In the past four years, we have often been warned that we must not try to decipher Trump’s mental state because it would violate the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule.” This is a rule that was adopted in 1973, as an ethical warning to its members that they should not attempt to define the psychiatric state of a patient that they have not personally evaluated. This rule came about because a magazine called FACT polled psychiatrists in 1964 about whether Barry Goldwater was fit to be president. He lost the election but sued the magazine and won. This article explains the genesis of the rule, written by a psychiatrist who was on the panel that adopted it (although he opposed the rule because it infringed on freedom of speech).
Not all psychiatrists agreed with the Goldwater rule, especially when Donald Trump emerged as a candidate for president. One psychiatrist, Dr. Bandy Lee at the Yale School of Medicine, spoke out against it and organized a collection of essays called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.
The Yale Daily News published a profile of Dr. Lee here, written in May 2020.
Although she considers herself apolitical, she became increasingly alarmed by the behavior and statements of Donald Trump as a candidate. Dr. Lee is a specialist in the area of violent behavior, and she saw in his actions the dangers ahead.
Since the 2016 election, Lee has spearheaded a movement to shed light on what she believes is the dangerous mental condition of the president. She has organized a coalition of mental health experts similarly concerned with the president’s mental state, and in October 2017, she published “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” a book of essays by numerous mental health professionals assessing the president’s mental aptitude. Last December, as the presidential impeachment proceedings came to a head, Congress received a petition led by Lee and two other mental health professionals. The statement accompanying the petition claimed that the president’s mental fitness was rapidly declining. In the petition signed by 350 other health professionals, the trio wrote that the president had the “real potential to become ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation.”
After the publication of her book, Dr. Lee received numerous death threats.
We now know that Dr. Bandy Lee was prescient. From afar, she diagnosed Trump as a “threat to the safety of our nation.” We now know that he incited an insurrection and encouraged his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory. He imagined, somehow, that if they stormed the building and took hostages, Congress would meekly reverse the election results. This is delusional thinking.
Fortunately he has returned to private life, and we can only hope that officials in New York City and New York State act promptly to hold him accountable for his crimes, as we hope that the U.S. Senate will hold him accountable for his reckless and unprecedented effort to violently overthrow the certification of the Electoral College votes.
He is a traitor.
Dr. Bandy Lee saw it first. She is a hero. She is courageous. She is a truth-teller.
And for truth-telling Dr. Bandy Lee has endured death threats.
She is not the only one.
This is to say that expertise in psychiatric matters becomes irrelevant when the people who adore Trump are as delusional as Trump.
It is also to say that Trump and his devoted followers have no regard for expertise. They are willing and able loyalists who perpetuate his lies, and many are present in Congress clinging to a hollowed out identity with the Republican Party or QAnon.
Whether we like it or not, Trump is a part of US history so the idea that we should not talk about him or his influences on the US is to promote ignorance and know-nothingness. It would be like saying, oh stop talking about Nixon already. At least Goldwater was influential in telling Nixon to step down and resign for the good of the nation. Trump has never been a force for good in any way, shape or form. Except: thank goodness he didn’t invade another nation, he didn’t declare martial law, he didn’t pardon himself and he didn’t shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. That doesn’t excuse him for all the terrible things that he did, his rooting for insurrection, his massive lies, his sick narcissism, his wink and a nod to racists, neo-Nazis, KKKers, Q-Anon and the Proud Boys, etc. That’s like saying that Tom Blow is a good guy because he didn’t kill his grandmother.
Trump is a huge blot on US history, a warning that we have to be on the alert for these con men, demagogues and scam artists in our government and state legislatures.
Bill Moyers had a very interesting interview on his podcast with Dr. Lee a couple of weeks ago. https://billmoyers.com/story/podcast-bill-moyers-talks-with-dr-bandy-lee-about-the-dangerous-case-of-donald-trump/
I did not realize that Bill Moyers still had a program. One of the truly greats. Thanks for the article and for the fact that Moyers is still journalizing, it that is a word. I once had his book The World of Ideas. WHAT a man.
Yes, a very informative interview that identifies his attraction to world dictators, the affection that so many Americans have for him, and the importance of equality in our system and why all these things are so important.
I’m fine with the diagnosis but why do we need one? It’s been apparent that Donald Trump is a dishonest person who lacks character his entire life. Why isn’t that enough?
It’s just such a low bar- all you need to be elected President in this country is NOT being diagnosed with a severe mental illness? Surely we can set expectations higher than that.
It isn’t about “smart” – it’s about “good”. He’s not good enough to be President. Lots and lots of bad people DON’T suffer from mental illness and lots and lots of good people DO suffer from mental illness.
Some (not I , of course) might argue (and quite convincingly) that possessing certain mental illness (particularly narcissism) is a plus when it comes to getting elected.
And still others (again, not I) would argue that one MUST possess mental illness to even desire to be President?
A plus, if not mandatory.
You should see the vile comments about Trump and Biden that I delete.
There are zombies out there who swallow Trump’s lies, every word.
I actually worry about our new lower standards. I had someone here tell me they like Biden better than Trump because Biden has good manners. Biden does have better manners- he’s not a mean jerk, that is true- but I fear Trump has set the bar so incredibly low that just about anyone could clear it.
Let’s go back to the old, higher standards. Let’s agree Biden has to do more than behave decently in public and not lie constantly. That’s a rock bottom minimum. We all know Biden can clear that. Throw out the “Trump Measure”. It’s not good enough.
The bar has been pretty low for a long time now.
After all, Richard Nixon cleared it half a century ago and he was no Olympic pole vaulter.
The Death Valley Limbo
The Death Valley Limbo
As Presidents know
Is really a symbol
Of “low as you go”
Perhaps the conman had us all fooled . Does anyone really think the past 5 years have been about his fragile ego and his narcissism . Follow the money starting with access to Russian money in 15-16 for an election he was not supposed to win, what was he going to deliver Putin when he lost . He pretty much delivered the same when he won. Saudi money, family access to money …. . money spent at his facilitates by the Feds and foriegn nations as well as anyone else willing to donate for favor. A tax law that made him ” Fabulously more Wealthy”.
He said when Mueller gets appointed I am F….. Do you really think that was concern about his legacy . The last three months about his ego.
Like Vinny the Gin who walked around Manhattan in PJs . It was all a cover up to avoid prosecution for his criminality.
All of this AND he appointed 3 Supreme “Court Justices who will be around to further mess up this country. for a LONG time. Already they evidently have “executed” -, legalized murder, emulating the very things we most abhor people – who there was good reason to believe were innocent of the charges against them.
God help us.
If God didn’t help us already, chances are, She has no intention of doing so.
Besides,” God helps those who help themselves”– the Buffet theory of religion.
I thought the Buffett theory of religion was to strum on your six string on your front porch swing
I’m pretty sure Jimmy has seen his share of buffets over the years. Buffetts too.
Maybe teachers saw this coming because we deal with so many different humans over the course of a career. If you have 150 kids assigned to you in a year, you interact with all of them and the folks connected to them. Doing so, you get a vivd sense of what the spectrum of “normal” behaviors looks like and a real handle on what falls far outside the norm.
Teachers understand that if you don’t quickly correct behavior or intervene in some way to redirect individuals, you get catastrophic outcomes. We did, any the sycophants continue to believe they can get away with more of the same.
I think most teachers learn two things pretty quickly:
You can’t continue to give attention seekers the attention they desire
And you have to lay down the law and enforce it from day one
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that he was an electoral savior.
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that he was THEIR student to adjust with lessons.
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that he was responsive to their scolding.
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that damning word clouds would change him.
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that the use of stronger adjectives would
get results.
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that their precognition talents would change him.
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that their mind reading powers would change
him.
Perhaps the conman had fooled some that he was responsive to their brillant
arguments or great powerpoints.
Perhaps he fooled none of them and they are as vile as him. Including the mind readers who told us what he thinks.
New York State or City cannot hold Trump accountable for his dangerous instability. Trump moved out of New York and is now a resident of a RED stronghold, Florida. Trump, of course, wants to change Florida from Red to Orange.
Trump is also probably expecting that Orange Florida to refuse to allow New York State to extradite him for the lawsuits coming after him for his tax fraud.
Don’t be surprised if Trump starts making headlines again when he starts holding hate rallies and preaches to his hard core fascist followers that the states that voted for him must leave the union and make him Trumpistan’s first president for life.
Trump business is based in New York along with many Trump properties.
He can’t escape trial in New York.
But apparently he can escape the emolument clause.
At last his investment in the SCOTUS pays off ..it just neutered the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The President can’t be held accountable while he is serving and the issue is moot when he leaves office. Heads he wins, tails he wins.
“Can I offer you an emolumint for he roa?”– Chief Justus John Roberts
“For the road”
I don’t know who designed the “intelligent correction” for this browser, but they should be hung by the neck until they are almost dead
I think if people are hoping to see Trump in an orange suit with shackles, they are going to be disappointed. Trump’s lawsuits will be in court probably until after he is dead. I’d give him five years.
Credit where it is due! As an ‘ordinary citizen’, I would continually look her up for a moment of sanity. She helped me. Trump is incredibly good at what he does.
It is unfortunate that Lee’s work elicits arguments focusing on the legality or advisability of publicly diagnosing powerful figures—a distraction. Her 2017 collection seems less than productive, including (per the Alan Stone article linked) just a couple of actual practitioners’ essays.
Far more important is what Bandy Lee herself has to say, and points to her new book “Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul.” sallyo57 linked above her recent interview with Bill Moyers, which is loaded with wisdom based on experience treating violent criminals as well as public health research on “our collective state of mental health as a nation” and that of other democracies. Some takeaways:
“socioeconomic inequality gives rise to behavioral violence as well as being a form of violence in itself.”
“people identify with him and feel that he represents them… because he shares their anger and a feeling that they have been robbed somehow in life, that they are victims.”
“Because they [dangerous people] cannot generate self-respect, they look to external sources. And because they are so hungry for adulation, they will puff themselves up and present a grandiose image of themselves primarily for themselves… [which] becomes very attractive to a large audience that is also hungering for an idealized figure who they can identify with, and who will represent them, help them, and protect them, almost like a parental figure.”
“they can sense their audience almost as precisely as a seismograph… all their power is dependent on their responding rightly to the mood of their audience… the more vulnerable the population is, the more they will be carried away.”
“You may have noticed that he has not even a single close friend. And eventually, everyone falls short of his expectations. And he goes through this cycle of idealizing people and then devaluing them and discarding them.”
I found this particularly chilling, and recognizable in Trump:
“He does not really care about his followers. He has manipulated and used their psychology to fulfill his own needs for adulation, to be seen as this powerful omnipotent figure who is godlike. But at the same time, he carries contempt for them for being duped by himself. And this is actually a common dynamic that I see in violent individuals, usually leaders of gangs or criminal conspirators, who often treat their followers and their partners terribly, just for sacrificing for that leader, for being such sycophants. That’s really tragic for his followers, because their loyalty is true. They are ready to sacrifice their safety, their health, and their lives for their leader.”