psychiatric n psychological professionals speak out publicly about trump mental cond

[Jude Iam]

Written/forwarded by a friend.
These professionals do not do this lightly, nor should we merely snigger at this; we live in mad times, led by literally mad men. Our own sanity, stability, compassion is ever more needed. jude
p.s. If you're in this biz, sign and pass on.

For the second time this year, a group of psychiatric and psychological professionals have spoken out publicly about the mental condition of the president, despite the risk it poses to their own professional standing. They spoke out because they said that it was their "ethical responsibility" to warn the American public about the "dangers" Mr. Trump's psychological state poses to the country.


At a conference at Yale's School of Medicine last week, the professional group said that Trump has a "dangerous mental illness" and is not fit to lead the United States. The mental health experts claimed that Mr. Trump was "paranoid and delusional." Think about that.


When Trump said that he "saw" a crowd of a few thousand Muslims celebrating in the street in New Jersey when the Twin Towers were crashed into on 9/11, that wasn't just a lie from him. That was a delusion, something much deeper and more disturbing.


From Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary - "delusion" is defined as:
"a false belief or opinion: delusions of grandeur. Psychiatry. a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion."

Think about Trump's insistence that his inauguration was the biggest one in recent history despite the photographic evidence otherwise. Think about his insistence that he didn't lose the popular vote because he still maintains that there were three to five million fraudulent votes cast for Hillary Clinton. Or that thousands of people were bussed into New Hampshire to vote fraudulently.

These are not just lies that we've come to expect from a chronic liar, which is a sad state to begin with. These are delusions, and we allow or normalize this man's behavior at enormous risk.

Dr. John Gartner, a practicing psychotherapist who advised psychiatric residents at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, spoke at the Yale conference. Dr. Gartner started an online petition earlier this year calling for Mr. Trump to be removed from office. The petition so far has gathered more than 41,000 signatures and states:

"We, the undersigned mental health professionals (please state your degree), believe in our professional judgment that Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States.

"And we respectfully request he be removed from office, according to article 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which states that the president will be replaced if he is 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.'"

It takes courage to go against the tide of professional consensus that a psychological diagnosis mustn't be offered about a patient that hasn't been personally interviewed. Nonetheless, the professionals signing the petition felt that they'd seen and heard enough, and that the stakes for the country and the world are so high, that it was their "ethical responsibility" to call attention to the dangers this man poses to all of us from being in so powerful a position. What do you think?

My thoughts on this are twofold: 1. That you don't have to be a professional to recognize that something is seriously wrong with a man who lies so casually, who is a bully, a misogynist and a racist, and who cannot be trusted in word or deed. Any and all of those traits makes him unrepresentative of the U.S. population and unfit to lead as diverse a nation as the United States.

And, 2. Even if you disagree with the psychiatrists and psychologists need to be speak out, or disagree with the diagnoses they've made, I believe that there is sufficient evidence that the question of his mental fitness for office warrants professional examination and is not hidden under a rug or avoided because it's nationally embarrassing. Allowing a mentally delusional man to exercise the power a U.S. president has is too great a risk to not look at very carefully - and do all we can to render him incapable of doing more harm.


Here is the article from the UK Independent about the conference. (U.S. Mainstream Media has largely avoided carrying the story.) https://www.independent.ie/world-new...-35644597.html