The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President

Front Cover
Bandy X. Lee
St. Martin's Publishing Group, Oct 3, 2017 - Biography & Autobiography - 360 pages

The New York Times bestseller! More than two dozen psychiatrists and psychologists offer their consensus view that Trump's mental state presents a clear and present danger to our nation and individual well-being.

This is not normal.

Since the start of Donald Trump’s presidential run, one question has quietly but urgently permeated the observations of concerned citizens: What is wrong with him? Constrained by the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater rule,” which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to answer this question have shied away from discussing the issue at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both.

In THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP, twenty-seven psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health experts argue that, in Mr. Trump’s case, their moral and civic “duty to warn” America supersedes professional neutrality. They then explore Trump’s symptoms and potentially relevant diagnoses to find a complex, if also dangerously mad, man.

Philip Zimbardo and Rosemary Sword, for instance, explain Trump’s impulsivity in terms of “unbridled and extreme present hedonism.” Craig Malkin writes on pathological narcissism and politics as a lethal mix. Gail Sheehy, on a lack of trust that exceeds paranoia. Lance Dodes, on sociopathy. Robert Jay Lifton, on the “malignant normality” that can set in everyday life if psychiatrists do not speak up.

His madness is catching, too. 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.

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

"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

 

Selected pages

Contents

INTRODUCTION
11
How
25
A Lethal Mix
51
SelfSabotage Is Rooted in His Past
69
Sociopathy
83
Why Crazy Like a Fox versus Crazy Like a Crazy
110
Cognitive Impairment Dementia and POTUS
126
Should Psychiatrists Refrain from Commenting on Trumps
151
How a President
219
The Trump Effect on
235
Birtherism and the Deployment of the Trumpian MindSet
261
Trump and the American Collective Psyche
281
Who Goes Trump? Tyranny as a Triumph of Narcissism
298
Social and Psychological
319
Hes Got the World in His Hands and His Finger on
343
EPILOGUE
356

A Clinical Case for the Dangerousness of Donald J Trump
181
Health Risk and the Duty to Protect the Community
198
Copyright

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The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health ...
Bandy X. Lee
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Common terms and phrases

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About the author (2017)

Dr. Bandy Lee is a violence studies specialist. Trained as a psychiatrist at Yale and Harvard Universities, she focused on public-sector work as chief resident and on anthropological research in East Africa as a fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition, she worked in several maximum-security prisons throughout the United States, consulted with governments in Ireland and France, and helped to set up violence prevention programs both in the U.S. and abroad. She is currently on the faculty of the Law and Psychiatry Division and teaches students representing asylum seekers or studying to become public defenders at Yale Law School. She also served as Director of Research for the Center for the Study of Violence, as consultant to the World Health Organization and several other United Nations agencies. Her interests are in global health approaches to violence prevention and interdisciplinary discourse.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
A Thomas Dunne Book
EditorBandy X. Lee
PublisherSt. Martin's Publishing Group, 2017
ISBN1250179459, 9781250179456
Length360 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & Heads of State
Political Science / American Government / Executive Branch
Political Science / American Government / General
Political Science / American Government / National
Political Science / Commentary & Opinion
Political Science / Political Ideologies / Fascism & Totalitarianism
Political Science / Political Process / General
Political Science / Political Process / Political Advocacy
Psychology / General
Psychology / Psychopathology / General
  
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