Read the six page letter here.
Chauncey DeVega is the Salon writer who has written the most online about Trump’s dangerous psychopathology. He has done interviews with John Gartner, Bandy Lee, and Lance Dodes on his show.
Today he published brief reactions to Trump’s highly publicized six page letter to Nancy Pelosi from the six most prominent mental health professionals who have been outspoken in the media about why Trump’s psychopathology renders him both unfit for office and dangerous.
DeVega prefaces his series of questions and answers with the mental health professionals with:
In keeping with his strategy of stochastic terrorism, Trump’s letter is an incitement to violence by his followers against the Democrats for the “crime” of impeachment.
Trump is possessed of the delusional belief that he (and by implication his supporters) is a victim of a “witch hunt” akin to the famous event in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. In keeping with his malignant narcissism, Trump’s letter, of course, boasts of his strength and fortitude against the Democrats and other enemies.
In total, Trump’s "impeachment letter" to Nancy Pelosi is but one data point among many demonstrating that he is mentally unwell and a threat to the safety of the United States and the world.
To gain more context and insight into this ongoing crisis, I asked several of the country’s leading mental health experts for their thoughts on Trump’s impeachment letter and what it indicates about the president’s emotional state and behavior.
These reactions to the letter are another compelling warning that Trump is becoming ever more dangerous with his paranoid, vindictive, and impulsive behavior. The letter became an instant history document which will have the unique distinction of being studied in history, political science, and psychology courses.
It’s a short article. Here are some bullet points:
- Bandy Lee (psychiatrist): “… that the president was more dangerous than people suspected; that he would grow more dangerous with time; and that ultimately, he would become "uncontainable." We are entering the “uncontainable” stage because of shared psychosis.”
- Dan McAdams: (clinical psychologist)“...worthy to be remembered as the antithesis of, say, the Gettysburg Address.”
- David Reiss (psychiatrist/psychoanalyst): “… Trump complains he is being treated "unfairly" anytime he does not get his way, his feelings are hurt, and/or others are not accepting what he says at face value and without question — even if it is contrary to proven fact or internally inconsistent.”
- Lance Dodes (psychiatrist): “In reflecting his projecting (paranoid) view of the world and his primitive focus on himself with denial of the rights and feelings of others, the letter is consistent with what we already know about Mr. Trump.”
- John Gartner (clinical psychologist): “It shows the usual formal properties of a Trump rant: proclaiming himself the victim of an evil conspiracy, while projecting onto his critics everything bad he is actually doing.”
- Justin Frank (psychiatrist/psychoanalyst): “… the letter is a treasure trove for psychiatric residents who want to study the psychotic mind. Trump’s paradoxical sleight of hand makes him think he can hide in plain sight.”
This article is a good companion piece to Dan Froomkin’s indictment of the mainstream media’s reluctance to address the elephant of Trump’s mental illness so obviously reflected in his behavior.
Excerpt:
To everyone but the willfully blind, it was effectively a confession of the president's unfitness for office — a view straight into the mind of a mad king unable to grasp basic facts, control his emotions or acknowledge any restraints on his behavior.
But after more than three years of applying the normal approaches to covering a profoundly abnormal presidency — and refusing to “take sides” on what they consider purely partisan disputes — our top political journalists are evidently unable to change course and consider that there is something deeply, psychologically wrong with the man.
So instead of writing that the letter was nutty, they called it “extraordinary.” Instead of identifying it as a sign that Trump is falling apart in plain view, one reporter — Ashley Parker of the Washington Post — actually wrote that it showed how “resilient” he has been in the face of adversity.
I like Ashley Parker. She’s a frequent guest on MSNBC. Unfortunately now I see her as psychologically ignorant. For example even the title of the article Froomkin references is totally wrong headily titled: “Trump appears resilient as he faces the ‘very ugly word’ of impeachment.”
She also wrote:
Unbowed and unapologetic, Trump is charging through impeachment much as he has wrestled with previous crises in his presidency — attacking his perceived enemies, spinning falsehoods, promising vengeance and firing off tweets, all while cycling between fits of indignation and bouts of confidence and good cheer.
Even if she doesn’t read the primer on Trump’s personality, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which every journalist should read, she should at the least read Chauncey DeVega’s article.
(Update: See comment I put on as a comment to OpEd Parker wrote today. I posted it at the end of today’s comments section.)
I lament the fact that she seems to share this lack of knowledge of psychology with Rachel Maddow who often says that she doesn’t want to speculate on the underlying personality reasons Trump acts in ways that she has said are inexplicable to her. I wish she’d talk to Lawrence O’Donnell about this since he does understand this and has had some of the psychiatrists and psychologists quoted above on his show. (Joy Reid interviewed Lance Dodes on her show.)
I wrote about my dismay about the media in August: