The only people who aren’t allowed to comment on Donald Trump’s mental health are the people who are most expert and qualified to do it. John D. Gartner, PhD, a contributor to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, regarding the Goldwater Rule
For those who’ve been looking for extra validation that Trump isn’t fit for office, the time has come via The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President by Bandy X. Lee, MD, M.Div., and many other contributors from the mental health field including John D. Gartner, Lance Dodes, and Michael Tansey.
Concerned about America’s well-being, these experts believe it’s not only fair to analyze this particular public figure, it’s their obligation.
Bill Moyers (Mother Jones) interviewed the foreword’s author, Robert Jay Lifton, who establishes a belief that the ethically mandated “duty to warn” supercedes the Goldwater Rule. “We have a duty to warn on an individual basis if we are treating someone who may be dangerous to herself or to others—a duty to warn people who are in danger from that person. We feel it’s our duty to warn the country about the danger of this president. ”
It’s not all about the question of mental illness. “It’s really a question of what psychological and other traits render one unfit or dangerous.” More from Lifton:
…I’ve focused on what professionally I call solipsistic reality. Solipsistic reality means that the only reality he’s capable of embracing has to do with his own self and the perception by and protection of his own self. And for a president to be so bound in this isolated solipsistic reality could not be more dangerous for the country and for the world. In that sense, he does what psychotics do. Psychotics engage in, or frequently engage in a view of reality based only on the self. He’s not psychotic, but I think ultimately this solipsistic reality will be the source of his removal from the presidency.
Selected Quotes from The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump
In Donald Trump, we have a frightening Venn diagram consisting of three circles: the first is extreme present hedonism; the second, narcissism; and the third, bullying behavior. These three circles overlap in the middle to create an impulsive, immature, incompetent person who, when in the position of ultimate power, easily slides into the role of tyrant, complete with family members sitting at his proverbial “ruling table.” Like a fledgling dictator, he plants psychological seeds of treachery in sections of our population that reinforce already negative attitudes.
Power not only corrupts but also magnifies existing psychopathologies, even as it creates new ones. Fostered by the flattery of underlings and the chants of crowds, a political leader’s grandiosity may morph into grotesque delusions of grandeur. Sociopathic traits may be amplified as the leader discovers that he can violate the norms of civil society and even commit crimes with impunity. And the leader who rules through fear, lies, and betrayal may become increasingly isolated and paranoid, as the loyalty of even his closest confidants must forever be suspect.
The successful sociopath’s predatory “empathy” reflects a definite perceptive acumen, making him a genius at manipulation. When this works, it produces a disastrous trust in him. Yet, like the tiger, he is unconcerned about the welfare of his target.