You can watch Dr. Lance Dodes interviewed by Lawrence O’Donnell from last night’s show here. This is the second time that Dodes has been on O’Donnell’s show in recent days. Lawrence O’Donnell has been in the forefront of television hosts to feature the most prominent mental health experts who have been warning about the dangerousness of Donald Trump. Last year he had Duty to Warn founder Dr. John D. Gartner and psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee, editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump on his show. In October of 2017 Lee appeared with Art of the Deal author Tony Schwartz. I recall that O’Donnell has also interviewed psychoanalyst and author of Trump on the Couch” Dr. Justin Frank but I can’t find a link to it.
Here’s the Aug. 21st interview:
Psychiatrist On ‘The Essential Emptiness Of President Donald
Below:
On October 29th Chauncey DeVega on Salon also interviewed Dodes.
Excerpt:
During a recent interview (not the one last night, the previous one) with Laurence O’Donnell on MSNBC, you warned that Donald Trump is spiraling into a psychotic state. Given what has happened with impeachment, Ukraine and other events since then, how do you assess Donald Trump’s psychotic state right now?
The more pressure Donald Trump is under, the more he will be obviously out of touch with reality. I think in the last moment of his psychotic state as president, rather than lying on the floor shouting in a psychotic way, I think he will make up his own reality. Trump will declare that everybody is evil. He'll leave to be in his own tower, in his own world, in his own gold house. He'll gather his followers around him, so he doesn't ever have to deal with reality. Like a cult leader, Donald Trump will always have the Trump followers and he'll always believe himself to be a god.
Are Trump’s supporters capable of shame? When this is all over will they be able to look back on their behavior and say, “Oh my God, I'm embarrassed.” Will they then deny ever having supported Donald Trump?
I think some will say, as Trump would, because he's incapable of shame, “We were right all along.” They'll buy the story of Trump as victim, or they'll rationalize it. They'll say, “Well, you know, the whole country was behind him. We didn't know what we were doing. We didn't realize.” To your question about what they believe internally, I think some Trump supporters will feel ashamed. Obama won in 2008 and 2012. Some of those people later voted for Trump. These are the same human beings who are perfectly able to admit they were conned by Donald Trump. And that's understandable, given Trump's ability as a master sociopath. There's an old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." I think the American public, which is a lot healthier and wiser than Donald Trump, is too smart to be fooled twice.
Is Donald Trump one of the most dangerous people on the planet?
Yes. He is the most dangerous person on the planet.
Afterword
In 2017 I wrote about those in the media who were contributing the most to the public’s understand of Trump’s psychopathology. Then those of us in the mental health community trying to warn about Trump knew what he would only get more dangerous, but never anticipated impeachment.
Because the venues that allowed us to get the word out with the notable exception of USA Today (which published several articles by John Gartner including “Donald Trump's malignant narcissism is toxic: Psychologist” on May 4, 2017) we only reached a predominantly liberal audience.
I am still trying in my own small way to inform Daily Kos readers about Trump’s psychopathology.
For those following the history of the mental health profession’s attempt to inform and warn about Trump it should be noted that the first mental health professional (as far as I can tell) to more or less mildly warned in “a guide to his extraordinary personality” about Trump in the media was psychologist Dan McAdams Wikipedia in “The Atlantic” in June of 2016. It was the cover story.
He just had his second article published there where his exploration into Trump’s mind from 2016 morphed into a serious warning.
Story by Dan P. McAdams · June 2016 Issue · Politics ... In 2006, Donald Trump made plans to purchase the Menie Estate, near Aberdeen, Scotland, aiming to ...
2 days ago - Senator Ted Cruz once described Donald Trump as “a narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen. ... More by Dan P. McAdams …
Yesterday:
The Poll: For some reason my proof-reading of poll questions is impaired, and once the poll is posted I can’t change them without losing all the answers. Of course the first choice isn’t 1016, it’s 2016. It is an important year in England though because it’s when the Battle of Brentford (near London was fought. King Edmund II defeated the Danes under King Cnut the Great.