By Stephen
D Foster Jr ·
Mental health
professionals will now be allowed to openly diagnose Donald Trump.
For the first time since 1973, a rule that
prevents mental health professionals from publicly giving their expert opinion
on the mental health of a public figure will no longer be
enforced by the
American Psychoanalytical Association.
The rule was put in place after Barry Goldwater sued Fact
Magazine for publishing a poll in which a majority of psychiatrists declared
him mentally unfit to be president. Goldwater would go on to lose the
presidential election of 1964.
But ever since Trump declared his candidacy and began saying and
doing insane things in public, many psychiatrists have openly defied the rule
in order to inform Americans on his mental state.
“Trump’s hypersensitivity and unedited, untempered Pavlovian responses are, shall we say, unusual in both ferocity and predictability. This is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value — indeed exists — only insofar as it sustains and inflates him.”
In addition, Dr. Drew Pinsky also expressed concerns about
Trump’s mental health.
“The question, though, is, are some of the reckless qualities that everyone is getting so disturbed about on the campaign going to be translated into office should he get elected? That’s a pretty hard thing to predict. I don’t know if this is just somebody playing politics, or is this somebody who really can’t contain their impulses? When I hear people that are impulsive with their speech, I worry about hypomania and bipolar types of conditions.”
At the time, psychiatrists were warned to avoid diagnosing Trump
without personally examining him first. But that has all changed.
Six months into Trump’s presidency, the American
Psychoanalytical Association has given permission to their 3,500 members to do
just that.
And you can bet Trump’s head is going to explode.
Former APA president Dr. Prudence Gourguechon explained the
decision to STAT News.
“We don’t want to prohibit our members from using their knowledge responsibly…since Trump’s behavior is so different from anything we’ve seen before,”
Indeed, Americans need this knowledge now more than ever before
as Trump continues to lash out at anyone who criticizes him and is even
starting to throw members of his own administration under the bus.
His emotions and behavior are so unpredictable that it is
understandable that people would worry, especially considering that Trump has
access to nuclear weapons.
It’s time for Americans and Congress to demand Trump undergo a
mental health exam by a board-certified psychiatrist to see whether it’s time
to invoke the 25th Amendment because Trump is unfit to serve.
It’s time to make America sane again.