The 'Goldwater Rule' be damned: Experts are discussing Trump's mental state.

[LongTomH]

From The Bill Moyers Report: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: Robert Jay Lifton and Bill Moyers on ‘A Duty to Warn’:

There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, the work of 27 psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health experts to assess President Trump’s mental health. They had come together last March at a conference at Yale University to wrestle with two questions. One was on countless minds across the country: “What’s wrong with him?” The second was directed to their own code of ethics: “Does Professional Responsibility Include a Duty to Warn” if they conclude the president to be dangerously unfit?

As mental health professionals, these men and women respect the long-standing “Goldwater rule” which inhibits them from diagnosing public figures whom they have not personally examined. At the same time, as explained by Dr. Bandy X Lee, who teaches law and psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, the rule does not have a countervailing rule that directs what to do when the risk of harm from remaining silent outweighs the damage that could result from speaking about a public figure — “which in this case, could even be the greatest possible harm.” It is an old and difficult moral issue that requires a great exertion of conscience. Their decision: “We respect the rule, we deem it subordinate to the single most important principle that guides our professional conduct: that we hold our responsibility to human life and well-being as paramount.”

.............//snip

Bill Moyers interviewed Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, who wrote the foreword for the book. Dr. Lifton has studied survivors of Hiroshima and Vietnam veterans, as well as doctors who participated in selecting prisoners for extermination in Nazi death camps.

Bill mentioned 'the Goldwater Rule' near the beginning of the interview and got this response:

Robert Jay Lifton: I don’t think so. I think the Goldwater Rule is a little ambiguous. We adhere to that portion of the Goldwater Rule that says we don’t see ourselves as making a definitive diagnosis in a formal way and we don’t believe that should be done, except by hands-on interviewing and studying of a person. But we take issue with the idea that therefore we can say nothing about Trump or any other public figure. We have a perfect right to offer our opinion, and that’s where “duty to warn” comes in.

Moyers: Duty to warn?

Lifton: We have a duty to warn on an individual basis if we are treating someone who may be dangerous to herself or to others — a duty to warn people who are in danger from that person. We feel it’s our duty to warn the country about the danger of this president. If we think we have learned something about Donald Trump and his psychology that is dangerous to the country, yes, we have an obligation to say so. That’s why Judith Herman and I wrote our letter to The New York Times. We argue that Trump’s difficult relationship to reality and his inability to respond in an evenhanded way to a crisis renders him unfit to be president, and we asked our elected representative to take steps to remove him from the presidency.

The dangers of the media 'normalizing' Trump's behavior is often mentioned; Dr. Lifton expresses the concern that Democrats may be 'normalizing' Trump's behavior by making deals with him. The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump is due to be published Oct. 3. Look for it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or at your local library.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. K&R. This is important to read, discuss and think about. n/t

[moriah]

2. Lifton is saying this? Holy Fucking Shit.

I really admire that man, his work is extremely well researched.

He's not a crackpot and people are going to have a hard time claiming he is.

[Control-Z]

3. Please, request a meeting with democratic leaders.

And tell them.

"The dangers of the media 'normalizing' Trump's behavior is often mentioned; Dr. Lifton expresses the concern that Democrats may be 'normalizing' Trump's behavior by making deals with him."

[LongTomH]

4. When the book is published in October, we need to talk it up with anyone who will listen.

That includes Democratic leaders.

By the way, do you know anyone from your state on the Democratic National Committee? I know someone from Kansas City who successfully ran for a DNC seat.

[True_Blue]

5. K&R

Our lawmakers need to do their job and get him out of there.