This continues the series, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump Revisited: Mental Health Experts on the Devastating Mishandling of a Pandemic.” Whereas we could not have predicted a pandemic three-and-a-half years ago, the authors of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President anticipated how the president would respond, should there be a crisis. We tried to warn the public of the very consequences that are unfolding today: abuse of power, incompetence, and loss of lives and livelihoods of many Americans.
Dr. Judith L. Herman opened the conversation in many ways, by sending a letter to then-President Barack Obama, asking for a full neuropsychiatric examination of the then-President-Elect Donald Trump. She is professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a renowned expert on the traumas of interpersonal violence, and author of the now-classic Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror.
Lee: You stated at the 2017 conference at Yale that, as professionals, there is a difference between getting involved in politics on behalf of the power of the state, and getting involved in politics on behalf of the rest of us who are at risk from the abuse of powers of the state. You also argued that to the extent that we have knowledge that would be pertinent, we have a duty to share it with the public. What is your position today, in light of what has happened in the interim? Continue reading.
