Article by Tyler O'Neil in "PJMedia":
Psychiatrists with the World
Mental Health Coalition are soliciting signatures in a campaign to
support the impeachment of President Donald Trump predicated on claims
that he is mentally unstable. This campaign arguably violates the ethics
of psychiatry, mimicking a historic attack on another Republican
presidential candidate who successfully sued for libel after
psychiatrists declared him unfit for the presidency.
In
an email forwarded to PJ Media, three psychiatrists with the coalition
ask other psychiatrists to sign on to a petition to the House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee to include a statement on Trump's
supposed mental instability into the official record of the impeachment
inquiry.
Dr.
Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at Yale School of Medicine; Dr.
Jerrold Post, a psychiatrist and political psychologist who founded the
CIA's Center for Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior; and Dr.
John Zinner, a clinical professor in the Psychiatry Department of the
George Washington University School of Medicine, wrote the petition and
statement condemning Trump.
"We
are American psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health
professionals who have come together at this critical time in our
nation’s history," the petition begins. "We believe there are important
mental health issues that need to be understood and addressed with
regard to the president, whom we believe poses unique dangers to the
country and the world."
The
pro-impeachment statement is one in a long line of psychiatric attacks
on Trump, the petition explains. "A group of us first outlined our
concerns at a conference at Yale School of Medicine in April 2017, when
the majority of the public believed the president was 'settling in.'
This was followed by a public-service book, The Dangerous Case of Donald
Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,
which many say predicted the course of this presidency. Thousands of
others joined us to form a professional association known as the World
Mental Health Coalition."
The petition also
notes a March 2019 "mental capacity evaluation, based on a standard
procedure using extensive coworkers’ and associates’ reports in Special
Counsel Robert Mueller’s report" which the psychiatrists claim "showed
that the president lacked the ability to make rational decisions."
In
the statement, the psychiatrists present themselves as "recognized
experts who can answer critical questions relating to mental health"
during the impeachment proceedings. "We are among thousands of mental
health professionals who have felt obligated to speak up because of the
exceptional psychological dangers of this presidency. In medicine,
safety supersedes all other concerns, and we are here in accordance with
our professional responsibility to society and the humanitarian goals
of medicine."
Describing
Trump as a "threat to the safety of our nation," the psychiatrists note
that "Donald Trump, as President, has the unfettered authority to launch
nuclear weapons at any time for any reason. There is no formalized way
of preventing this unless his order is disobeyed by the Commander of the
U.S. Strategic Command, who has been given the order to launch. Short
of this calamity, there are 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."
They purport to psychoanalyze Trump using his public statements and second-hand reports:
There are many things we can say about the psychology of Donald Trump. He is remarkably transparent through his Twitter stream of comments, real-time video displays and newspaper accounts, past and present, as well as testimonies of persons who know or have known him. He has shown that his sense of worth is entirely dependent on the admiration from others, such as at the rallies of Trump’s base. Without this external affirmation, Trump has revealed that he feels, deep down, like a loser, a failure, weak, dumb, fat, ugly, fake, “crooked”. We know this because this self-denigrating pictures of himself, Trump projects onto others, whom he transforms into enemies, and compensates consciously by creating a grandiose image of himself as unique, a stable genius, entitled to special treatment, and better at everything than everyone else.What makes Trump so dangerous is the brittleness of his sense of worth. Any slight or criticism is experienced as a humiliation and degradation. To cope with the resultant hollow and empty feeling, he reacts with what is referred to as narcissistic rage. He is unable to take responsibility for any error, mistake or failing. His default in that situation is to blame others and to attack the perceived source of his humiliation. These attacks of narcissistic rage can be brutal and destructive. A striking but not unusual example of his lack of caring and empathy is his policy of separating children from their parents at the Southern border. Additionally, he has made the reckless decision to allow an attack of our Kurdish allies, against all advice, shortly after announcement of the impeachment inquiry. These events are closely related and betray his extreme inability to tolerate any challenges against him.
While the
president is notorious for his pride and bravado, this psychoanalysis
seems particularly shoddy. What gives these psychiatrists a basis to
suggest that Trump's schoolyard insults reveal his inner fear that he
himself is "a loser, a failure, weak, dumb, fat, ugly, fake" or
"crooked"? If the president refers to Hillary Clinton as "crooked
Hillary," does that really reveal a deep-seated fear about himself, or
is it far more plausible that he is attacking Clinton for her
corruption?
Furthermore, Trump
need not "transform" people "into his enemies." Animosity against the
president is very real, as illustrated by the impeachment inquiry itself
and the fact that some are even willing to say "Thank God for the deep
state!" in regards to the impeachment.
This
"psychoanalysis" is also hilariously off base when it comes to the
separation of children from parents at the Southern border. This
practice was official government policy under Barack Obama, as well. Do these psychiatrists also intend to call Obama mentally unstable?
The
psychiatrists also warn about a nuclear war with North Korea, seemingly
oblivious to Trump's remarkable strides toward peace with the rogue
regime. "We believe that there is a possibility of our stumbling into a
war, should, for example, the adventurous Kim Jong-un have further
flights of missiles over Japan or another nuclear test. President
Trump’s need to demonstrate his strength as commander-in-chief and the
praise that would come from taking strong actions could lead to a very
unfortunate situation," they warn.
Early in 2018, media outlets ran articles predicting Trump's aggression toward North Korea would spark World War III. The Washington Post even ran a hypothetical news report from the future explaining how nuclear Armageddon began with a tweet. Instead, Trump's detente with Kim has received high marks from the American people.
The
psychiatrists' statement is correct about one thing,
however. "Impeachment is the ultimate rebuke of a president, which
President Trump has intensely feared, at least since the appointment of
the special counsel," the statement reads. Yet the psychiatrists took
the wrong lesson from this, as well: "Failing to monitor or to
understand the psychological aspects, or discounting them, could lead to
catastrophic outcomes. For these reasons, we implore Congress to take
these danger signs seriously and to constrain his destructive impulses.
We and many others are available to give important relevant
recommendations as well as to educate the public so that we can maximize
our collective safety."
If
this shoddy psychoanalysis was correct, going public about this would be
the worst possible response to Trump's instability. If the president's
self-worth is so brittle, a statement like this might put him over the
edge. By going public with these concerns, the psychiatrists may
themselves spark World War III.
In
reality, Trump is nowhere near as unstable as these psychiatrists
suggest. While his off-the-cuff tweets are arguably unpresidential and
his policies are unconventional, there is no reason to consider him
mentally unfit for the job.
Perhaps
more importantly, the World Mental Health Coalition's efforts against
Trump arguably fall afoul of the Goldwater rule, the American
Psychiatric Association (APA) policy against diagnosing a public figure
without an examination or authorization.
The
APA policy states that "it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a
professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and
has been granted proper authorization for such a statement."
While
the World Mental Health Coalition statement claims that the
psychiatrists are "in keeping with the Goldwater principle," these
medical professionals are arguably repeating the very same horrific mistake which led to the creation of the principle in the first place.
In 1964, Fact
magazine published an article claiming that 1,189 psychiatrists had
diagnosed Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater as
"psychologically unfit to be president." The magazine had surveyed
psychiatrists, and 49 percent of respondents described Goldwater as
unfit, calling him "unbalanced," "immature," "paranoid," "psychotic,"
and "schizophrenic." A Johns Hopkins professor said the Republican's
public statements should "disqualify him from the presidency." Sound
familiar?
Goldwater sued for
libel and won — a rare legal feat in America's pro-free speech justice
system. A Federal District Court awarded him $1 in compensatory damages
and $75,000 in punitive damages. The decision was upheld on appeal, and
the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
These psychiatrists should stop politicizing their field, especially given this history.
After
all, Trump is notoriously litigious, and it is not outside the realm of
possibility that he would sue psychiatrists for this kind of attack. If
Trump were nearly as unstable as they claim, he would have done far
worse already.
