By Hal Brown, MSW, Retired psychotherapist and mental health center director
Click above to watch the video of the famous court martial scene when Captain Queeg has a parnoid mental breakdown from the 1954 movie The Caine Mutiny. Unless you have a good memory of the scene in the movie to fully appreciate what I am saying could happen you need to watch at least the court martial scene which is considered a classic. I also have included the missing strawberries clip.
Below is the strawberries scene that is refrred to in the court martial and and was, dare I hestitate to write, the final straw(berry) that led to the mutiny:
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| Click above to watch three minute clip |
As the Caine begins its missions in the Pacific under his command, Queeg begins to lose the respect of the crew and the loyalty of the wardroom through a series of increasingly unusual incidents — including running over and severing the cable to a valuable target, which he blames on John Stilwell, the helmsman — that reveal his cowardice, paranoia, and inability to accept responsibility. Queeg becomes increasingly isolated from the other officers, who come to dread his rages and unreasonable demands, which often entail loss of leave privileges and, at one low point, a 48-hour moratorium on drinking water while the ship is sweltering near the equator. Keith realizes that De Vriess was a far more competent, effective, and fair-minded leader, and inwardly grimaces at the irony of his original, naive judgements of both captains. During the following invasion of Kwajalein, Queeg is ordered to escort low-lying landing craft to their line of departure. But instead, Queeg orders the crew to throw over a yellow dye marker to mark the spot, and hastily directs the Caine away from the battle area. The officers nickname him "Old Yellowstain."
Queeg's next act of paranoia begins when over half of a prized container of strawberries is discovered to be empty. He concocts elaborate and time-consuming procedures in which to catch the thief. These occupy all of the officers and crew for long hours and further erode confidence in and respect for the captain. When Queeg's pet theory is finally decisively flouted, he disappears into his cabin, leaving the ship in executive officer Lieutenant Stephen Maryk's hands for days. Wikipedia
It stands to reason that if there's anything would put Trump on the brink of having an actual episode of clinical paranoia, a real psychotic break from reality possibly requiring hospitalization, given his existing psychopathology, it would be the legal jeopardy he is is.
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