regime and movement? Have Trump and his movement broken the will of the American people by creating a state of malignant normality?

To seek answers to these and other questions, I recently interviewed Dr. Lee, whom I have interviewed on several previous occasions. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. You can hear our full conversation on my podcast, "The Chauncey DeVega Show."

In your volume "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," as well as our many conversations since the election of Donald Trump, you have predicted with uncanny accuracy how his behavior and mental health would worsen. Yet there are no mass protests and most people seem numb to this dangerous situation and Trump's overall assault on democracy. Where is the outrage? Has Donald Trump broken the will of the American people?

These are scary times. This is a moment that we predicted as almost the end point, where we as a country might be at a place of no return. We have passed the point of being able to fix things ourselves. That is something that we see in patients who have mental disorders. They are able to see that something is wrong with them up to a certain point, but after a certain level intervention can only come from the outside. We have seen this in other countries.

Communities, be they nations or other types of social collectives, can function like an individual. So the same principles that apply to an individual apply to collectives or nation-states. I'm sorry to bring you this message about these very perilous times, but we must not give up. This is especially true of mental health professionals, who have a special obligation on these matters of public safety.

Every day Trump and his regime seem to do something unprecedented in modern American history. How do people become used to this malignant normality?

The origin of that phrase goes back to Robert Jay Lifton, who wrote the foreword to our book, as you know. He insisted on using that phrase and I thought it was a brilliant one. His foreword is centered around two themes. Eventually a malignant normality will set in where we will accept what is malignant as being normal. That is described as "a loss of insight." This happens when an individual or a group no longer sees what is wrong, destructive and pathological as abnormal but actually accept it as normal.

The second theme Dr. Lifton highlighted was our role as witnessing professionals. As mental health professionals we understand this phenomenon. We see this every day. We know what happens to patients when they lose their ability to have insight, when they can no longer see the abnormal as malignant and bad. The patients are delusional because they believe bad things are good for them. When this happens a patient succumbs to the disorder and starts being destructive.

Donald Trump appears to be pure unrestrained id. He is driven by greed. Trump does not read and is proudly ignorant. He possesses no ideology. Beyond greed, how much of Trump's behavior is a function of his own desires and how much is because of manipulation by others?

It's a form of co-dependence. It is a mutual phenomenon where you have a person who is mentally disordered. Trump would have remained psychologically disordered as an individual, and therefore not doing much harm, if he had just remained a private citizen. As a real estate builder and a reality TV personality, Trump's power to do harm to society would be vastly limited. But because he rose to the level of president of the United States, this is why I and other health professionals have a medical obligation to speak publicly, to sound the alarm about this whole situation. Donald Trump is the center of vast levels of harm being done to a wide segment of society. This is a public health and public safety issue.

The health paradigm has no room for politics. This has nothing to do with politics. Our concerns are purely about public health and safety, and whether or not American society will choose a destructive route versus a life-affirming, constructive route. Disease by definition is destructive. What we are witnessing with Donald Trump's presidency are all signs of destruction. These symptoms are the dismantling of democracy, rampant corruption, thwarting the rule of law and even the loss of a shared sense of what reality actually is.

The ability to distinguish what is real from what is unreal is very important. With mental pathology, the afflicted person starts to see delusions and hallucinations as real. This mentally unwell person will actually do whatever they can to bulldoze over reality as it actually exists and the people who believe in it. This is why a sick, delusional person will force family members and those around them to abandon their own sense of reality and espouse the sick person's delusions and conspiracy theories.

This is what Donald Trump is doing to the United States and the American people. People who have their grounding in reality and rationality are now losing ground to him.

Recently Donald Trump threatened a list of public servants with charges of treason, a crime which is punishable by death. Trump did this out of apparent rage at the Mueller report. A few days before, Trump paraded out all his sycophants to say that Nancy Pelosi is a liar and that he had not thrown a temper tantrum during a recent meeting with her — despite witnesses who confirm those accounts. One would think that a healthy person would be cowed by the Mueller report and now proceed with great caution. Instead, Donald Trump is acting even worse.

A mentally unwell person like Donald Trump can no longer see reality for what it is. Instead he has to believe in false beliefs. A person like him has to lie to himself and lie to others. They have to distort the truth. They have to espouse conspiracy theories in order to even tolerate existing in this world, let alone facing reality. A mentally unwell person like Trump cannot accept facts for what they are. He cannot accept the results of the Mueller report as they are. People around Trump sense this.

That is why Attorney General Barr, who is supposed to represent the law, actually distorted the law in order to buttress and protect Donald Trump. Perhaps Barr thought this ploy was necessary for Trump to continue on mentally? Trump would likely not be able to accept the Mueller report if it was presented to him factually. I have been highlighting this fact repeatedly: There is institutional complicity with the leader, who is the center of power in a destructive regime.

You and your colleagues have done something that is likely unprecedented in American history. You convened a panel of the world's leading mental health experts to evaluate the president, based on the findings of a special prosecutor's report. What were the conclusions?

We assembled a group of renowned mental health experts as quickly as possible. We combed through the Mueller report and treated it like the information that we generally have when a court orders us to do a mental capacity evaluation of a person who has shown a lack of mental capacity. This could be a military officer, a police officer or a chief executive officer — anyone who has been flagged by any of their employees or employers because they show signs of possessing an inability to carry out their duties.

Of course the president has his own employers, who are the American people, who have pointed this out. Other specialists have highlighted these concerns about Trump as well. In essence the group of experts we assembled to evaluate Donald Trump were volunteering as expert witnesses in this case, working pro bono in order to provide a formal conclusion to the people and other concerned parties.

With the Mueller report and other information, we believed that we had enough to come to a conclusion. But we wanted to give the president enough of an opportunity to submit to a personal examination. If Trump believes himself fit to be president, we believe he should submit to an examination. We have information that Donald Trump received our request but he did not respond affirmatively. We then issued our conclusion after the three-week period. Our conclusion was damning. The president failed to meet all four criteria that we outlined as the standard, most basic criteria for mental capacity.

The first specific criterion is the ability to take in important information and advice. To be capable of taking in new information to make decisions, given how that is one of the primary and most important roles of a president.

The second criterion is the ability to process that information unimpeded by emotional needs or false beliefs or the need to lie to yourself or others. The ability to simply use the information you have and process it in ways that are normal, unimpeded by all those other emotional factors and needs.

The third criterion is to be able to make sound, rational, reality-based decisions without undue influence by impulsivity, other false beliefs, delusions and conspiracy theories. It's the ability to stay with a decision in a stable way and not to go back and forth depending on the other influences you receive. In essence, to be sane, to be connected to reality.

The fourth is to not put yourself and others in danger. This includes not inciting people to commit dangerous acts. Not to engage in aggressive acts yourself. Not to threaten nations by inciting war. We have found that President Trump was not able to refrain from those acts in many circumstances. Trump has put himself and the nation in danger, and putting yourself or others in danger is also a very important criterion in determining a person's capacity to serve — in this case, Trump's fitness to be president. There is overwhelming evidence in the Mueller report showing that Donald Trump is not able to meet these criteria. Likewise, there is very little evidence showing that Donald Trump is able to meet those criteria.

Do you think that Donald Trump should be impeached? What advice would you give Nancy Pelosi if she reached out to you?

I do not involve myself in direct discussions about impeachment or the political process because that is outside of my realm of expertise. My expertise is medical. In that capacity I can state that unless Donald Trump is contained or removed, he is posing a danger to public health and safety. As president, Trump represents a condition of imminent danger to the country and the world. Therefore my recommendation is that Donald Trump be immediately contained and certain powers are taken away from him.

I would like to highlight two of our greatest concerns. Immediate removal from access to nuclear weapons. The fact that an individual with access to thousands of nuclear weapons which have the capacity to destroy humanity and the world many times over is certainly an unacceptable situation with Donald Trump's level of mental incapacity. The war-making powers are vested in a president. We ask that Donald Trump's ability to make war be removed because he certainly is not in a position to have such powers.

What do you think is most likely to happen next with Donald Trump, if his behavior continues along this path?

We can be quite certain of certain things based on probability and Donald Trump's pattern of behavior. The American people will be in far greater danger. With Donald Trump there will be unacceptable levels of danger of him either destroying the United States or perhaps even human civilization. Donald Trump is a national emergency. That should be the No. 1 priority at this time. The American people and the country's leaders are not treating this dire situation with the attention it demands. The fact that this is not being treated as a national and global emergency is the greatest sign of danger.

https://www.salon.com/2019/06/14/yale-psychiatrist-bandy-lee-trumps-mental-health-is-now-a-national-and-global-emergency/


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PostPosted: 06/15/19 11:23 am • # 34 
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Now this guy comes to the conclusion Grabem is a global menace! Where's he been for the past two years? Long before the election the rest of the world knew Grabem was nucken' futz. This guy's a bit slow catching-up.


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PostPosted: 06/17/19 8:09 am • # 35 
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jimwilliam wrote:
Now this guy comes to the conclusion Grabem is a global menace! Where's he been for the past two years? Long before the election the rest of the world knew Grabem was nucken' futz. This guy's a bit slow catching-up.

FTR, "this guy" is a "she" ~ :b ~ I happen to respect her for defying the "norm" by going public with her professional conclusions ~

I also happen to agree with her take ~ while I've never been a fan of the DiC for a wide variety of reasons, seeing him "mentally disintegrate" in real time is alarming to me ~ he has totally rejected reality ~ :ey

Sooz


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PostPosted: 06/17/19 8:18 am • # 36 
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FTR, "this guy" is a "she" ~ :b ~


What? Her being a woman somehow justifies her not keeping up?


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PostPosted: 06/17/19 8:24 am • # 37 
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What are the mental health experts say about his fanatical followers?


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PostPosted: 07/17/19 1:48 pm • # 38 
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More from Dr Bandy Lee ~ :st ~ Sooz

Yale psychiatrist: Trump using racism as a coping mechanism as his mental state rapidly deteriorates
Published on July 17, 2019 / By Tana Ganeva

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump continued to attack the young congresswomen of color nicknamed “The Squad,” after he was criticized for saying the women should go back to their own countries, even though all four are U.S. citizens. Now, he’s doubling down.

On Twitter Wednesday he called the women “left-wing cranks.” He added that they were free to leave if they don’t like America.

Raw Story spoke with Dr. Bandy X. Lee about the President’s racist tirades against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-IL).

Lee is a forensic psychiatrist and an expert on violence at Yale School of Medicine. She helped launch a public health approach to global violence prevention as a consultant to the World Health Organization and other United Nations bodies since 2002. She is author of the textbook, “Violence: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Causes, Consequences, and Cures,” president of the World Mental Health Coalition, and editor of the New York Times bestseller, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”

She and her coauthors recently prepared a mental health analysis of the Mueller report with recommendations. On July 23, 2019, they will present their analysis at a town hall-style meeting on Capitol Hill as well as unveil five questions they would like to ask Special Counsel Robert Mueller (for more information, visit: dangerouscase.org).

Raw Story: Donald Trump told “Progressive Democrat Congresswomen” to go back to the countries they came from. When they rebutted, he doubled down, accusing them of spewing “foul language & racist hatred.” What do you make of these comments?

Bandy X. Lee: The first thing this indicates to me is that the president is deteriorating rapidly. He attacks as a maladaptive means of coping with stress, and he won’t stop. Given the rigidity of his repertoire, we can expect more, escalating attacks.

Secondly, his racism also lays bare his dangerousness. If the actual content of Robert Mueller’s report were to be understood properly, rather than in the light of distortion and deflection the special counsel generated to protect him, or the “No collusion! No obstruction!” hypnotism he has managed so far, things could become uncontrollable. We should not wait to see what happens.

Beyond the immediate risks, there is also widespread danger. There is a saying, “Sticks and stones may break bones, but words kill.” There are plenty of historical examples as well as research to support that this is true.

Dr. Kevin Washington, who specializes in African and African-American cultural psychology, calls racism a societal disorder. The president, through his powerful public position, is worsening this societal disorder. And since structural violence is the deadliest form of violence, causing more deaths per year than all the murders, suicides, wars, and massacres around the world combined, and racism is a form of structural violence, he is committing the worst violence of all through his words.

I wrote a textbook that illustrates how all forms of violence, including verbal aggression, sexual assaults, human rights abuses—such as the cruelty against migrant children—nuclear violence, and climate violence are all interrelated. I wrote it in 2014, with some updates just before publication, but I did not expect it all to play out in one presidency.

Raw Story: Will you be discussing this at your online town hall?

Lee: We will address the president’s lack of mental capacity, which is no longer a long-distance assessment, thanks to the Mueller report. We had to postpone our town hall to July 23, 2019, in order to fall just before Mr. Mueller’s testimony. We are doing this to maximize public attention on an issue all other authorities have suppressed, including the press. Details will be on our web site, dangerouscase.org.

Unfortunately, his limited testimony will come two days before the U.S. Congress goes into summer recess for six weeks, and the containment we urgently need will be delayed yet again. Stalling and obstructing, so that the natural time course of the 2020 presidential campaign will eliminate time for an impeachment inquiry, are consistent with the resistance against examination and treatment we see in mentally impaired individuals. The contributions of mental impairment are important, since they will be far more overpowering than criminality alone.

Raw Story: How will you have these mental health contributions be known? It seems we continue to fail to recognize them.

Lee: Not only that, the resistance will grow worse, the more severe the situation is. Mental health experts need to become part of the discussion, if only to reassure that there are ways of managing this. Without experts, even if the signs of disorder are obvious, it becomes a mere insult, since there is no scientific basis and no one will know what to do about it. If they are not obvious, it becomes a potential hazard to those exposed, which in the case of a U.S. president is the nation and the world. Most mental disorders cause suffering on the afflicted person and violence against the self, but there is a small subset that inflicts suffering on and violence against others. It should be no secret in which category the president’s impairments fall. It is very easy to underestimate the depth and complexity of this form of dangerousness without expert input.

Crucially, most people will be tempted, cajoled, confused, and pressured into enabling or colluding with the disease. This is how loved ones become accomplices in repeatedly recreating the trauma of traumatized individuals, unless treated. This is how ordinary people readily trust those with predatory drives, allowing perpetrators to repeat their acts again and again, unless stopped. Unfortunately, this is also how the public is more likely to give to a disordered leader frenzied, irrational support that is impermeable even to facts and self-interest. Dr. Judith Herman and I have outlined how there is great temptation to ally with power when the power becomes abusive and unhealthy.

Another popular misconception is that general mental defect exonerates from criminal responsibility. Political people may misapply this mistaken notion by trying to explain away wrongdoing or by believing that avoiding the topic will facilitate maximal punishment. The truth is, one can suffer from a severe mental illness and still be criminally responsible, while the determination of not guilty by reason of insanity is very specific and rare.

To see these signs and not to speak up, in my view, violates the heart of medical ethics. We are health professionals and not political players, and we are calling out the political nature of the American Psychiatric Association’s distortion of professional ethics, much like what I observe in the attorney general’s actions in relation to the law.

Medical guidelines should be clear: when lives and safety are at stake, there is not just permission but an obligation to act. If we have a duty to warn and protect non-patients or the public when it is in danger, and this has been litigated over a hundred times, then certainly the guideline not to diagnose a public figure without consent, which was litigated once 55 years ago, is subordinate to it. The former is a law adopted by most U.S. states and many nations. The latter is a rule that only one among many mental health organizations can enforce but can never become law because of its conflicts with the First Amendment. We are trying to expose this fact, in addition to speaking up, as our responsibility to public health.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/yale-psychiatrist-trump-using-racism-as-a-coping-mechanism-as-his-mental-state-rapidly-deteriorates/


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PostPosted: 07/19/19 10:34 am • # 39 
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Hubby's grandma got really racist during her mental decline just before her death. She would tell stories about Mexicans walking across the front lawn sneaking into the country. She was living in a nursing home in Phoenix, well inside the country, in a nursing home complex with no front lawn.

Also, the day before my dad died when he was clearly in mental decline he became very concerned about his new roommate, whose family of Portuguese descent would visit and he whispered to me that they were very bad people. We lived in a Portuguese and Greek community when I was a teen and his best friends were Portuguese. We would go fishing with them, had Easter with them, lived next door to them, and hung around at the bakery they owned.

I'm pretty sure I have been watching the mental decline of this man for awhile.


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PostPosted: 07/19/19 1:09 pm • # 40 
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I saw a Facebook thing yesterday of him being interviewed on Oprah in 1995. He was saying exactly the same things then that he does now. Oprah and her audience were eating it up because he was talking about brown and yellow people rather than blacks. But the point is, it isn't his mental decline that's causing his racism. It's the way he has always been.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/MOKi5YeNtRI


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PostPosted: 08/22/19 9:27 am • # 41 
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I strongly encourage you to find the 9+minutes to watch the video below ~ Sooz

‘He’s empty’: Psychiatrist warns Trump is in a ‘psychotic-like state’
Published on August 21, 2019 / By Sarah K. Burris

Dr. Lance Dodes warned that things were going to get worse under President Donald Trump in 2017. That’s precisely what happened.

“Is that what we’re seeing this week?” MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell asked the psychiatrist.

“Absolutely. Donald Trump, because he has a fundamental need to be all-powerful and all loved, can’t stand challenges,” Dr. Dodes said. “And the nature of democracy is that it challenges people. We have more than one opinion. So the more — it was predictable once he got into a position where people would challenge him, there are two parties, he would become more unhinged.

Wednesday’s press availability on the White House South Lawn showed exactly that, he explained.

“As you watched him respond to people, the more they challenged him, the more he ranted,” Dr. Dodes continued. “He stopped responding to the questions, and instead, he started to talk about how people were agents of fake news. He said that they would go out of business soon. They would die…This is the same kind of thing that he did when he was a candidate when he suggested someone protesting at his campaign rally be taken out and beaten up.”

The psychiatrist explained that Trump can’t handle when people disagree with him.

“The more he is challenged, the more he can’t stand anything that disagrees with him, and the more you challenge him, the more unhinged he becomes, the more paranoid, and the more violent, potentially,” he said.

O’Donnell asked about the strange relationship between the president and Kim Jong Un, who the president has said he’s fallen in love with.

“He doesn’t really love anyone except himself,” Dr. Dodes explained. “That’s not a slur, that’s a psychological fact. People like him are about him. And we see this not only with the North Korean leader but with all the people he surrounded himself for most of his life who are now recognized as criminals. As long as they stay loyal to him, he loves them. As soon as they challenge him, as soon as they disagree, then they’re terrible people.”

That situation is playing out with former top aide Anthony Scaramucci, who spoke glowingly about Trump for years and even published a book about the great work he’d done. Yet, the moment Scaramucci challenged something Trump said, the honeymoon was over.

“He never loved him, he only used him,” Dr. Dodes said about Kim, though it could have been applied to anyone Trump has had a falling out with. “If he’s not useful to him, he stops loving him. That’s part of the essential emptiness of Donald Trump. He doesn’t have real relationships with people. Maybe his personal family, we don’t know about that. But you can see that he discards anyone who doesn’t fit his personal needs, which makes him unable to really relate to our allies as well as our enemies.”

When it comes to Trump’s look toward the heavens as he bragged about being “the chosen one,” Dr. Dodes explained it was just another example of grandiosity and that there are many people in public life that have a grandiose sense of self.

“Donald Trump goes way beyond that,” he explained. “There is a fundamental way in which he’s empty. There’s something fundamentally different about him from normal people. It’s a psychotic-like state. The more you press him, the more you see how disorganized and empty he is. The more he flies into a disorganized rage. So yeah, and by the way, in terms of being God, he also made several what you might call Freudian slips during the interview today. He kept mixing up who he was and who the country was. He said, ‘I have the best economy.’ I, not the country. ‘I defeated the caliphate.’ It’s not just a slip of the tongue; he really doesn’t get it. He thinks of himself as a dictator, and it’s all him and no one else really matters.”

Watch the fascinating take below:


https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/hes-empty-psychiatrist-warns-trump-is-in-a-psychotic-like-state/


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PostPosted: 08/25/19 11:01 am • # 42 
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Another blistering critique! ~ :st ~ Sooz

Harvard psychiatrist exposes why ‘extremely successful sociopath’ Trump seeks Putin’s love and approval
Published on August 25, 2019
By Tom Boggioni

Appearing on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” on Sunday morning, retired Harvard clinical psychiatrist Dr. Lance Dodes diagnosed Donald Trump as having a “fundamental psychological problem” that has led him to seek approval from autocratic leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Speaking with host Joy Reid, Dodes got right to the point while admitting that he has not sat down and questioned the the president.

“Donald Trump does have a fundamental psychological problem,” he bluntly stated. “He needs to be loved all the time, he needs to have power over everyone all the time. Once you get that idea down, the rest of his behavior and his speech makes sense.”

“He also doesn’t have any respect for the truth or for honesty. They don’t mean anything to him because he can’t care about them,” he added. “His focus, again, is always on himself and to be — to care about being honest to people rather than lying to them means you’d have to care about your effect on them.”

“He never expresses regret, he does terrible things to people, the children who are being detained in cages are a good example,” he continued. “If you think about it psychologically, this is what some of us once called a soul murder. That’s what he’s doing to these children. His ability to do that fits perfectly with this kind of very deep sickness where other people don’t matter and he can hurt them to whatever extent he wants.”

As to his relationship with Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Dodes had another theory.

“He’s an extremely successful sociopath, that’s why he’s successful,” he suggested. “He loves them if they’re useful to him if they add to his power. That’s what happened with the North Korean leader. As long as he’s useful to him, he loves him and as soon as he would disagree with him, he would turn on him.”

“Your point on playing up to Putin is a good one because of the fundamental insecurity he also attaches himself to people who he sees as powerful,” he explained. “So he wants to be one with them, but only for that reason, only to increase his own power. If they were to disagree with him, he would hate them.”

Watch below:


https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/harvard-psychiatrist-exposes-why-extremely-successful-sociopath-trump-seeks-putins-love-and-approval/


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PostPosted: 01/07/20 10:56 am • # 43 
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There surely is!!! ~ :ey ~ Sooz

Yale psychiatrist: There’s a madman in the White House
Written by Bandy X. Lee / DC Report / January 6, 2020

“You nailed him!” is the typical response I received on Twitter, the forum I have been using to reach out to the public, after the assassination of Iran’s top general, Qassim Suleimani. My audience was referring to the concerns I had regarding Donald Trump leading up to the act of aggression, which is precisely the psychological danger I warned against, along with more than 800 other mental health professionals who joined me in petitioning Congress to consult with us about this danger.

Militarily and legally, no accusation of the president can or should be made without definitive proof. Psychologically, however, one is capable of generating a “formulation” of a person, testing it against data, as in a scientific experiment, and confirming it before events happen. When it is strengthened over time through continual information and repeatedly tested against real events, it sharpens to great precision, and one can begin anticipating behavior. Before there is a “wag the dog” maneuver to distract or to rally support, there is the thought. It feels uncanny, indeed, to have such a grasp on someone so as to be able to predict just the kind of military move he would make within approximately 12 hours of his making it—so much so that, when DC Report asked me to do an analysis of Rudy Giuliani 24 hours earlier, I complained: “But … Donald Trump is about to erupt in Iran!”

Quote:
The afflicted person, outraged at the deprivation of the adulation to which one feels entitled, becomes blind to other concerns such as the safety of others or the self.

From the forums at the World Mental Health Coalition, I know that many other professionals feel they equally have their fingers on the president’s psychological pulse. With our own patients, when someone represents a safety risk, we have our antennae up to be sure that we feel confident about leaving them in the community. While the president is certainly not our patient, it is like having someone who is an extremely high safety risk out in the community: we had better understand him well. And well we do.

A Threat to the Nation

Indeed, almost all colleagues to whom I have spoken about this tell me that they know the president better than any patient they have had in their entire careers. It exposes the fallacy that has been promoted during this presidency that we should not be able to tell anything at all without a personal examination. I know this to be untrue not only from the scientific literature but because of my own grandfather, to me akin to Dr. Bernard Rieux in The Plague when he did not leave the devastated areas of Seoul after the Korean War, as he became famous for turning down every high office and deanship at medical schools in order to treat patients day and night. After decades of working 20-hour days almost non-stop, he was accurately diagnosing strangers upon their merely passing into the doorway of his office; later tests were said to be superfluous. If this were possible for an internist, for whom the examinable parts are hidden, it is conceivable that it is possible with some aspects for a psychiatrist, especially since the parts we examine are fully exposed. What is important is that we rigorously confirm what we know and do not know and be responsible for what we say.

And when we see something unequivocally critical, we should say something. So what is happening with the president? It is what my esteemed colleague and former director of a division at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. John Zinner, has warned about: “narcissistic rage.” He joined me in leading the petition to Congress for, he believed, like I, that while impeachment was important, Donald Trump had the real potential to become ever more dangerous as his condition progressed, as a threat to the safety of our nation. Short of his sole command over nuclear weapons, there were “many other dangers he can pose by the use, fueled by rage, of his assumed absolute executive authority, and by the loyalists who serve him.”

Unable to Take Responsibility

As one of the nation’s top researchers of narcissistic disorders, Zinner assessed that Donald Trump’s sense of worth is “entirely dependent on admiration from others…. To cope with the resultant hollow and empty feelings [from criticism] he reacts with what is referred to as narcissistic rage.” Unable to take responsibility for any error, mistake, or failing, he would not only attack the perceived source of his humiliation but deflect the blame onto others. We see this happen repeatedly through history when such disordered individuals take power: not only does an already inflated self-image morph into grotesque delusions of grandeur, but any threat to those delusions of the self can and have been met with cruel retaliation, institutional ruin, scapegoating, devastating wars, and genocide.

Anyone who has seen attacks of narcissistic rage knows it can be brutal and destructive. The afflicted person, outraged at the deprivation of the adulation to which one feels entitled, becomes blind to other concerns such as the safety of others or the self. As one’s grandiose image, which the adoration was necessary to buttress, collapses, one is no longer capable of repressing the painful feelings of inferiority and inadequacy that resurface. This experience is more menacing than any existential threat could be. Access to weapons or war-making power in such a state is extremely dangerous, for they become highly attractive as a means for “restoration.” Mistakes of the past, such as aggression in the Middle East, are likely to repeat in more serious form rather than be avoided.

Impeachment is the ultimate rebuke of a president. As a quick Senate acquittal appeared less likely with the House’s delay in delivering the articles of impeachment, Donald Trump’s promotion of QAnon conspiracy theories and his description of himself as “heaven sent” the week before are indicators of his growing narcissistic rage. A collaborator and former CIA profiler, Dr. Jerrold Post, had expressed his concerns through a paraphrase of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas: “He will not go gentle into that good night, but will rage, rage at the passing of the light…. And what that rage will do to international relations is really too scary to contemplate.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/yale-psychiatrist-theres-a-madman-in-the-white-house/


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PostPosted: 01/07/20 5:53 pm • # 44 
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our worst fears are being realized, as of today.


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PostPosted: 01/09/20 7:46 am • # 45 
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The World Mental Health Coalition weighs in ....

Bandy X. Lee

URGENT COMMUNICATION TO CONGRESS

RE: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DANGEROUSNESS OF DONALD J. TRUMP


Statement by the World Mental Health Coalition

We have been seriously warning about this for some time. Now our warnings take on a startling urgency. The U.S. Congress must act immediately and forcefully without further delay.

We have a U.S. president who is psychologically and mentally both dangerous and incapacitated. His presentation is consistent with a person who, when his falsely inflated self-image is questioned, or when his emotional need for adulation is thwarted, lashes out in an attempt to restore his sense of potency and command over others.

All senior military leaders in the chain of command are required to pass yearly psychological as well as physical evaluations. Only the person known as the commander-in-chief is exempt from this requirement, but at this time he is, in fact, the person in most need and who is a maximum danger.

There are clear medical and legal standards of care and protection to which we in the medical profession respond for the evaluation and constraint of such individuals.

We have a consensus that persons with risk factors such as our president would clearly be required to submit to an evaluation, regardless of choice. We must also remember that his position makes him more dangerous, not less: he has the most destructive weapons and the greatest war-making powers at his disposal, but his mental defect also makes him a vulnerable target for manipulation by extremist forces within our country as well as in foreign nations. Our adversaries are highly likely to have his psychological profile, while we ourselves are kept in the dark.

Our country is understandably now widely condemned as acting with illegal aggression and violence. International polls clearly indicate that many people throughout the world consider our country the greatest danger to world peace. This is consistent with large amounts of data that indicate that we have worsened an already-unstable region. At this critical time, we simply cannot wait any longer to deal with the dangerous situation caused by a mentally compromised person acting in erratic, impulsive, reckless, and destructive ways.

The power to declare war and to finance war is clearly constitutionally vested with the Congress. The Congress must act immediately to take any war-making powers out of his hands. Assessment and management of psychological dangers rest on the medical community, and it is imperative that the Congress be equipped with accurate information. We urge the Congress to consult with us for a profile, if not evaluation, and to take seriously the mental health aspects that are at play in this mentally impaired president.

https://medium.com/@bandyxlee/statement ... 5c0d2b55b4


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PostPosted: 01/11/20 8:22 pm • # 46 
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Iran and Donald Trump's mind: Is this crisis his Reichstag fire?
Mental health professionals from Harvard, the Air Force and more on the meaning of the Soleimani assassination

CHAUNCEY DEVEGA

As predicted by leading mental health professionals several years ago, Donald Trump’s emotional and psychological collapse continues unabated. In his third year in office, the president has demonstrated through his public and private behavior that he is mentally unwell. The pressures of the impeachment process have only worsened Trump's condition. There will be no bottom. Trump’s mental decompensation and associated downward spiral will only get worse. This is both a national and global crisis.

The newest low point in Donald Trump’s behavior arrived last Friday when he ordered the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The Trump administration claims that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks against the United States and therefore that killing him was an urgent necessity. Trump's followers, most notably Vice President Mike Pence, have falsely tried to claim that Iran poses a dire threat to the U.S. and was somehow involved in the 9/11 attacks.

These pretexts are either verifiably untrue or implausible. Donald Trump apparently ordered the assassination of Soleimani — and the escalation to a de facto state of war between Iran and the U.S. — because he was afraid of looking “weak”.

The assassination of Soleimani is also a distraction from Trump’s impeachment and the ongoing torrent of incriminating information about the Ukraine scandal.

Trump continues to behave in a manner that would previously have been considered impossible for an American president. Over the course of several days, he has publicly threatened to commit war crimes by destroying Iranian cultural sites. Trump has also — via Twitter, as usual — threatened to attack Iran with “disproportionate force.” As a practical matter, he is threatening to order intentional large-scale attacks on civilian populations. That too would be a war crime.

Iran has retaliated for the killing of Soleimani by launching ballistic missiles at two airbases in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed. At this writing, the number of American and Iraqi casualties, if any, is not known. The Iranians also issued a series of statements on Tuesday evening including one suggesting that they are willing to de-escalate and the missile attacks were a one-off response.

After Iran's attack, Trump made the following announcement on Twitter:

All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.

Trump has again shown that he lacks the maturity, temperament and intelligence, as well as the emotional and mental stability to lead the United States in a time of crisis.

In an effort to gain more insight into the Iran crisis, I asked a panel of the country’s leading mental health experts for their thoughts about what Trump’s recent behavior reveals about his psychological and emotional health. Their responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Dr. John Gartner, co-founder of the Duty to Warn PAC and co-editor of "Rocket Man: Nuclear Madness and the Mind of Donald Trump"

So this is where we are. America, once the good guy, may drag the world into war, maybe even world war, to quell the anxiety and rage of our mad king.

In February 2018, at a conference chaired by Tom Steyer at the National Press Club about President Trump’s psychological fitness to serve as commander in chief, a panel of mental health professionals (including myself) warned that under the stress of investigations into his misconduct, it was probable that Trump would make an impulsive catastrophic error on the world stage that could lead to war. That moment has arrived with the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Why did we see it as almost inevitable?

As a malignant narcissist, when threatened, Trump must reassert his dominance over the world at all costs. And to a sadistic psychopath (one component of malignant narcissism), the collateral damage is not a cost but a bonus. As I said in 2018:

Quote:
He has no empathy or concern for anybody but himself and so he will not care about the destruction that it will cause other people. In fact, because of his sadism, there's a part of him that perversely seems to revel in causing chaos and destruction and making us all frightened all the time, but even more importantly, it will be irresistible for him because it will transform him from feeling like a hunted victim of this witch hunt to feeling like an omnipotently destructive victor.

It’s not just a political “wag the dog” scenario but a psychological one, meant to reverse his narcissistic panic in response to a fear of looking weak, exposed, damaged and disgraced by turning the tables, so he now seems newly powerful and frightening. In Donald Trump’s paranoia, he believes he is being persecuted by bad people, so killing some other bad people makes him feel better. And really isn't that all that counts? Instead of being the defendant in the dock, now he is a toxic avenger — a hero!

Dr. David Reiss, psychiatrist, expert in mental fitness evaluations and contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”

I and a significant number of other experienced mental health professionals have written at length (for over two years) addressing the fact that Trump’s public behaviors are fully consistent with the presence of a severe personality disorder (malignant narcissism). Others have speculated regarding Trump’s cognitive state and possible deterioration, which requires formal neurological and neuro-psychological testing to determine if there is an applicable diagnosis.

However, at the current time, psychiatric and neurological diagnoses are irrelevant. The urgent issue is that we have a POTUS whose impaired decision-making, judgment and ethics have put our nation in grave danger — including, most recently, tweeting public threats to commit war crimes.

We have seen a consistent pattern of Trump beginning with a statement (or tweet) regarding his perception of a situation (a perception often inconsistent with verifiable facts) after which he proceeds to proposing and/or implementing a “necessary” course of action — yet there is no explication of any fact-based, logical analysis or thought processes that led from point A to point B. Trump does not appear to seek advice from “advisers” but only information regarding available reactive options, then unilaterally (ignoring the advice of experts) choosing a response without any indication of understanding, consideration or care regarding legality, ethics or consequences.

The irrationality of Trump’s immature, ego-driven and severely sadistic manner of impulsively choosing courses of action is an existential threat to our democracy, our Constitution, our country and our national security.

Dr. Lance Dodes, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry (retired), Harvard Medical School, currently training and supervising analyst emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is also a contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”

Assassinating the Iranian general is the Reichstag incident many of us have predicted Trump would create when under pressure. Like Hitler and other dictators, he needs to create the conditions for a war — in this case via a reprisal attack on the country — to rally his base and try to use support for an attacked America as a reason to support him personally.

Psychologically, the important point is that this act demonstrates, once again, that Donald Trump’s single goal is to benefit himself and his hold on power, regardless of the disastrous risks to follow for many Americans and other. Trump has no conscience about those other people. Indeed, if Trump does not succeed in causing a war this time, in the case of Iran, it is highly likely that he will try again before the 2020 election.

Those Republicans who have supported him up to this point are now faced with the moral imperative to remove him from office because of the fatal risks to America and the world that Donald Trump now presents because of his predicted incapacity to function safely under stress.

Iran and Donald Trump's mind: Is this crisis his Reichstag fire?
Mental health professionals from Harvard, the Air Force and more on the meaning of the Soleimani assassination

919
1
CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
JANUARY 8, 2020 12:00PM (UTC)
As predicted by leading mental health professionals several years ago, Donald Trump’s emotional and psychological collapse continues unabated. In his third year in office, the president has demonstrated through his public and private behavior that he is mentally unwell. The pressures of the impeachment process have only worsened Trump's condition. There will be no bottom. Trump’s mental decompensation and associated downward spiral will only get worse. This is both a national and global crisis.

The newest low point in Donald Trump’s behavior arrived last Friday when he ordered the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The Trump administration claims that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks against the United States and therefore that killing him was an urgent necessity. Trump's followers, most notably Vice President Mike Pence, have falsely tried to claim that Iran poses a dire threat to the U.S. and was somehow involved in the 9/11 attacks.


These pretexts are either verifiably untrue or implausible. Donald Trump apparently ordered the assassination of Soleimani — and the escalation to a de facto state of war between Iran and the U.S. — because he was afraid of looking “weak”.

The assassination of Soleimani is also a distraction from Trump’s impeachment and the ongoing torrent of incriminating information about the Ukraine scandal.

Trump continues to behave in a manner that would previously have been considered impossible for an American president. Over the course of several days, he has publicly threatened to commit war crimes by destroying Iranian cultural sites. Trump has also — via Twitter, as usual — threatened to attack Iran with “disproportionate force.” As a practical matter, he is threatening to order intentional large-scale attacks on civilian populations. That too would be a war crime.


Iran has retaliated for the killing of Soleimani by launching ballistic missiles at two airbases in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed. At this writing, the number of American and Iraqi casualties, if any, is not known. The Iranians also issued a series of statements on Tuesday evening including one suggesting that they are willing to de-escalate and the missile attacks were a one-off response.

After Iran's attack, Trump made the following announcement on Twitter:

All is well! Missiles launched from Iran at two military bases located in Iraq. Assessment of casualties & damages taking place now. So far, so good! We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far! I will be making a statement tomorrow morning.

Trump has again shown that he lacks the maturity, temperament and intelligence, as well as the emotional and mental stability to lead the United States in a time of crisis.


In an effort to gain more insight into the Iran crisis, I asked a panel of the country’s leading mental health experts for their thoughts about what Trump’s recent behavior reveals about his psychological and emotional health. Their responses have been edited for clarity and length.

Dr. John Gartner, co-founder of the Duty to Warn PAC and co-editor of "Rocket Man: Nuclear Madness and the Mind of Donald Trump"


So this is where we are. America, once the good guy, may drag the world into war, maybe even world war, to quell the anxiety and rage of our mad king.

In February 2018, at a conference chaired by Tom Steyer at the National Press Club about President Trump’s psychological fitness to serve as commander in chief, a panel of mental health professionals (including myself) warned that under the stress of investigations into his misconduct, it was probable that Trump would make an impulsive catastrophic error on the world stage that could lead to war. That moment has arrived with the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Why did we see it as almost inevitable?


As a malignant narcissist, when threatened, Trump must reassert his dominance over the world at all costs. And to a sadistic psychopath (one component of malignant narcissism), the collateral damage is not a cost but a bonus. As I said in 2018:

He has no empathy or concern for anybody but himself and so he will not care about the destruction that it will cause other people. In fact, because of his sadism, there's a part of him that perversely seems to revel in causing chaos and destruction and making us all frightened all the time, but even more importantly, it will be irresistible for him because it will transform him from feeling like a hunted victim of this witch hunt to feeling like an omnipotently destructive victor.

It’s not just a political “wag the dog” scenario but a psychological one, meant to reverse his narcissistic panic in response to a fear of looking weak, exposed, damaged and disgraced by turning the tables, so he now seems newly powerful and frightening. In Donald Trump’s paranoia, he believes he is being persecuted by bad people, so killing some other bad people makes him feel better. And really isn't that all that counts? Instead of being the defendant in the dock, now he is a toxic avenger — a hero!

Dr. David Reiss, psychiatrist, expert in mental fitness evaluations and contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”


I and a significant number of other experienced mental health professionals have written at length (for over two years) addressing the fact that Trump’s public behaviors are fully consistent with the presence of a severe personality disorder (malignant narcissism). Others have speculated regarding Trump’s cognitive state and possible deterioration, which requires formal neurological and neuro-psychological testing to determine if there is an applicable diagnosis.

However, at the current time, psychiatric and neurological diagnoses are irrelevant. The urgent issue is that we have a POTUS whose impaired decision-making, judgment and ethics have put our nation in grave danger — including, most recently, tweeting public threats to commit war crimes.

We have seen a consistent pattern of Trump beginning with a statement (or tweet) regarding his perception of a situation (a perception often inconsistent with verifiable facts) after which he proceeds to proposing and/or implementing a “necessary” course of action — yet there is no explication of any fact-based, logical analysis or thought processes that led from point A to point B. Trump does not appear to seek advice from “advisers” but only information regarding available reactive options, then unilaterally (ignoring the advice of experts) choosing a response without any indication of understanding, consideration or care regarding legality, ethics or consequences.

The irrationality of Trump’s immature, ego-driven and severely sadistic manner of impulsively choosing courses of action is an existential threat to our democracy, our Constitution, our country and our national security.


Dr. Lance Dodes, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry (retired), Harvard Medical School, currently training and supervising analyst emeritus at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is also a contributor to “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”

Assassinating the Iranian general is the Reichstag incident many of us have predicted Trump would create when under pressure. Like Hitler and other dictators, he needs to create the conditions for a war — in this case via a reprisal attack on the country — to rally his base and try to use support for an attacked America as a reason to support him personally.

Psychologically, the important point is that this act demonstrates, once again, that Donald Trump’s single goal is to benefit himself and his hold on power, regardless of the disastrous risks to follow for many Americans and other. Trump has no conscience about those other people. Indeed, if Trump does not succeed in causing a war this time, in the case of Iran, it is highly likely that he will try again before the 2020 election.

Those Republicans who have supported him up to this point are now faced with the moral imperative to remove him from office because of the fatal risks to America and the world that Donald Trump now presents because of his predicted incapacity to function safely under stress.


Dr. Steven Buser, former U.S. Air Force psychiatrist who was tasked with conducting fitness for duty evaluations for airmen, especially those responsible for nuclear weapons.

For four years now, my colleagues and I have been warning anyone who will listen that Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States and indeed the world. His bizarre and reckless behaviors have been so numerous it is difficult to know where to begin anymore. He has shown unmistakable evidence of severe narcissism, sociopathy, hypomania and possibly even early cognitive decline. His decision to assassinate Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani is an even more egregious example of recklessness and a bizarre thought process.

There appears to be little to no thoughtful consideration of consequences, planning or reasonable consultation with Congress or world leaders. Unfortunately, most of us have become habituated to Trump’s constant barrage of impulsive and aggressive attacks towards others. They happen so frequently that we barely notice them anymore. While his bullying on Twitter can appear comical at times, an impulsive assassination of an Iranian leader has escalated his impulsivity to an entirely new level.

What is deeply unsettling about this impulsive attack against Iran is how serious the implications could be. There is a real chance that Trump is unleashing a massive attack/revenge/counterattack sequence that could end in a catastrophic conventional or nuclear exchange. I understand that many Americans would rather keep their heads in the sand rather than acknowledge the grave situation in which President Trump has again put us, yet it is now more crucial than ever that we stand up to this bully before he inflicts catastrophic damage.


Dr. Justin Frank, former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center, and author of “Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.”

At this point in our impending crisis with Iran, it’s again essential to illuminate the president’s character structure. Donald Trump has never left his either/or mentality, which has been how he functioned his entire life. You are bad or good, period. He was told since childhood by his father, a domestic tyrant in his own right, to be a “killer." And Trump is a tortured sadist — a tortured torturer. A breaker of things.

Trump is dominated by fear. He is also dominated by paranoid anxiety about being convicted in the U.S. Senate for the high crimes and misdemeanors that led to his impeachment. Fear, more than anything, is “the thrust behind the knife, the fist, the blow to the head.” Fear of being found out to be lacking or small also plays a part in Trump's lying. Thus he is driven by a need to recreate the feeling of infantile omnipotence. He tries desperately to get others to believe him, so they can share his feeling of being all-powerful. But with impeachment, Trump no longer lies to impress others or even to assert himself. His lies about the reasons behind the assassination to distract us from his impending Senate trial: Trump lies now to survive.

My second point is that Trump the builder is at heart Trump the destroyer. His loyalty to America is limited. Just ask Putin! His loyalty to the Constitution doesn’t exist; he has already been impeached. He has tweeted that he was giving notice to Congress that if Iran retaliates, the U.S. will strike back “perhaps in a disproportionate manner.” He doesn’t ask Congress; he gives notice to a weak handmaiden. With one tweet, Trump swept away any remnant of the separation of powers.

Since he has no loyalty to America, he feels he has nothing to lose by starting a war. Tragically, he answers the question I raised in my chapter on his malignant narcissism when I wrote, “Which prospect is likely more frightening to Donald Trump — revealing his tax returns or starting a nuclear war?"

Dr. Steven Buser, former U.S. Air Force psychiatrist who was tasked with conducting fitness for duty evaluations for airmen, especially those responsible for nuclear weapons.

For four years now, my colleagues and I have been warning anyone who will listen that Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States and indeed the world. His bizarre and reckless behaviors have been so numerous it is difficult to know where to begin anymore. He has shown unmistakable evidence of severe narcissism, sociopathy, hypomania and possibly even early cognitive decline. His decision to assassinate Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani is an even more egregious example of recklessness and a bizarre thought process.

There appears to be little to no thoughtful consideration of consequences, planning or reasonable consultation with Congress or world leaders. Unfortunately, most of us have become habituated to Trump’s constant barrage of impulsive and aggressive attacks towards others. They happen so frequently that we barely notice them anymore. While his bullying on Twitter can appear comical at times, an impulsive assassination of an Iranian leader has escalated his impulsivity to an entirely new level.

What is deeply unsettling about this impulsive attack against Iran is how serious the implications could be. There is a real chance that Trump is unleashing a massive attack/revenge/counterattack sequence that could end in a catastrophic conventional or nuclear exchange. I understand that many Americans would rather keep their heads in the sand rather than acknowledge the grave situation in which President Trump has again put us, yet it is now more crucial than ever that we stand up to this bully before he inflicts catastrophic damage.

Dr. Justin Frank, former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center, and author of “Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President.”

At this point in our impending crisis with Iran, it’s again essential to illuminate the president’s character structure. Donald Trump has never left his either/or mentality, which has been how he functioned his entire life. You are bad or good, period. He was told since childhood by his father, a domestic tyrant in his own right, to be a “killer." And Trump is a tortured sadist — a tortured torturer. A breaker of things.

Trump is dominated by fear. He is also dominated by paranoid anxiety about being convicted in the U.S. Senate for the high crimes and misdemeanors that led to his impeachment. Fear, more than anything, is “the thrust behind the knife, the fist, the blow to the head.” Fear of being found out to be lacking or small also plays a part in Trump's lying. Thus he is driven by a need to recreate the feeling of infantile omnipotence. He tries desperately to get others to believe him, so they can share his feeling of being all-powerful. But with impeachment, Trump no longer lies to impress others or even to assert himself. His lies about the reasons behind the assassination to distract us from his impending Senate trial: Trump lies now to survive.

My second point is that Trump the builder is at heart Trump the destroyer. His loyalty to America is limited. Just ask Putin! His loyalty to the Constitution doesn’t exist; he has already been impeached. He has tweeted that he was giving notice to Congress that if Iran retaliates, the U.S. will strike back “perhaps in a disproportionate manner.” He doesn’t ask Congress; he gives notice to a weak handmaiden. With one tweet, Trump swept away any remnant of the separation of powers.

Since he has no loyalty to America, he feels he has nothing to lose by starting a war. Tragically, he answers the question I raised in my chapter on his malignant narcissism when I wrote, “Which prospect is likely more frightening to Donald Trump — revealing his tax returns or starting a nuclear war?"

SOURCE


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PostPosted: 01/12/20 9:19 am • # 47 
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Maybe this belongs in the Impeachment thread?

Fmr White House Ethics Lawyer: Trump Isn’t Mentally Competent to Stand Trial in the Senate

by Colin Kalmbacher

Is President Donald Trump mentally competent to stand trial? While the question itself may seem like something of a troll, there’s at least one high-profile legal professional who apparently doesn’t think so.

Former White House ethics lawyer current Minnesota Law School Professor Richard Painter publicly considered the notion.


“This statute, if embodied in the rules of the Senate, will probably indefinitely postpone an impeachment trial,” Painter tweeted on Friday evening. “The Chief Justice could so rule. 18 U.S. Code § 4241 – Determination of mental competency to stand trial.”

That statute reads, in relevant part:

Quote:
At any time after the commencement of a prosecution for an offense and prior to the sentencing of the defendant, or at any time after the commencement of probation or supervised release and prior to the completion of the sentence, the defendant or the attorney for the Government may file a motion for a hearing to determine the mental competency of the defendant. The court shall grant the motion, or shall order such a hearing on its own motion, if there is reasonable cause to believe that the defendant may presently be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent to the extent that he is unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense.

Painter explained how the law might be put to use by a canny opposition party–which probably means not the Democrats.

“The statute says that the attorney for the government (the attorney prosecuting the case) can file a motion to determine the mental competency of the defendant,” Painter said. “The House managers of the impeachment trial should do just that.”

Quote:
Richard W. Painter @RWPUSA
· Jan 10, 2020

This statute, if embodied in the rules of the Senate, will probably indefinitely postpone an impeachment trial.
The Chief Justice could so rule.

18 U.S. Code § 4241 - Determination of mental competency to stand trial. https://t.co/nHO4zTSniL

Quote:
Richard W. Painter @RWPUSA

The statute says that the attorney for the government (the attorney prosecuting the case) can file a motion to determine the mental competency of the defendant.

The House managers of the impeachment trial should do just that.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of course, has yet to assign House managers for the upcoming impeachment trial–which could start as early as Wednesday next week. There’s still no indication of who, exactly, those impeachment managers will be. An influential collection of freshman Democrats, however, have floated the idea of Rep. Justin Amash (Independent-Michigan), a Palestinian-American libertarian, constitutional expert and former Republican who left the GOP in disgust at the party’s racism for top role.

“To the extent that this can be bipartisan, it should, and I think including Representative Amash amongst the impeachment managers is a smart move both for the country, for the substance and for the optics,” Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minnesota) said–noting that Amash is an attorney as well as “the first and only member of the Republican conference, when he was a Republican, to show courage.”

Amash and Pelosi have yet to show their hands on the issue–much less any sort of side-winding strategy to frustrate the historic impeachment inquiry by bringing Democratic Party-sanctioned credence to the oft-repeated anti-Trump resistance claim that the 45th president is mentally unfit to serve.

Far from a picayune issue, the notion that Trump is mentally deteriorating has been brought up on several occasions in the past. An op-ed in USA Today made the case in October 2019. As did a respected psychiatry professor at the illustrious U.T. Southwestern Medical Center later that same month.

Late last year, a group of mental health experts released a statement specific to the impeachment inquiry calling Trump’s mental state into question.

“We are speaking out at this time because we are convinced that, as the time of possible impeachment approaches, Donald Trump has the real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation,” Yale Medical School Professor Dr. Bandy Lee, George Washington University Professor Dr. John Zinner, and former CIA profiler Dr. Jerrold Post said in a statement sent to the House Judiciary Committee in December.

The idea of keeping Trump from being tried comes amid concerns that the Senate’s impeachment trial will be something of an inverse kangaroo court or sham that will easily vindicate the Republican president absent any testimony from witnesses. Pelosi withheld the articles of impeachment for several days in a bid to exact concessions from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) but was serially out-maneuvered by the GOP. She resigned herself and that failed strategy to defeat on Friday.

Painter offered the following evidence to sideline Trump:

Quote:
Richard W. Painter @RWPUSA
Replying to @RWPUSA

Exhibit A on mental fitness to stand trial — the last three years of Tweets from @realDonaldTrump


https://lawandcrime.com/impeachment/fmr ... he-senate/


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PostPosted: 01/12/20 11:32 am • # 48 
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Too nuts to stand trial but not too nuts to be presidunce?

That's nuts.


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PostPosted: 01/12/20 2:45 pm • # 49 
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Joined: 01/22/09
Posts: 9530
The only ones who can decide if he is competent to stand trial is his cabinet and, with the money flowing into their pockets, there is no doubt they will declare in a "stable genius."


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