Tag: Trump mental health

A therapist explains the dangers of a world leader who ‘repeatedly blames others’ and becomes isolated — and how we can protect ourselves

Last week’s release of Robert Mueller’s report, even in redacted form, highlights a president and his regime typified by disdain for the rule of law, democratic norms, and any principles of public service or the common good. Mueller’s prose is overflowing with repeated examples of Donald Trump engaging in obstruction of justice, which only add to the public mountain of evidence why he should be impeached, convicted and removed from office. The Mueller Report also shows a president who were open and eager to accept to accept help, both direct and indirect, from the agents of a hostile foreign government to distort and subvert the 2016 presidential election.

Beyond collusion and obstruction of justice, the Mueller report is damning in other ways as well. It shows how Donald Trump rules through fear and intimidation. But Trump’s power is far from absolute: Members of his inner circle routinely ignore him and apparently think that he is an ignorant, dangerous manchild. Many of the people who work for Trump, in other words, neither like nor respect him.

Is Donald Trump a dangerous “high conflict and high emotion” personality? Is he a malignant narcissist? Why do these kinds of leaders pose such a threat, even while they inspire such extreme loyalty from their followers? Why do Trump’s supporters continue to adore him even though he has repeatedly lied to them? Do sick societies produce dangerous leaders like Donald Trump, or is another dynamic at work?

View the complete April 27 article by Chauncey DeVega of Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Trump is unraveling before our eyes. He isn’t fit for reelection.

Far too much media time has been devoted to mulling whether former vice president Joe Biden, as svelte and vigorous as he has ever been and showing no sign of mental deterioration, is too old to run for president and not nearly enough considering whether President Trump is.

In the past 24 hours, Trump — who will be 74 in November 2020 and is “tired,” according to aides — has:

  • Falsely declared multiple times that his father was born in Germany. (Fred Trump was born in New York.)
  • Declared that wind turbines cause cancer.
  • Confused “origins” and “oranges” in asking reporters to look into the “oranges of the Mueller report.”
  • Told Republicans to be more “paranoid” about vote-counting.

He is increasingly incoherent. The Post quotes him at a Republican event on Tuesday: “We’re going into the war with some socialist. It looks like the only non, sort of, heavy socialist is being taken care of pretty well by the socialists, they got to him, our former vice president. I was going to call him, I don’t know him well, I was going to say ‘Welcome to the world Joe, you having a good time?’” Even when attempting to defend himself, he emits spurts of disconnected thoughts. “Now you look at that [presidential announcement] speech and you see what’s happening and that speech was so tame compared to what is happening now, that trek up is one of the great treacherous treks anywhere, and Mexico has now, because they don’t want the border closed.”

View the complete April 3 commentary by Jennifer Rubin on The Washington Post website here.

‘A total loser!’: Trump lashes out at George Conway, who has been questioning his mental health

President Trump on Tuesday ratcheted up a remarkable public spat with the husband of one of his top advisers, attacking Kellyanne Conway’s husband as “a total loser” on Twitter in response to the lawyer’s persistent questions about his mental health and competence. Continue reading “‘A total loser!’: Trump lashes out at George Conway, who has been questioning his mental health”

Thousands of mental health professionals agree with Woodward and the New York Times op-ed author: Trump is dangerous

The following article by Bandy X. Lee, Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, was posted on the Conversation website September 6, 2018:

Credit: Olivier Doulier,/Abaca Press Sipa via AP Images

Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear,” describes a “nervous breakdown of Trump’s presidency.” Earlier this year, Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” offered a similar portrayal.

Now, an op-ed in The New York Times by an anonymous “senior White House official” describes how deeply the troubles in this administration run and what effort is required to protect the nation.

None of this is a surprise to those of us who, 18 months ago, put together our own public service book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”

View the complete article here.

Dozens of experts urge doctor to examine Trump’s neurological health during physical

The following article by Matthew Nussbaum was posted on the Politico website January 11, 2018:

More than 70 psychologists, psychiatrists and others note the president’s ‘declining faculties for complex thought.’

The White House has said tests of mental fitness will not be part of the President Donald Trump’s physical. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

A group of more than 70 psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals sent a letter to President Donald Trump’s physician on Thursday, imploring him to include an evaluation of the president’s neurological health in a physical examination scheduled for Friday.

The White House has said tests of mental fitness will not be part of the president’s physical. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday that the physician, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, would issue a statement following the exam and answer questions from the media next week. Continue reading “Dozens of experts urge doctor to examine Trump’s neurological health during physical”

The psychiatrist who briefed Congress on Trump’s mental state: this is “an emergency”

The following article by Eliza Barclay was posted on the Vox website January 6, 2018:

Credit: Soo Oh/Vox

The case for evaluating the president’s mental capacity — by force if necessary.

The longer Donald Trump is in office, the more he shocks and alarms us with his strange and extremely unpresidential behavior.

From the incoherent, fallacious interview he gave the New York Times on December 28 to Tuesday’s tweet about his “nuclear button” to his Saturday morning assertion that he is a “very stable genius,” the remarks keep getting more menacing, bizarre, and portentous of disaster. Continue reading “The psychiatrist who briefed Congress on Trump’s mental state: this is “an emergency””

Ex-CIA director: Trump shows ‘qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats’

The following article by Josh Delk was posted on the Hill website December 21, 2017:

Former CIA Director John Brennan, Credit: Greg Nash

Former CIA Director John Brennan slammed President Trump in a tweet Thursday, saying the president shows “qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats.”

Brennan, a vocal critic of Trump, posted the comment shortly after joining Twitter on Thursday. He condemned Trump’s tough stance against critics of his declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Continue reading “Ex-CIA director: Trump shows ‘qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats’”

This new report confirms that Trump’s megalomania threatens our democracy

The following column by Greg Sargent was posted on the Washington Post website December 14, 2017:

THE MORNING PLUM:

We already know that President Trump’s narcissism and megalomania threaten our democracy in multiple ways. His intolerance of critical media scrutiny fuels his systematic campaign to delegitimize the free press. His inability to acknowledge that his own conduct led directly to the special counsel’s Russia probe fuels a deep grievance and rage over it, making it more likely that he can be goaded into trying to close the investigation down.

Now a blockbuster new Post report shows how these traits are coming together to expose our democracy to danger on another front. Just before Trump was sworn in as president, the report says, his advisers urged him to publicly acknowledge U.S. intelligence findings that Russia tried to sabotage our democracy. But Trump “became agitated,” the report notes. “He railed that the intelligence couldn’t be trusted and scoffed at the suggestion that his candidacy had been propelled by forces other than his own strategy, message and charisma.” The result is this: Continue reading “This new report confirms that Trump’s megalomania threatens our democracy”

Donald Trump Is: A) Bad B) Mad C) All Of The Above

The following excerpt from The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump:  27 Pyschiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President was posted on the National Memo website October 22, 2017:

Credit: DonkeyHotey / Flickr

Donald Trump is so visibly psychologically impaired that it is obvious even to a layman that “something is wrong with him.” Still, putting a name to that disturbance has been a challenge for two reasons. First, because of the Goldwater gag order, discussed extensively in Part 2 of this book, which has forced mental health professionals to censor themselves, despite how alarmed they might be; and second, Trump’s is a genuinely complex case. Like the story of the blind men and the elephant, many writers have tried to analyze and diagnose Trump, and have gotten pieces of the elephant right. What is missing is the whole elephant. There are a lot of things wrong with him—and together, they are a scary witch’s brew.

One of the most recurrent debates, and a genuine mystery, is to what extent is Trump just a really bad person and to what extent is he really crazy? Psychoanalyst Steven Reisner has written in Slate, “This is not madness. Impulsivity, threats, aggression, ridicule, denial of reality, and the mobilization of the mob that he used to get there [to the presidency] are not symptoms. It is time to call it out for what it is: evil.” According to this view, Donald Trump is “crazy like a fox.” That is, his abnormal persona is an act, a diabolical plan to manipulate the public’s worst instincts for fun, power, and profit. Continue reading “Donald Trump Is: A) Bad B) Mad C) All Of The Above”

These 27 Top Shrinks Think Trump Might Be Nuts

The following article by Gail Sheehy was posted on the Daily Beast website October 2, 2017:

The Goldwater Rule has long held that mental-health professionals shouldn’t diagnose from a distance. But these experts decided to speak up before it’s too late.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ELIZABETH BROCKWAY/THE DAILY BEAST

The president attacks the mayor of San Juan after a devastating hurricane as the death toll rises. In his maiden UN speech, he threatens North Korea with “total destruction.” His tweetstorms show a narcissistic mind obsessed with cutting down critics and igniting culture wars while ignoring the responsibilities of his office. No wonder a new poll shows that a stunning 56 percent of Americans believe Donald Trump is “not fit” to serve as president.

But while much of America has begun speaking openly about the mental state of their president, the actual professionals in the field of psychiatry are prohibited from doing so because of the gag rule imposed by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).  Continue reading “These 27 Top Shrinks Think Trump Might Be Nuts”