NEW YORK, July 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — In the days leading up to the January 20th presidential inauguration, General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was put on notice that security experts and top officials had a real concern that former President Trump might attempt to forcibly take over the levers of power to keep himself in the Oval Office. In a newly released book by the Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker ("I Alone Can Fix It"), the authors chronicle a period of high alert within the Pentagon."
"The concern among our military leaders comes as no surprise to me and my colleagues," said Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and President of the World Mental Health Coalition (WMHC). For the last four years, Dr. Lee and the Coalition have been warning of the dangers posed by Trump and other authoritarians like him. In a book edited by Lee, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President," and in the Coalition’s subsequent investigation, the following conclusions emerged regarding the former president:
- He acts impulsively and recklessly.
- He lacks a firm grip on reality.
- He is absorbed in self-interest that overrides the national interest.
- He is unable to consider consequences before acting.
- He engages in paranoid reactions.
- He is attracted to violence.
- He displays apparent cognitive and memory difficulties.
However, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) – a private organization whose members comprise a tiny fraction of the mental health professionals in the U.S. – engaged in a misinformation campaign and active sabotage efforts to silence independent professionals and the media about the former president’s frightening temperament.
The APA has disseminated its false contention that mental health professionals cannot speak publicly about a leader’s mental fitness for office. "The simple truth is that the American Psychiatric Association is just plain wrong about the ethics and obligations of mental health professionals regarding speaking up publicly," Dr. Lee said. She added: "the APA itself has admitted that its ethics committee opinions – including its opinion regarding its so-called Goldwater principle – ‘do not represent APA policy.’ Their opinions are just that: opinions. In the words of the APA itself, its opinions are merely ‘perspectives’ that do not bind any psychiatrists or any members of the mental health community. In fact, the entire Goldwater paradigm runs counter to the diagnostic methods in the APA’s own book, known as the DSM."
Dr. Lee is president of the World Mental Health Coalition, whose mission is public education for the promotion of societal health: https://worldmhc.org/our-mission/
Note to the Editor: Recent WMHC Town Hall: "Authoritarian Cults, Media Indoctrination, and Shared Psychosis." https://youtu.be/7nJVBQZBs28
Contact: Dr. Bandy X. Lee
Phone: 917-328- 2492
SOURCE World Mental Health Coalition
