We welcome back Dr. Bandy X. Lee, editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” to update us on her latest thinking about Trump’s hold on his followers and the conflicts within her own profession over their duty to warn. Plus, Ralph and Steve discuss the January 6th hearings.
Dr. Bandy Lee is a medical doctor, a forensic psychiatrist, and a world expert on violence who taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years before transferring recently to Columbia and Harvard. She is currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition, an educational organization that assembles mental health experts to collaborate with other disciplines for the betterment of public mental health and public safety. She is the author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President and Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul.
I think this society has been greatly shaped by placing such a mentally unstable person in the position of President. As you stated, his happening onto the presidency in the first place was the most dangerous act. We had warned that not containing his psychological dangers would spread into social, cultural, geopolitical, and civic dangers. And that’s exactly what has happened. There’s almost no area he has left untouched as a President.
Dr. Bandy X Lee, author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump
I am again flooded with messages from members of the public, saying that we were vindicated and that we had been right all along. And, in a sense, that’s unfortunate. Because what we predicted was quite dire… And so, yes, you can say it’s a vindication. It’s not a happy vindication.
Dr. Bandy X Lee, editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump
Diagnosis is about private assessment and treatment, so there’s no real reason to diagnose a public figure… But danger is not a diagnosis. And that’s actually not of concern to the individual. It’s of concern to society. [Mental health professionals] are always obligated to warn persons or society who might be in danger. That is one of our core public health functions: informing and educating the public about dangers it might be exposed to.
Dr. Bandy X Lee, author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump
If somebody was of [Donald Trump’s] characteristic in a workplace or in the neighborhood, people would not want to have anything to do with this person. They would call the police. They would take his menacing words at their dangerous value. But because he was selected by the Electoral College to be President, he seems to be getting a pass.
Ralph Nader
When there’s a concentration on [Donald Trump’s] bullying, his fabrications, his pathological lying, his delusions, it often detracts attention from his daily lawbreaking as President of the United States.
Ralph Nader
Trump Still Dangerous