The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President - Updated and Expanded with New Essays

by Bandy X. Lee, Robert Jay Lifton (Contribution by), Gail Sheehy (Contribution by), William J. Doherty (Contribution by), Noam Chomsky (Contribution by)

Overview

As this bestseller predicted, Trump has only grown more erratic and dangerous as the pressures on him mount. This new edition includes new essays bringing the book up to date—because this is still not normal.

Originally released in fall 2017, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump was a runaway bestseller. Alarmed Americans and international onlookers wanted to know: What is wrong with him?

That question still plagues us. The Trump administration has proven as chaotic and destructive as its opponents feared, and the man at the center of it all remains a cipher.

Constrained by the APA’s “Goldwater rule,” which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to weigh in on the issue have shied away from discussing it at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both.

The prestigious mental health experts who have contributed to the revised and updated version of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump argue that their moral and civic "duty to warn" supersedes professional neutrality. Whatever affects him, affects the nation: From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond. With eight new essays (about one hundred pages of new material), this edition will cover the dangerous ramifications of Trump's unnatural state.

It’s not all in our heads. It’s in his.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250212863
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/19/2019
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	324,033
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.70(d)

About the Author

Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is Assistant Clinical Professor in Law and Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. She earned her degrees at Yale, interned at Bellevue, was Chief Resident at Mass General, and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She was also a Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. She’s written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited several academic books, and is author of the textbook Violence.

Table of Contents

Foreword To The Second Edition The Dire Warning of Mental Health Experts Jeffrey D. Sachs, Ph.D. XIX

Prologue To The Second Edition Professions and Activism Stephen Soldz, Ph.D., Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M. Div. XXVII

Foreword To The First Edition Our Witness to Malignant Normality Robert jay Lifton, M.D. XLVII

Prologue To The First Edition Professions and Politics Judith Lewis Herman, M.D., Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div. XLVII

Introduction Our Duty to Warn and to Protect Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div. 1

Part 1 The Trump Phenomenon 19

Unbridled and Extreme Present Hedonism: How the Leader of the Free World Has Proven Time and Again He Is Unfit for Duty Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., Rosemary Sword 21

Pathological Narcissism and Politics: A Lethal Mix Craig Malkin, Ph.D. 46

I Wrote The Art of the Deal with Donald Trump: His Self-Sabotage Is Rooted in His Past Tony Schwartz 64

Trump's Trust Deficit Is the Core Problem Gail Sheehy, Ph.D. 70

Sociopathy Lance Bodes, M.D.78

Donald Trump Is: (A) Bad, (B) Mad, (C) All of the Above John D. Gartner, Ph.D. 88

Why "Crazy Like a Fox" versus "Crazy Like a Crazy" Really Matters: Delusional Disorder, Admiration of Brutal Dictators, the Nuclear Codes, and Trump Michael J. Tansey, Ph.D.104

Cognitive Impairment, Dementia, and Potus David M. Reiss, M.D. 120

Donald J. Trump, Alleged Incapacitated Person: Mental Incapacity, the Electoral College, and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment James A. Herb, M.A., Esq. 130

Part 2 The Trump Dilemma 143

Should Psychiatrists Refrain from Commenting on Trump's Psychology? Leonard L. Glass, M.D., M.P.H. 145

On Seeing What You See and Saying What You Know: A Psychiatrist's Responsibility Henry J. Friedman, M.D. 154

The Issue Is Dangerousness, Not Mental Illness James Gilligan, M.D. 163

A Clinical Case for the Dangerousness of Donald J. Trump Diane Jhueck, L.M.H.C., D.M.H.P. 174

Health, Risk, and the Duty to Protect the Community Howard H. Covitz, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. 191

New Opportunities for Therapy in the Age of Trump William J. Doherty, Ph.D. 203

Part 3 The Trump Effect 211

Trauma, Time, Truth, and Trump: How a President Freezes Healing and Promotes Crisis Betty P. Teng, M.F.A., L.M.S.W. 213

Trump Anxiety Disorder: The Trump Effect on the Mental Health of Half the Nation and Special Populations Jennifer Contarino Panning, Psy.D. 228

In Relationship with an Abusive President Harper West, M.A., L.L.P. 237

Birtherism and the Deployment of the Trumpian Mind-Set Luba Kessler, M.D. 254

Trump's Daddy issues; A Toxic Mix for America Steve Wruble, M.D. 261

Trump and the American Collective Psyche Thomas Singer, M.D. 273

Who Goes Trump? Tyranny as a Triumph of Narcissism Elizabeth Mika, M.A., L.C.P.C. 289

The Loneliness of Fateful Decisions: Social Contexts and Psychological Vulnerability Edwin B. Fisher, Ph.D. 309

He's Got the World in His Hands and His Finger on the Trigger: The Twenty-Fifth Amendment Solution Nanette Gartrell, M.D., Dee Mosbacher, M.D., Ph.D. 332

Part 4 Sociocultural Consequences 345

Persistent Enslavement Systemic Trauma: The Deleterious Impact of Trump's Rhetoric on Black and Brown People Kevin Washington, Ph.D. 347

Traumatic Consequences for Immigrant Populations in the United States Rosa Maria Bramble, L.C.S.W. 360

To Trump, Some Lives Matter Ellyn Uram Kaschak, Ph.D. 373

The Charismatic Leader-Follower Relationship and Trump's Base Jerrold M. Post, M.D. 385

Part 5 Humanity's Perpetuation and Survival 397

The Myth of Nuclear War James R. Merikangas, M.D., with Tarannum M. Lateef, M.D. 399

The Age of Thanatos: Environmental Consequences of the Trump Presidency Lise Van Susteren, M.D., H. Steven Moffic, M.D. 412

The Goldwater Rule and the Silence of American Psychiatry: A 2017 Symposium Nassir Ghaemi, M.D., M.P.H 425

Is the Commander in Chief Fit to Serve? A Nonpartisan Test that Marries U.S. Army Leadership Standards with Psychoanalytic Theory Prudence Gourguechon, M.D. 437

Disordered Minds: Democracy as a Defense Against Dangerous Personalities Ian Hughes, Ph.D. 446

Congress Should Establish an Alternative Body to Assess the President Norman Eisen, Esq. Richard Painter, Esq. 458

Epilogue Reaching Beyond the Professions Noam Chomsky, Ph.D., with Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div. 471

Appendix Transcript of the Yale Conference (online) 479

Editorial Reviews

"This is an historic work in the history of American psychiatry. We have never been in this place before." —Lawrence O'Donnell

"There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump...profound, illuminating and discomforting" —Bill Moyers

"The stand these psychiatrists are taking takes courage, and their conclusions are compelling." —The Washington Post

“When I first heard about the conference that gave rise to this book at Yale, I was worried that a manifesto would come out with a diagnosis…. That is not what happened: what happened is a very thoughtful assessment based on lots of public data, which gives us a very clear way of thinking about the terrific vulnerabilities of our current president that elicits a duty to warn.” - Samuel Barondes, Professor Emeritus and Former Chair of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco

“This insightful collection … is a valuable primary source documenting the critical turning point when American psychiatry reassessed the ethics of restraining commentary on the mental health of public officials in light of the ‘duty to warn’ of imminent danger.” - Estelle Freedman, the Robinson Professor in U.S. History at Stanford University

From the Publisher