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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Is Donald Trump nuts?, continued

Mental health professionals meet at Yale, warn Trump's state 'putting country in danger'

Image result for is donald trump nutsA group of mental health professionals gathered at Yale University on April 20 to discuss what they believe is their duty to warn the public of the "danger" posed by President Donald Trump.

The "Duty to Warn" event was attended by roughly two dozen people and was organized Dr. Bandy Lee, assistant clinical professor in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, the CTPost writes.

Lee called the mental health of the president "the elephant in the room," and said: "Colleagues are concerned about the repercussions of speaking." 

Yale did not sponsor the event, and said that conference-goers were expected to follow the Goldwater Rule. Enacted in 1973, it bars psychiatrists from giving their professional opinion on the mental health of a person they have not met.



The American Psychiatric Association (APA) last month reaffirmed its support for the rule.

In fact, the Duty to Warn group "has drawn considerable criticism from the psychiatric establishment" for flouting the rule, the Associated Press writes.

"Basically, one cannot speak of public figures under any circumstance," Lee said, according to NPR member station WSHU. "And to do that under this current climate of grave concern is, in my mind, is actually a political statement.”

"We do believe that Donald Trump's mental illness is putting the entire country, and indeed the entire world, in danger," argued Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist who used to teach at Johns Hopkins University, local WTNH writes. "As health professionals we have an ethical duty to warn the public about that danger," he said.

"Worse than just being a liar or a narcissist, in addition he is paranoid, delusional and grandiose thinking and he proved that to the country the first day he was President. If Donald Trump really believes he had the largest crowd size in history, that's delusional," Gartner added.