Dr. Bandy Lee weighed in (pun intended) on Trump's diet in the featured top of the page interview on Salon yesterday. While she does not offer precise diagnoses she comes very close in this interview to presenting what many if not most clinicians would call a diagnostic assessment of the president. I have bolded the psychiatric terms and psychological concepts in the excerpts.
The World Mental Health Coalition is dedicated to strengthening the fabric of society through education. We believe in the power of knowledge and the sharing of expertise for the betterment of collective mental health. We: 1. provide consultation to government bodies upon request; 2. organize public forums for discussion and education; and 3. alert, protect, and educate the public when when we see signs of imminent or lasting danger within the body politic or in its leaders.
— WHY TRUMP'S CONSUMPTION OF "SOME OF THE WORST-QUALITY FOODS" IS WORRISOME, ACCORDING TO DR. BANDY LEE
Excerpts:
It has been reported numerous times that Trump has a recurring fear of being poisoned... What does this ever-present fear tell us about his psyche?
You are correct to ask the broader question. The ongoing fear of being poisoned would be indicative of a more general paranoid tendency he has, which is why he has to ask for loyalty from all and to practice nepotism rather than hire competent help — or not to hire at all. He also believes there is a "deep state" on a "witch hunt" against him. Paranoia can be a measure of severity of mental compromise.
(answering a question abut what poor nutrition can do to brain health:)
Not only will there be generally impaired brain function and brain health, but there is an immediate worsening of mood disorders, such as depression and angry outbursts. Research suggests that much of this damage can be reversed and improvement is possible if one switched to a more balanced diet; without switching, however, the damage only accumulates.
What does his choice to short his dining guests (on portion size) say about him?
There is the narcissistic need for special and exclusive treatment that distinguishes himself from the others, but food in particular is psychologically related to a lack of love. In other words, not having received enough love at a critical, infantile stage often gives rise to a fixation on food and an inability to get enough of it. His shortchanging his guests may also indicate an antisocial need to be cruel to others — or at least to cheat them in order to establish his sense of power.
...does the president exhibit any signs of problems with his mental healths? If so, does this present a clear and present danger?
Apart from nutrition, he exhibits numerous signs of mental health problems. Medical students now tell me they "learn the DSM [the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual]" through him, as he presents with numerous symptoms of multiple categories. I have avoided diagnosing partly because it can mislead by underestimating the level of his problems: narrowing on one or two diagnoses risks belying the probability that he meets the criteria of at least a dozen, ranging from multiple personality disorders to mood disorders to cognitive impairments.
Back in May of 2017 Dr. John Gartner, the founder of the Duty to Warn group (which has a website of the same name), of which I was an early member, wrote “Donald Trump's malignant narcissism is toxic” in USA Today. He wrote then:
Some say it is unethical to dare to diagnose the president, but hundreds of mental health professionals have come together to found Duty To Warn. We believe that just as we are ethically and legally obligated to break confidentiality to warn a potential victim of violence, our duty to warn the public trumps all other considerations.
Retired Harvard psychiatrist Lance Dodes has not been reticent about diagnosing Trump either, for example from this August "Harvard Psychiatrist: Malignant Narcissist" Trump Committing "Soul Murder" On Children In Cages; "A Crime Against Humanity" --- (watch two minute video interview on Morning Joy). He diagnosed President Trump as a "malignant narcissist" and said his policy of detaining illegal immigrant children leads to "soul murder."
Another Viewpoint
There are those who have taken positions which are different than those from the mental health professionals who have written articles or been interviewed in major media saying Trump is mental unfit to be president because of his dangerous psychopathology. One such is individual is Alex Green, the senior research associate for the American Secretaries of State Project at Harvard University, and New England correspondent for Publishers Weekly magazine. He wrote “Stop Psychoanalyzing the President” for Boston’s WBUR web series Cognoscenti.
Here are a few excerpts:
One of the stories people tell themselves to make sense of living in Donald Trump’s America is that the president suffers from extreme mental illness. From the front page to the opinion section, hardly a week goes by without a major publication declaring that he is certifiably unhinged. It helps numb the pain. It lets us make an easy distinction. He’s crazy. We’re not. We could save democracy if we could just rush into the Oval Office with a straight-jacket right now.
But for many of us with mental illness, this tale is a growing cause for concern. In the span of a few years, it has shifted from a focused attack on the president, that was in and of itself unsettling, to a broad trope that stigmatizes mental illness more than at any time in a generation.
Green’s second excerpt references Bandy Lee:
Psychologists and psychiatrists have encouraged these lines of attack by assuring the president’s detractors that it is appropriate to engage in casual speculation about mental health. In an interview with Salon, Yale psychiatrist Bandy Lee — author of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” -- assured readers that her years-long practice of diagnosing a man she’s never met, “has nothing to do with politics.”
[Psychiatric health providers’] concerns,” Lee said, “are purely about public health and safety, and whether or not American society will choose a destructive route versus a life-affirming, constructive route. Disease by definition is destructive.”
It takes extreme egotism to fuse medicine and democratic principles this way, but Lee’s comments are even more disturbing because they paint with such a broad brush. Like Trump’s insults being parroted by his followers in everyday conversation, it is easy to take Lee’s words and swing them in any direction, not just at Trump.
Trump is careening towards psychiatric self-immolation. This was evident in yesterday’s performance talking to reporters. What mental health professionals call decompensation is demonstrated in his tweets and impulsive and dangerous decisions.
Articles like these are like primers for those needing an explanation as to what is happening to the president. They are kind of like the libretto for an opera sung in a language you don’t understand.
TRUMPOLOGY: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY AND ANALYSIS OF DONALD TRUMP, My Daily Kos stories on this subject.
Addendum
With near perfect timing the documentary John Gartner’s #UNFIT is in post-production. It should be released when Trump’s mental unfitness has become so blatant that even his GOP supporters in Congress and anyone in the general public who isn’t totally brainwashed will find that it illuminates and explains the facts about the president’s unstable and dangerous mental condition that so many have been trying to deny or ignore.
#UNFIT has completed production, and is now in post-production. We are pleased to have amassed a great many insightful interviews. The film interviewed not only those most qualified to speak to his mental health, but those qualified to speak to his social, behavioral, economic, and even historic impact. The interviews are not political, they are scientific and/or observational. Some of the best footage has come from right-leaning sources.
After the Mueller report was released, and Barr entered the scene, and subpoena's were first ignored, and more court proceedings launched, we did a second round of interviews. It's always hard to stop the presses when you are dealing with a real time subject like this, and a 24 hour news cycle. But we had to stop the presses to move the process forward. For information on when the film will be released, stay tuned here. Please enjoy these brief preview clips, more to be posted soon.
There are numerous 30 second clips here.