My other stories about Trump’s psychopathology and why it makes him dangerous.
Poll on the bottom of the page: Do you think Trump meets the criteria for being a malignant narcissist?
Or play the brief video
How It Began
Well over a year ago Dr. John D. Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn, recognizing the dangerous psychological instability of President Trump, started the Change.org petition below:
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.”
Originally mental health professionals like me signed it and closely watched as the number of signers first slowly climbed and then hit the usual noteworthy milestones: 1,000, 2,000, 2,500, etc. Then the word got out and before long we watched the numbers increase from 10,000 to 20,000 and so on. Currently, over 70,000 people have signed.
Cover of the June 2016 issue of The Atlantic: The article concludes with “Who, really, is Donald Trump? What’s behind the actor’s mask? I can discern little more than narcissistic motivations and a complementary personal narrative about winning at any cost. It is as if Trump has invested so much of himself in developing and refining his socially dominant role that he has nothing left over to create a meaningful story for his life, or for the nation. It is always Donald Trump playing Donald Trump, fighting to win, but never knowing why.”
Although an early article, A Psychologist Analyzes Donald Trump’s Personality by psychologist Dan McAdams was published in June 2016 issue of The Atlantic and was the cover story (on right), this didn’t lead to much or any major media follow-up, although I did write a Daily Kos story about it: A Psychologist Analyzes Trump the Narcissist. Again, this was in the summer of 2016.
The next major publication to reference Trump’s mental health and John Gartner was published in USA Today on Jan. 27, 2017 and it opened the floodgates and Gartner became a go-to clinician for those interested in the psychopathology of the president.
Temperament Tantrum - Some say President Donald Trump's personality isn't just flawed, it's dangerous
The once-obscure Article 4 of the 25th Amendment became a frequent topic of discussion in the media. It was over one year ago on May 16, 2017 that Ross Douthat wrote “ The 25th Amendment Solution for Removing Trump” in the New York Times.
There will be time to return again to world-weariness and cynicism as this agony drags on. Right now, though, I will be boring in my sincerity: I respectfully ask Mike Pence and Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to reconsider their support for a man who never should have had his party’s nomination, never should have been elevated to this office, never should have been endorsed and propped up and defended by people who understood his unfitness all along.
Now is a day for redemption. Now is an acceptable time.
Note that Douthat wrote this more than a year ago.
Review from StatNews: www.statnews.com/...
Anyone following the subject of Trump being psychologically unfit for office learned what the Goldwater rule was and why it became controversial when many therapists went public with their concerns about Trump being dangerous. A book warning the public and members of Congress about this turned out to be a best seller (right).
Time published this ”Go Ahead, Psychiatrists: Diagnose Donald Trump” in July of 2017. Articles similar to this were published in numerous mainstream media throughout 2017.
People who were deeply troubled by the erratic behavior of Donald Trump learned what the mental health community meant by “duty to warn” when applied to someone as potentially dangerous as the president. Those following closely even learned why so many therapists justified breaking the Goldwater rule as they applied the Tarasoff duty to warn standard to Trump.
People who never heard of the initials DSM discovered it was short for the fifth edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual published by the American Psychiatric Association.
Armchair psychologists reading the DSM-5 struggled to figure out what made Trump behave the way he did were puzzled.
Those who did more reading about the psychology of the president were sure to find articles about Trump and the psychological syndrome malignant narcissism, and if they Google searched Trump malignant narcissist they’d have learned much more from John Gartner and others including the renowned psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton who was interviewed by Bill Moyers.
Point of pride: an article I wrote on Daily Kos is number 10 on the first page of that Google search.
Fast forward to today.
John Gartner has announced that he is working with the documentary filmmaker DocShops*, and the Duty to Warn group of mental health professionals to use the mechanism of Kickstarter to raise the funds to produce a documentary called #UNFIT: The Dangerous Behavior of Donald Trump.
Here’s the rationale presented for making this film and having it distributed as soon as possible:
Because this very important information must be delivered to the widest possible audience AS SOON AS POSSIBLE - before the mid-term elections. And only WITH YOUR SUPPORT can this become a movement with real impact!
Quite simply, the “imminent threat” of a mentally unstable person occupying the oval office cannot be overestimated! If we don’t ACT NOW, the possibility of a genuinely catastrophic event becomes ever more likely.
Fortunately we are about to have an OPPORTUNITY TO REIN IN THIS PRESIDENCY, or perhaps even end it if necessary. The mid-term elections in November represent our best chance to change course before it’s potentially too late. Getting this film out ASAP will help inspire voters to elect congressional legislators who can put a genuine check on Trump’s most threatening impulses.
Bottom line, the faster this film gets made the more people it can reach. So let’s work together to prove that this President is #UNFIT. Contributing to this crowdfunding campaign is a simple, easy, and powerful action you can take towards making that happen. Collectively WE CAN GET THIS DONE!!!
The ultimate goal is to raise $1 ½ million to produce, publicize and distribute the film.
If everyone who signed the Change.org petition contributed only $20 today the cameras could be rolling tomorrow.
* About the DocShops producers and director:
DAN PARTLAND (Director & Producer) is a Multi-Emmy winner of documentary and non-fiction TV, whose work includes series such as A&E’s Intervention, The Sixties on CNN, American Race with Charles Barkley for TNT, and Afflicted, a soon to be released Netflix series. Prior to his work in television, Partland’s work included landmark films of the independent cinema such as the feature documentary A Perfect Candidate along with Sundance winners Welcome to The Doll House and The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack.
ART HORAN (Producer) is a Creative & Business Executive, Executive Producer of Academy Award winner The Usual Suspects and Executive Consultant on Sundance Festival Winner, The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack, Executive Producer of Ring Girls for ESPN directed by academy award nominated Amy Berg and Producer of the documentary filmHands of God. This was reported on in Variety yesterday.
