Mental Health Doctors Tell Congress Donald Trump Needs Psychiatric Assessment
Mental health professionals have told Congress that Donald Trump needs a psychiatric assessment.
The lame duck POTUS has been fiercely criticised in the fallout of the US Capitol riot, during which he told his extremist supporters: ‘We love you, you’re very special.’
While later backing into an acknowledgment of the chaos unleashed by the pro-Trump participants, mental health experts believe the president to be ‘psychologically and mentally both dangerous and incapacitated’.
News of the coalition’s stance comes as lawmakers put immense pressure on Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office immediately. However, the VP reportedly told advisers it’s ‘highly unlikely’, sending Trump towards a historic second impeachment by the House.
New documents submitted to Congress by Dr. Bandy Lee, Yale University professor and president of World Mental Health Coalition, and other psychiatric experts are hoped to speed up the 25th Amendment process as well as ensuring security at a tumultuous time in the US, ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The coalition has requested for the ‘the involuntary admission’ of Trump who ‘needs to be evaluated for the least restrictive means of containment’, as per Newsweek. The submission urged that Trump’s refusal to concede the election, and insistences he’d won by a ‘landslide’ indicate ‘dangerous delusions of grandeur’.
The document noted: ‘His ability to mount an even larger insurrection and violent upheaval remains, in addition to his retaining full access to nuclear and other weapons and the power to launch an international war.’
Lee also told the outlet: ‘We now have a lot of intimate information and many mental health professionals say, we know him better than any patient we have ever treated, and that seems to be a universal sentiment. The next two weeks will still be the most dangerous period yet unless there is correct intervention.’
This time last year, with regards to his actions around the Iran crisis, the coalition said his behaviour was ‘consistent with a person who, when his falsely inflated self-image is questioned, or when his emotional need for adulation is thwarted, lashes out in an attempt to restore his sense of potency and command over others’, as per The Independent.
The group said in a statement: ‘We urge Congress to consult with us for a profile, if not evaluation, and to take seriously the mental health aspects that are at play in this mentally impaired president.’
8 days agoHowever, due to the ‘Goldwater rule’ – which says psychiatrists shouldn’t give opinions on those who they’ve not officially examined – Trump has not been diagnosed. Despite the rule being backed by the American Psychiatric Association in 2017, Lee and others have criticised it for interfering with their responsibility to protect patients and society.
Lee added: ‘While the 25th Amendment negotiations are happening or the impeachment process is started, there are not likely to be safeguards, given the lack of understanding of his true dangerousness from a mental health perspective, which is critically relevant.’
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Topics: News, Donald Trump, Mental Health, Now, US
