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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWaPo: When is it okay to say the president might be nuts?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/05/02/when-is-it-okay-to-say-the-president-might-be-nuts/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.53a07d3aa60eWhen is it okay to say the president might be nuts?
By Jennifer Rubin May 2 at 9:00 AM
snip//
Is Trump nuts, ill-informed or a liar or all three?
Until now, people who could have shed light on a presidents mental state were professionally hindered from doing so. The so-called Goldwater Rule named for the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, whom some psychiatrists took to calling crazy because of his foreign policy views admonishes medical professionals not to opine on the mental health of people whom they had not examined. In the context of Trump, however, there has been some buzz about doing away with the rule on the grounds that psychiatrists should be able to give their best medical judgment to warn the public.
Evan Osnos in the New Yorker waded into that debate in a piece questioning whether Trump might be removed under the 25th Amendment:
Like many of his colleagues, Dodes speculates that Trump fits the description of someone with malignant narcissism, which is characterized by grandiosity, a need for admiration, sadism, and a tendency toward unrealistic fantasies. On February 13th, in a letter to the (New York) Times, Dodes and thirty-four other mental-health professionals wrote, We fear that too much is at stake to be silent any longer. In response, Allen Frances, a professor emeritus at Duke University Medical College, who wrote the section on narcissistic personality disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersIV, sought to discourage the public diagnoses. Frances wrote, He may be a world-class narcissist, but this doesnt make him mentally ill, because he does not suffer from the distress and impairment required to diagnose mental disorder. . . . The antidote to a dystopic Trumpean dark age is political, not psychological.
Well, as the letter to the New York Times illustrates, mental health professionals can challenge or defy the Goldwater Rule. Its up to medical associations to enforce professional ethics. We are going to hear a lot more from such people, I suspect, as Trump displays his temperament in high-pressure situations.
There are myriad problems with diagnoses by doctors not treating a patient. We saw during the campaign how unfounded speculation about Hillary Clintons health got out of hand. Supporters and critics of an incumbent president (not to mention psychiatrists) are unlikely to agree. And in any event, it is not clear that a finding that the president is suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder can be used to invoke the 25th Amendment.
There are, however, a few points on which many Americans can agree. First, there is a fundamental difference between calling someone crazy because of his views, for example, on the Vietnam War and questioning someones mental stability based on his behavior, speech and other observable factors. Second, Congress could try to pass a law requiring an annual physical and mental checkup for the commander in chief, although it would have to get past a likely veto. Congress would also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement and tackle the issue of doctor-patient confidentiality. All of that seems a bit much to overcome. Third, in an era when anyone has access to social media, we are going to see professional and unprofessional voices eager to assess a president whose behavior seems out of the ordinary.
From our vantage point, the issue, we think, is not about getting a medical diagnosis. Assessing the presidents mental, temperamental and physical fitness is what voters do. They judge for themselves based on all the evidence they wish to consider (they can look up the DSM-5 for themselves). Its perfectly valid for them to look at Trumps short attention span as well as his lack of coherence, self-control, rationality, steadiness and ability to process information. In 2016, enough voters thought he passed muster. However, in 2020, they will have to make that judgment all over again unless Trump chooses not to run. This time they will have witnessed how he functions, listened to him speak and observed how he makes decisions. They may well conclude that hes too erratic, self-absorbed, dishonest, confused and ignorant to be president. They wont need a doctor to tell them that.
underpants
(182,834 posts)DAYUM
BSdetect
(8,998 posts)There was no victory - lost by 3 million votes.
He was and is unfit to govern.
He is also guilty of treason.
I would suggest he believes he can betray his county to win as he can avoid / suppress / ignore the consequences. Narcissism.
He thinks the law cannot reach him.
Look at his attacks on various judges.
brooklynite
(94,602 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Her horrible journalism is partly responsible for this nincompoop being our president. You have much to atone for, Ms. Rubin.
nolabear
(41,987 posts)And I quote: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
Orrex
(63,216 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,415 posts)Who cares if we have a crazy loon as POTUS whose campaign may very well have colluded with a foreign government to influence an election in a way that favored them? At least, Trump didn't own and operate a private e-mail server while serving as a government official.
It literally KILLS me that, not only was what we are seeing now of Trump was OBVIOUS to most Americans (3 million more Americans than those whom voted for Trump) but despite of that (or maybe even because of it), just enough Americans had absolutely no problems pulling the lever for him, even some people whom had to have known better.
TeamPooka
(24,229 posts)Presidential (Navy I believe) doctors at the White House and Walter Reed.
Give him a full work up then.
Runningdawg
(4,520 posts)that hid the onset of Ronnies Alzheimers from the country?
C_U_L8R
(45,003 posts)I mean, it's not OK
But it's very appropriate when someone as batshit as the self-absorbed one stains the Oval Office carpet.
marybourg
(12,633 posts)NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)What - what? He is our president?
frazzled
(18,402 posts)How many times did you see a Clinton ad or one of her advocates (Obama, Biden, a myriad of others) say "Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president"? About a thousand or more? They weren't talking about policy positions being crazy: they were saying the man is temperamentally unbalanced. And that he was dangerous because of this.
Look, Trump's behavior today is no different than it was during the campaign--or, indeed, what it has been for decades. He would say crazy stuff like my building is 68 stories high when it was objectively verifiable that it is only 58 stories high. He acted unhinged during the debates ("nasty woman" . His knowledge was non-existent but his wacky bluster off the charts high.
Was it the hope that the presidency would change him (which it hasn't) that has brought his craziness up all of a sudden? By now, everyone should understand that it will never change; and it's not something new. Only now he has his finger on the nuclear code.
Thanks, all of you who stayed home or voted for someone else.
Bleacher Creature
(11,257 posts)patricia92243
(12,597 posts)covered up.
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)the living. But who is going to apologize to those that don't live through it for letting a mentally incompetent man make our decisions over war and peace?
spanone
(135,846 posts)it was okay last summer too, but not one 'journalist' had the balls.
hamsterjill
(15,222 posts)Our very lives may (seriously) depend upon it!
The man is obviously not playing with a full deck. Whether that is sheer arrogance and stupidity, or whether that is a legitimate health issue - I do not know. But something isn't right with him and that is very obvious.
malaise
(269,063 posts)while M$Greedia was cashing in
charlyvi
(6,537 posts)we wouldn't be in this pickle. The evidence was plentiful as far back as his Trump Tower escalator ride ion 6-17-15.
Gothmog
(145,332 posts)Retrograde
(10,137 posts)His behavior is getting more erratic and confused by the day.
The best that can be said of Donald now is that he's totally unqualified, out of his depth, and actively undermining the rest of the government with his foreign "policy" stunts.