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Mar. 22, 2019
Read comments here Duty to Warn therapists say it, George Conway says it, Morning Joe says it....
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| Link to story on Daily Kos |
Exclusive:
An Open Letter to John D. Gartner, Founder of the Duty to Warn Group and one of the authors in "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" from psychoanalyst Siebolt Frieswyk, PhD.
March 21, 2019
Dear Dr. Gartner,
You know well the dangers that Donald Trump poses that can be framed within the traditions of psychoanalysis. Kernberg’s penetrating discussion of the intersection of antisocial conduct with borderline and narcissistic traits is relevant.
See, Kernberg, O.F. (2007) The Almost Untreatable Narcissistic Patient J. Am. Psychoanal. Assn. 55(2): 503-552.
There he writes, “Patients with borderline personality organization and a narcissistic personality disorder have a more serious prognosis than all other personality disorders functioning at the borderline level...those, who in addition present significant antisocial behavior have an even worse prognosis...This negative trend culminates in a group of practically untreatable patients with antisocial personality disorder, who represent the most severe cases of pathological narcissism.”
Since Kernberg had no illusions nor any hope that remediation is possible for that cohort, we can thus infer there is no hope that Trump will change. Rather, he will continue to present irremediable challenges in his modes of governance.
Retributive vengeance seems to be central in his motivations and conduct so we thus face the continuing chaos he repeatedly generates for which we have no well-planned interventions.
When Trump goes completely off the rails precipitated by the impact of the unfolding nightmare of the Mueller inquiry and its many iterations our Nation will fall into disarray with no resistance from the Republicans.
Click to read article
They and many Americans remain oblivious to the danger Trump poses. Instead, those politicians seem guided with the rare exception by self-serving ambition and so ignore what we actually face amidst the chaos that Trump creates utterly indifferent to our social and communal existence. Our Democratic Party presidential hopefuls seem restrained but aware of these dangers.
Is our democracy not at a tipping point? Should we not with others raise our concerns based on our professional perspectives? What is our ‘duty to warn’?
You, of course with 26 others, did so in THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP with Justin Frank, et.al. There you spoke out powerfully emphasizing his manic self aggrandizing modes.
The question thus to be posed is why does the media ignore those realities not only on FOX but in all other platforms?
To parody a familiar beloved song from MY FAIR LADY whose lyrics were written by Allen J. Kerner, “We’ve become accustomed to his farce. He almost makes our day begin. We’ve grown accustomed to the tune he whistles night and noon, and then...his smiles, his frowns, his ups and downs are second nature to us now like breathing in and breathing out. We were serenely independent and content before we met. Surely we could be that way again and yet...we’ve become accustomed to his looks, accustomed to his voice, accustomed to his face. He’s second nature to us now...”
We have a national folie a deux with national news outlets that take him seriously and a citizenry now oblivious and detached. Can we recover from our shared delusional state or will our doom continue to unfold?
Sincerely, Siebolt Frieswyk PhD
Kansas licensed psychologist, psychoanalyst certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association in 1987, faculty member appointed in 1980 to the Topeka Psychoanalytic Institute now the Greater Kansas City Psychoanalytic Institute, faculty member and program director of inhouse and multistate psychotherapy training programs at Menninger 1968 – 2001, appointed in 2017 to the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences PsyD Program and the Chinese American Psychoanalytic Alliance, published treatments outcome researcher at Menninger and cocreator of the PICIA. See Wikipedia, Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II.
Can Trump Survive Mueller?
Dear Dr. Gartner,
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| Click to read article |
People predict the president will collapse under the stress of the Mueller investigation. But Trump has teetered on the brink before and never succumbed.
Excerpt:
Every flurry of tweets from the president—and last weekend’s two-day grievance bender against late-night comedy and cable news shows was a particularly strong example—begets new pronouncements that Trump is coming unglued from the strain. George Conway, husband of close Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, hauled out the clinical definition of narcissistic personality disorder to make the case that Trump is not only unfit for office but becoming catastrophically worse. And psychiatrists are speaking with dire predictions about the potential for a deranged person with extraordinary powers to create global mayhem and destruction.
“He has very poor coping mechanisms when he is criticized or when he feels humiliated,” Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist from Yale and the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, the second edition of which is out this month, told me, “and at these points he generally goes into attack mode and he threatens others or tries to get revenge. The Mueller report is of a scale that is probably unlike what we have seen him undergo before.”
Worst-case scenario? “Obliterate observing eyes of his humiliation,” Lee said. Meaning? “Destroying the world. That, very quickly, becomes an avenue, a perceived solution … for individuals with his personality structure.”
Everyone, even Trump, has a breaking point. Few people manage to survive overwhelming stress without breaking, even of torture, and ironically John McCain was one of them. Stories of survival of the Holocaust and shipwrecks always tell of people who had great inner resources and rarely use primitive psychological defenses like denial the way Trump does. Other primitive defenses include regression acting out, and dissociation. If these defenses are ineffective some people may have an acute psychotic episode, a complete break with reality.
HB
HB
Trump was wrong (big surprise) the McCain family did thank the Trump administration and White House (just not him personally)
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| . “...are very experienced in these issues related to the logistics of a funeral of this magnitude. And we really thank them for coming together very quickly and pulling together all the federal resources.” |
To quote Joseph Welch to Sen. McCarthy "have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"
Factoids about Joseph Welch whose rhetorical question is seen as the turning point in McCarthyism: He graduated no. 2 in his 1917 Harvard Law class and played a judge in the movie "The Anatomy of a Murder."
It must be noted that McCarthy's chief counsel was Roy Cohn, a man Trump considered a friend and reportedly asked his minions "where's my Roy Cohn" when they failed to stop Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation.
"Britain is in turmoil — but Don Jr. can save the day" is the title of Dana Milbank's OpEd but I like the title on the front page better.
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| I wonder who is reading this in the UAE |
This great thinker is none other than Donald Trump Jr., who most recently distinguished himself with a tweet spelling the initials of “Saturday Night Live” as “S&L.”
Prime Minister Theresa May “ignored advice from my father,” Trump Jr. scolded in an op-ed published by Britain’s right-wing Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday, “and ultimately, a process that should have taken only a few short months has become a years-long stalemate.”
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Trump the Younger went on to inform the land of the Magna Carta, John Locke and Oliver Cromwell that, in his expert view, “democracy in the U.K. is all but dead.”
This intervention by the young American, dubbed “Fredo” by Trump campaign colleagues for frequently displaying a deficit of business acumen and political skill, gives new meaning to the “special relationship” between the United States and Britain. Junior is, well, special.
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Then came Trump Jr.’s death pronouncement for British democracy, the latest intellectual product of an American who likened Muslims to Skittles candy, bungled dealings with Russians, mistook one black member of Congress for another and is known for vulgar, error-laced tweets.
Guardian journalist Peter Walker noted that Trump Jr.’s conspiracy theorist “code words” — “global power brokers,” “deep-state operatives” — belonged in “Infowars rather than a UK newspaper.” British businessman Justin King, on CNBC, raised doubts about Trump Jr.’s “capacity” and said receiving a lecture on governance from this president is “a laugh-out-loud moment.”
On this, at least, Trump Jr. can offer expert advice: how to be ridiculous.
No tweets from Trump about this? Destroying Entire Villages, Cyclone Idai Leaves Africa With An Inland Ocean
"Floodwaters are rushing across the plains of central Mozambique, submerging homes, villages and entire towns. The flooding has created a muddy inland ocean 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide where there used to be farms and villages, giving credence to Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi’s estimate that 1,000 people may have been killed."
Instead, this is what is on the mind of the leader of the free world on Twitter this morning (11 minutes ago)
................After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!
‘He likes to hurt people’: Ex-Trump casino executive explains how the president is ‘sociopathic’
“Not only does he come back strong, but he comes back to try to tug at some emotional piece,” he said. “And I think getting — if he can cause more friction between the Conway family, I think that’s what Trump is trying to do. And it’s very typical of him. He did it to me. He’s done it to others.”
O’Donnell recalled that he did a show at one point and Trump was supposed to be there or have a representative attend. He brought Roger Stone.
“And completely off subject in the middle — he takes off with a character assassination of my father,” O’Donnell said. “Well, you know, that’s what he does to try to get people to react emotionally. And it’s a way of control for him... He also, obviously, planted stories, that I wrote about in my book, where he tried to plant stories about an affair that wasn’t happening, because he knows at that point that even the story, even if it’s not true, you have to go back to your family and explain what’s going on.”
Morning Joe Panel Confirms Belief In Trump’s Mental Illness
EXCERPTS:
Donald Trump May Be Senile, Mentally Ill, Or Both
MSNBC has done us a service today by showing the video of the way Donald Trump used to be. It is not unusual for men like Donald Trump to lose mental acuity and even suffer from progressive dementia as they age.
In June our president will turn 73 years of age, and it is very likely that his mental and physical health will both continue to deteriorate during the rest of his presidential term.
George Conway has had the courage to take on Donald Trump and tell the world through his Twitter account that our president has lost his mind. Even though he is married to a top Trump adviser, Conway has not backed down from a fight with Trump on social media. And most people agree that he has won that fight.
Donald Trump Is Mentally Unfit to Be President
Conway has not slandered Donald Trump because he has told the truth, and truth is a defense to a charge of slander. The truth is that Donald Trump is mentally ill, and is not fit to be the leader of the free world who is in charge of the U.S. nuclear codes.
Donald Trump should be removed from office as soon as possible because he is a threat to the United States and to the entire world.
Mar. 20, 2019 -- Scroll down for select news items of the day.
"Click to enlarge" A new series of homemade pictures with few words by Hal Brown
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Cenk Uygur has an interesting take on George Conway: Kellyanne Conway is Warning People About Trump Through Her Husband
Excerpt:
Uygur presented his view that Mr. Conway’s tweets should really not surprise people since they’re most than likely based on what his wife tells him about her job.
“Mark my words…Kellyanne Conway will claim afterward ‘I was trying to send you guys signals,'” Uygur said. “‘It’s my husband! I went home and told him the guys a lunatic! Tell everybody! It’ll be obvious it’s coming from me!'”
Uygur guessed that Mrs. Conway will eventually use that claim as an “excuse” to sell the idea that she was secretly working from the inside to inform the country about Trump. He also supposed that Kellyanne will refer to her public defenses of Trump as a “comically over-the-top” persona, which she will leverage and then discard so she can land a new job on TV after the White House.
Conservatives Issue a Clarion Call on Trump’s Mental Health - Washington Monthly
Excerpt: The most comprehensive (warning about Trump's deteriorating mental health) comes from Peter Wehner, who served under three Republican presidents and is now a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank. Reacting to some of Trump’s more inflammatory tweets over the weekend, Wehner refers to the president as “a damaged soul with a disordered personality.”
It doesn’t take a person with an advanced degree in psychology to see Trump’s narcissism and lack of empathy, his vindictiveness and pathological lying, his impulsivity and callousness, his inability to be guided by norms, or his shamelessness and dehumanization of those who do not abide his wishes. His condition is getting worse, not better—and there are now fewer people in the administration able to contain the president and act as a check on his worst impulses…Whether the worst scenarios come to pass or not is right now unknowable. But what we do know is that the president is a person who seems to draw energy and purpose from maliciousness and transgressive acts, from creating enmity among people of different races, religions, and backgrounds, and from attacking the weak, the honorable, and even the dead.Donald Trump is not well, and as long as he is president, our nation is not safe.
Mar. 19, 2019
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH COALITION CONFERENCE
The Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership (scroll down for information)
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Note the comments from Victor Ward. He and another person named "Remembering Jello" almost always post rather vicious comments along the same line. Ward got me suspended from Daily Kos for several days claiming a column I wrote about homosociality and unconscious homosexual attractions, was homophobic (related to Trump and his attraction to autocrats like Putin). Victor Ward is a character in the novel Glamorama.
The story that got me suspended: The Term "Homosocial" Describes Autocrat Admiring Misogynist-in-Chief Trump to a "T" Remembering Jello thinks I demean mentally ill people. I no longer respond to their comments.
EXCERPT: This defense of witch hunts isn’t to excuse the long-ago practice of torture-induced confessions and executions of innocent people — often women or those on the margins. But it’s unfair to say, with the benefit of modern scientific knowledge, that earlier cultures were foolish because even the best-educated among them believed magic controlled the unseen, which led them to regulate witchcraft. “If you take that culture on its own terms, they had every right to punish people who were breaking the law,” Rushford argues. “They were saying, ‘Here is a person we believe to have violated the ethical and moral conventions of our society.’ ”
Just as Europeans had laws against witchcraft some 450 years ago, the United States today has laws about cheating on taxes, working for foreign powers, and lying to lenders and civil authorities. Five former Trump advisers have admittedviolating these laws, and a sixth has been charged. That’s half a coven.
As far as we know, Trump hasn’t turned anybody into a newt yet. But the dubious business dealings he has conducted for years and continues to conduct in the White House are a 21st-century form of bad magic. You can’t plausibly complain about a witch hunt if you’re the guy stirring the cauldron.
I'm 75 and assuming I was actually qualified to be president, I would never consider running because of my age. Richard Cohen agrees that they are too old to be president.
EXCERPT: The old seek their own comfort zones. I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden thought Snapchat was a breakfast cereal. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sanders thought Drake was the English pirate who defeated the Spanish Armada. (How’s that for being an influencer?) It’s fine not to know about these things, but it suggests an unfamiliarity with a world that is ever-changing. The zeitgeist is forever on the move. When you’re over 70, it may well have passed you by.
Of course, a president need not be intimately familiar with youth culture. But he ought to feel at home in the world and feel that the culture is his, that he need not have to pause to translate a thought into politically acceptable language. I don’t know if either Biden or Sanders feels that way, but if they don’t occasionally hanker for a Beatles tune, they already lack all memory.
Most presidents were in their 50s when elected — mere youths by today’s standards. Most lived many years after leaving office. (Jimmy Carter, at 94, has been out of office for 38 years, a record.) John F. Kennedy was the youngest ever elected at 43, and Trump the oldest to be elected to a first term at 70. The rule here is that there is no rule.
Still, “September Song” has to precede “Hail to the Chief.” It is the lament of an old man for a young woman. It is about the passage of time, about how “the days dwindle down to a precious few.” It is about lost opportunities, about summer turning to autumn, and “one hasn’t got time for the waiting game.”
Biden and Sanders have waited too long. A pledge to serve only a single term would not reverse the clock. It would only hobble the president, making him a lame duck before his time. Of course, the ultimate decision is their own, but they have to know they will probably decline. If they don’t think so, they have gotten old without getting wise.
Mar. 18, 2019
I don't have any illusions that Lawrence O'Donnell's producer
is going to call me to be on his show, or Chauncey DeVega wiil
ask me to be interviewed for Salon; but at least knowing that
anyone interested in this specific topic will find my story.
It makes it worth the time and effort put into writing these pieces.
is going to call me to be on his show, or Chauncey DeVega wiil
ask me to be interviewed for Salon; but at least knowing that
anyone interested in this specific topic will find my story.
It makes it worth the time and effort put into writing these pieces.
Scroll down for more about the news of the day starting with anti-Trump Republican Jennifer Rubin's OPED in The Washington Post.
The Trump tweets from this weekend and this morning are being discussed as a crisis level event on MSNBC, they say it can only be viewed as a psychological breakdown. They are using terms like "Trump is in a full-blown panic." Unfortunately, none of the Duty to Warn mental health group is on the MSNBC panel to explain exactly how dangerously close to becoming dangerous and impulsively irrational.
Below: A picture is worth 1000 words, "New York may sink the SS Trump."
It took longer for me to make this than it generally does for me to write 1000 words.
This is on Daily Kos here.
It took longer for me to make this than it generally does for me to write 1000 words.
This is on Daily Kos here.
The yacht used to be the Trump Princess.
Here are a few of the steps used to construct this image.
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Excerpts: Whether meant seriously or not, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s alleged consideration of the 25th Amendment seems, in retrospect, not to have been irrational at all. Since President Trump’s firing of James B. Comey as FBI director and the appointment of a special counsel, Trump’s mental and emotional health has seemed to fray. The pace of lies and nonsensical accusations, the resort to conspiracy theories and refusal to conduct himself like an adult (let alone the president) often pick up in the wake of bad news from the special counsel and widespread criticism of the president’s unhinged behavior. So it was this weekend following his refusal to directly condemn white nationalism in the wake of the New Zealand massacre and the defection of 12 Senate Republicans last week on the resolution repealing the emergency declaration.
At any rate, Trump’s manic tweeting and wild accusations have George Conway, husband of presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway, convinced that “his condition is getting worse.” ...... There is no moral or intellectual reason that will persuade them (Republicans still supporting Trump). There is no respectful conversation to be had with people who argue in bad faith. The only solution is to defeat Trump and his party so thoroughly that Trumpism is permanently discredited. A party that continues to defend this president is simply beyond redemption.
This is from another Republican who is even more conservative than Jennifer Rubin.
Chris Cillizza calls today "Donald Trump's craziest day ever on Twitter" but it is time to stop using euphemisms because in Trump's case "crazy" means certifiable. Not only that, CNN could have made an appropriate image with a free DonkeyHotey caricature like this.
Mar. 17, 2019
Trump’s on one of his famous Twitter tears. That’s how we know bad news is coming
Mar. 16, 2019
Mar. 15, 2015
Evening Edition
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| His facial expression says it all. |
New Zealand’s prime minister asked Trump to do this one thing after the mosque attack — but he completely failed
In recounting her conversation with Trump, she said: “He very much wished for his condolences to be passed on to New Zealand.”
She continued: “He asked what support the U.S. could provide. My message was sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.” When asked what his response was, she said, “He acknowledged that and agreed.”
But despite agreeing to the request on the phone, Trump didn’t follow through. When Trump held a public event on Friday in the Oval Office and addressed the devastating attack, he was seemingly unable to share the “love” and “sympathy” for all Muslim communities that Ardern had requested.
Morning Edition:
First I made this image for my friends who live in New Zealand. Then I decided to write this story for Daily Kos:
Trump’s Biker Threat Tweet Deleted After Mosque Massacre
Oops. Trump threatened biker violence against leftists, then deleted the tweet after the New Zealand mosque massacre manifesto praised him as a ‘symbol of renewed white identity.’
Oops. Trump threatened biker violence against leftists, then deleted the tweet after the New Zealand mosque massacre manifesto praised him as a ‘symbol of renewed white identity.’
With other breaking news, this from N. Korea is flying under the radar, so to speak:
North Korea just threatened to end talks with US and restart weapons testing
Critics accuse U.S. government of aligning with ‘bad actors,’ ‘bullying’ vulnerable nations. The effort is being led by Valerie Huber, a top official at the Department of Health and Human Services who founded an abstinence-only sex education group before joining the government. She and other U.S. officials have traveled the world inviting other nations to join the cause.
Back to March 10, 2019
