Both psychiatrist Bandy Lee and clinical psychologist John Gartner (“It’s a coup that’s not moving slowly anymore” from Salon, June 13, 2018) have been interviewed and quoted frequently in the media. Dr. Lee was most recently interviewed by Democracy Now. She addressed Trump’s latest reactions to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh
Is Donald Trump Mentally Fit to Be President? Dr. Bandy Lee Questions Trump’s Capacity to Govern.
In this article, among other things, Dr. Lee addresses Trump’s mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford:
DR. BANDY LEE: Yes. First of all, the 25th Amendment is a political decision, and it’s a political action, so I don’t purport to comment on that in any way. What I do as a mental health expert is to call attention to situations where restriction, removal from access to weapons or restriction on the powers of the presidency are called for, be that removal—it seems that from political experts’ standpoint, that is the means, that’s the only means we have available. And from the op-ed piece in The New York Times, it seems that containment itself is not working, and therefore, it does seem correct that something like the 25th Amendment would need to be invoked. The Section 4 of the 25th Amendment deals with presidential inability, inability to perform their duties.
As for the president’s mocking at the rally—
AMY GOODMAN: Following his talking about her as a very credible witness.
DR. BANDY LEE: Yes. And—
AMY GOODMAN: She hadn’t said anything publicly in between the two times that he said that and then openly ridiculed her.
DR. BANDY LEE: I think that’s when mental health professionals can be helpful with their input, because they can—they’re used to dealing with many disorders. They’re used to dealing with personalities that may deceive and manipulate the public, and therefore it’s important to note that not everything one says is true. And when the president was expressing sympathy or endorsed the—
Another opinion has just been published in Medscape. It is by Nassir Ghaemi, MD, MPH , Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine; Lecturer in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Director, Translational Medicine-Neuroscience, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
25th Amendment Debate Raises Tough Questions for Psychiatry
Here’s an excerpt:
The concept of fitness relates directly to the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was created mostly with non-psychiatric illness in mind. The classic case that would meet the standards of the 25th Amendment is the massive stroke that afflicted President Woodrow Wilson during his second term in office. Such massive physical disability is obvious. The complex impact of psychiatric illness is not as easily interpretable by the standards of the 25th Amendment.
It has been observed that if psychiatric illness was considered relevant to the 25th Amendment, much would depend on whether the president himself was capable of resisting removal. This issue relates to the psychopathological phenomenon of "lack of insight." In some serious psychiatric conditions, such as mania or delusions, a person can be unaware that he or she is psychiatrically ill. It often is part of the manic or delusional state that the person believes that he or she is not manic or delusional.
This fact produces a major problem for potential invocation of the 25th Amendment in that one could foresee a scenario where the vice president and cabinet may see a president as psychiatrically ill, whereas the president himself would not. This scenario is quite different from something more akin to Wilson's illness, where a president, if paralyzed by a stroke, might be unable to express his own opinion about his fitness.
Dr. Nassir Ghaemi’s name is new to me. It turns out he has expressed his opinions about Trump in the media before.
Trump’s Mental Health: A Roundtable with Dr. Rick Lippin, Dr. Michael Conforti, Dr. Nassir Ghaemi & Mitchell Rabin
Debate About Trump's Mental Health Wrong