Roughly 3-dozen mental health professionals, most with a Ph.D, have signed an open letter declaring The Donald mentally unfit for the presidency.
To the Editor:
Charles M. Blow (column, nytimes.com, Feb. 9) describes Donald Trump’s constant need “to grind the opposition underfoot.” As mental health professionals, we share Mr. Blow’s concern.
Silence from the country’s mental health organizations has been due to a self-imposed dictum about evaluating public figures (the American Psychiatric Association’s 1973 Goldwater Rule). But this silence has resulted in a failure to lend our expertise to worried journalists and members of Congress at this critical time. We fear that too much is at stake to be silent any longer.
Mr. Trump’s speech and actions demonstrate an inability to tolerate views different from his own, leading to rage reactions. His words and behavior suggest a profound inability to empathize. Individuals with these traits distort reality to suit their psychological state, attacking facts and those who convey them (journalists, scientists).
In a powerful leader, these attacks are likely to increase, as his personal myth of greatness appears to be confirmed. We believe that the grave emotional instability indicated by Mr. Trump’s speech and actions makes him incapable of serving safely as president.
Well.
Since I’ve been saying for a while now that Trump’s erratic behavior raises a legitimate question of mental stability, the conclusions of this letter surprise me less than the bald fact that it was written (generally, mental health professionals don’t, and shouldn’t, publicly comment on the mental health of public figures).
But, then, the president has access to nuclear weapons, and the Republicans in Congress have shamelessly whored themselves to him; practically, there is no brake on Trump but the vagaries of public opinion, the media which have no actual power, and easily-ignored courts. Good for them, then — and to the New York Times for providing a venue — for saying plainly what is surely being whispered around Washington, D.C.: There is something wrong with the man.