You don't have to be another Hitler to be Hitlerian, by Hal M. Brown Trump's agenda is Hitler without death camps and starting a war that would kill 75 million.

Today Sabrina Haake wrote Contempt of Court (here).

She references Hitler twice:

Bukele’s ‘States of Exception’ are the legal cover he employs to silence his critics and send people to concentration camps with no legal process. States of Exception were also Hitler’s initial cover for controlling the media, dispatching SS henchmen, and sending millions of innocent people to unthinkable deaths.

Like Bukele, Hitler, and other autocrats throughout history, Trump is also fond of declaring “national emergencies,” which are precursors to states of exceptions. After only three months in office, Trump has already declared six new national emergenciesranging from the “US border emergency” to a “National Energy Emergency,” to a national emergency designating “Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

For my own Substack today I am expanding on what I posted as a comment to her Substack:

For some time people like Sabrina and me have not been reluctant to compare Trump, and people like Bukele, to Hitler when appropriate. Others with a public forum treat mentioning his name like uttering the name of the evl Voldemort. Only Harry Porter dared to do this. When Trump does something Hitlerian and we point this out we do so knowing full well that to say that this does not diminish the worst in history genocide and a war that killed some 75 million people. One doesn't have to be literally a modern day Hitler to be Hitlerian which is defined as "relating to or characteristic of Hitler or the policies of the Nazi party."

Wiki defines blitzkrieg as follows:

Blitzkrieg is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack, using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with artillery, air assault, and close air support. The intent is to break through an opponent's lines of defense, dislocate the defenders, confuse the enemy by making it difficult to respond to the continuously changing front, and defeat them in a decisive Vernichtungsschlacht: a battle of annihilation.

Ironically, considering the failed Russian attempt to defeat Ukraine in their own blitzkrieg, this is the photo Wiki used as their illustration:

The German bliztkrieg began in 1939 and had achieved the Nazi goal of conquering Europe by 1941. It included the invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.

Trump, in a matter of months, has been engaged in his own blitzkrieg to achieve the Hitlerian end of turning the country into his dictatorship where the rule of law is what he says it is.

Trump is engaged in a juggernaut to cement his power. A juggernaut, in current English usage, is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable. (Wiki). (The word may sound German but it is really an English version of Jagannath, an important deity in the Hindu traditions of eastern and north-eastern India. The meaning originates from the Hindu temple cars.)

Trump has decided to flex his 78 year old golf tournament winning muscles by coming up with things to attack that have little if anything to do with achieving his ultimate goal. Chief among them are the entire DOGE agenda and his trying to wipe DEI from the country. Neither of these needed to be done to become ruler of an authoritarian country. But, back to Hitler, I wonder if the Nazis needed to exterminate the Jews to take over Europe.

What that seems to add up to is my concluding, not as an historian, but as a psychotherapist, that ruthless dictators are a strange breed with both quirks and psychopathology that may differ from one to another. For example, I doubt Hitler ever had anything like a Trump Cabinet meeting, with cameras rolling, going around the room having everyone praise him effusively. I haven’t read anything about Hitler being a grandiose narcissist needing to be effusively praised by his subordinates. He was, however, ruthless in using the force of arms to achieve his goals.

Trump’s armed troops don’t enforce his dictates by rumbling down the streets in tanks. Instead they drive up in black SUVs and his ICE version of the SS are just as intimidating as the Waffin SS were.

Imagine ICE officers like the SS troops below standing on your street and wondering which of your neighbors they were coming to take away, or whether it might by you.

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Am I the only anti-Trump shrink who thinks Trump may not have dementia? He may. But he may not. By Hal M. Brown, MSW I was a psychotherapist for 40 years but didn't learn about dementia until I moved to a senior community and saw it in dozens of residents.

 

Sometimes Occam’s razor can have two sides. When it comes to Trump’a increasingly bizarre behavior there are two, not necessarily mutually exclusive, simple explanations. His behavior is certainly consistent with his psychodamics, but how much of it is influenced by dementia? There are those who have jumped on a bandwagon of looking for evidence that he has dementia. They certainly have found it. However, there are other simple explanations for his unhinged behavior. 

This morning Sabrina Haake wrote this in her Substack “Trade chaos wuth a side of dementia”:

Last year we had articles with titles like 'Without any doubt': Experts say Trump shows 'staggering' signs of 'cognitive diminishment' . They didn’t leave any room for doubt. I had my doubts then and despite a chorus of people, some self-described experts and lay people, saying Trump has dementia I am have my doubts.

I am posting this as counterpoint to Sabrina Haake’s Substack and to the argument of Dr. John D. Gartner, founder of Duty to Warn, who she uses an expert source. Gartner, Wiki tells us, specialized in the treatment of borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder and depression. Haake’s other expert source is psychologist Suzanne Lachmann who wrote in Newsweek “Donald Trump Dementia Evidence 'Overwhelming.” Dr. Lachmann, per her website, works with adults and late adolescent patients with conflicts including relationship issues, trauma, struggles with self-esteem, body image, trust, depression and anxiety.

In my practice I worked with adults with a variety of common psychiatric disorders, but have had experience working with those with complex dissociative disorder (multiple personality disorder) and Vietnam combat vets with PTSD. I never treated anyone with dementia, though (as noted below) I did correctly diagnose two patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

I wrote the following on Jan. 3rd, 2025. I have not significantly changed my opinion. 

Most mental health professionals who are saying this are not neurologists, let alone neurologists who specialize in dementia. 
Many mental health professionals are absolutely, positively convinced Trump has dementia. I seem like a lone voice among them saying we need more evidence.

I am not an expert, but because I live in a continuing care retirement community I have seen a lot of people with dementia in all stages.

In my training there was no mention of considering dementia in making a differential diagnosis. In my 40 years of practice I never treated anyone with dementia. I did, however, have three clients who I thought had temporal lobe epilepsy which I knew about having read the book “Seized” by Eve LaPlante. I referred them to a behavioral neurologist who did sleep deprived EEGs with them and it turned out two of the three did have this disorder. When I began practice nobody was conversant about another brain disorder, the autism spectrum. My point is that mental health professionals must be aware that there are sometimes physiological and neurological explanations for behavior. This certainly applies to trying to discern explanations for what seems to be aberrant behavior in Trump. The unanswered question is whether is this behavior psychological, physiological, or a combinaiton of the two.

I have seen the photos and illustrations of Trump’s leaning forward posture countless times as if this was absolute proof of dementia. Lots of people his age stand that way at times.

His word salad could be an indication of mania, not dementia, or it could be, as he claims, a kind of improv which he calls the weave.

Many mental health professionals are digging in on the Trump dementia position. I think this is, in a way, wishful thinking couched in science.

We, meaning shrinks, have all the evidence we need to say Trump is a malignant narcissist, but then perhaps desperate to find more to justify saying Trump is unfit, they added dementia to bolster the argument that he was dangerous. I think mental health professionals need to be more self-critical and open minded in our judgments and not succumb to confirmation bias. It is easy to cherry pick from all the evidence when there’s so much Trump, Trump, Trump just about every hour of the day.

Is anybody keeping track of every bit of Trump’s behavior to find indications that he doesn’t have dementia?

We have ample examples of Trump going on for one or two hours without exhibiting any unambiguous signs of dementia. Much of his extemporaneous sidetracking can just as easily be considered a manifestation of his malignant narcissism as of dementia.

There’s currently a Change.org petition online “Our Diagnostic Impression of Trump is Probable Dementia: For Licensed Professionals Only.”

The petition begins:

We, the undersigned licensed medical and mental health professionals (INCLUDE YOUR ADVANCED DEGREE IN YOUR LAST NAME WITH NO PUNCTUATION) concur: From our years of training and experience, we are convinced that, while a definitive diagnosis would require further testing, Donald Trump is showing unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia, based on his public behavior and informant reports that show progressive deterioration in memory, thinking, ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills.

I highlighted the part that jumps out at me. First, the “years of training and experience” should apply to those who were in fields like neurology, particularly behavioral neurology, and neurosciense. It is true that a definitive diagnosis would require testing, however the use of the word “unmistakable” along with “strongly suggesting” shows a bias. Leave that word out and I can accept this sentence.

The petition then goes on to list diagnostic indices in these categories:

1) Decline from baseline

2) Memory:

3) Language

4) Motor:

5) Behavior:

The list reads like someone went over a text on dementia and then found things in Trump’s behavior and managed to make a case that he had this disorder. It wasn’t that long ago that splotches seen on Trump’s hands during the E. Jean Carroll led to rampant speculation that he had syphillis. Even before that the syphillis theory was in the news and no social media. This was from 2017: Trump’s ‘Unhinged’ Behavior Could Be Due To ‘Untreated Syphilis,’ Expert Claims. There is a reasonably good case to be made that Trump might be suffering from some stage of dementia. However, reasonably good isn’t good enough as far as I am concerned.

 

I think the list lacks the scientific rigor necessary to reach a foregone conclusion. This being said, I agree with the conclusion whether or not he has dementia:

This represents a unique danger because of Trump’s pre-existing Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. As he continues to deteriorate he will become even more erratic, impulsive, paranoid, and aggressive than he already is. A demented malignant narcissist as president of the United States would have unimaginably catastrophic consequences.

Not only is Trump unfit, but he cognitively incapable of carrying out the duties of president. Under normal circumstances, relatives of such a patient would be seeking consultation with experts, and considering long term care, as he continues to deteriorate.

We feel an ethical obligation to warn the public, and urge the media to cover this national emergency.

The media must report objectively on anything that suggests Trump may have a cognitive impairment and bring in true experts from the appropriate fields. We can’t allow another Goldwater Rule fiasco to occur. When there were obvious examples of his being a malignant narcissist and mental health professionals spoke up about this they were debunked by many and accused of breaking some sacrosanct professional rule. 
Anti-Trumpers who make the news warning about the dangers of Trump wielding the power of the presidency have been accused of having a psychiatric disorder the name of which has been used to discredit them. You know what it is: Trump derangement syndrome. We must not feed into this narrative.
When mental health professionals go public about the possiblity that Trump has dementia they must do this by emphasizing that this is a possiblity not a certainty. They must write or speak with gravitas and always allow for the chance that they are wrong. 
Time will be the ultimate decider regarding this since dementia always gets worse. There may come a time during his presidency that his symptoms are so obvious you don’t need to be an expert in dementia to reach this conclusion.
This is when the 25th Amendment becomes a real possibility. Then we will be dealing with J.D. Vance. Nobody has suggested he has dementia.
More of my thoughts on this subject:

If Trump has dementia it might be a kind doctors have never seen. Call it weaveheimers. If not, the weave may be as brilliant as he says it is.

This was in Salon (I’m the clinical social worker in the title): Clinical social worker: “With the Trump Bible, one must consider dementia”

I also wrote I’m not the only mental health professional who says that Trump needs a rigorous neuropsychiatric evaluation to rule out a cognitive illness.

—————————————————

Note:

I was one of the first members of Dr. John Gartner’s Duty to Warn group and an early signatory to his petition to remove Trump (Version One) under the 25th Amendment. This was because Trump clearly met the criteria for being a dangerous malignant narcissist, or as the titles of the books edited by psychiatrist Bandy Lee, indicate, that he was a dangerous case.

Trump, newly empowered, has emerged as an even more dangerous case. He is dangerous to democracy and the established social and legal norms which are the bedrock of our society. He has gone from being an exemplar of the Dark Triad to being one of the Dark Tetrad. This has sadism added to psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism of the Dark Triad. I wrote about this here:

When I look at Trump and try to understand him I do so through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. For example “Trump's tweets are a royal road to his unconscious. As usual Trump was up tweeting last night. Psychoanalysts gain insight into someone's unconscious, and the way their mind works by analyzing their dreams. We look at his tweets.”

Can Trump be showing signs of dementia. Of course this is possible. Can we be sure? I don’t think so. Since dementia always gets worse, if he has it, in time we will see it. 

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.Holy F*cken Sh!t, Sabrina Haake!!!! My comment to you has become most of my Substact today.

In order to understand my title and my entire Substack today you have to read Sabrina Haake’s “Haake Take” today. Yesterday, my friend Sabrina asked me via email how I came up with ideas for my Substacks. I said that generally as I looked over the news an idea I hoped was an original take or perspective popped into my head. This morning the idea came from what she wrote in her Substack. 

 The oligarch takeover is America's tall ships moment 

 She uses a photo of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Tesla’s Elon Musk at Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration for her illustration. She uses them to represent the tall ships. 

 She begins: 

 According to the theory, natives literally couldn’t “see” the ships, because they had no experiential familiarity with them. Quoting from What the Bleep do we know?, a paradigm-shifting take on human perception, native people ignored the huge ships because “their highly filtered perceptions couldn't register what was happening, and they literally failed to see them.” When Captain Cook/Columbus/Magellan sent their men ashore in smaller longboats loaded with guns, the natives registered what they saw and began their futile resistance. 

 She concludes: 

 I have wondered all my adult life how the Germans let Hitler happen. And now, like the man who couldn’t live without knowing how his wife died until he met her same fate in The Vanishing, I know. People didn’t react because most couldn’t see what was happening. Those who could see Hitler--Germany’s tall ships--didn’t believe what they saw. And those who both saw and believed their own eyes thought there would be a sane stopping point. There wasn’t then, and there won’t be now. 

 I used to live a couple of towns over from Plymouth, Mass. and often we went to the harbor where the replica of the Mayflower is moored. We visited Plimoth Patuxet (previously called Plimoth Plantation). I decided to use a painting of the Mayflower, the colonists, and members of the Wampanoag tribe from a Britannica article as my illustration. Read her Substack. 

Then read my slightly edited comment below: 

 Holy Fucken Shit, Sabrina!!!!!! 

 You nailed it in one analogy, one I haven't heard before. Then you segued into a comparison we all have used. The Native Americans couldn't see the tall ships. Even if they were bristling with 50 cal. machine guns, had cruise missile launchers, and the colonists had Marines with M-16 assault rifles, they would have been invisible. 

 I also grew up wondering about how everyday Germans could let Hitler happen. This may have because of being Jewish or just because my father served on a hospital ship in the war. The playbook for what is happening here, now, and may very well happen in a short period of time isn't Mein Kampf or Project 2025. It is in the history books but we don't need to look at them. It is common sense. 

Trump, his minions, and his enablers have already begun their blitzkrieg to turn us into some yet precisely undetermined kind of combination of a cruel dictatorship, a police state, and an oligarchy. Even Trump doesn't know exactly what it will be except that whatever it turns out to be he intends to be the absolute ruler for as long as he lives. 

 Those of us who understand his psychopathology aren't surprised by anything he does. Speaking of tall ships (and those container ships are tall), the latest order to have the military submit a plan for invading Panama, fits with his need to be a saber rattling ruler who strikes fear into everyone he aims his wrath at. Putin invaded Ukraine, Trump wants to invade Greenland and Panama. He's ready to declare war on NATO. 

 Democracy loving Americans protesting won't stop him. He wants to find an excuse to declare martial law to stop them. Court rulings won't stop him. He wants to defy the court proving they are impotent. Outraged Democrats in Congress and the outrage of media critics feed his cruel narcissistic hunger. 

Another Kent State Massacre won't stop him. He's a sadist. Bloodshed in the streets won't stop him. All this adds up to only one hope - aside from his death - to stop this. 

It is for the military to initiate a coup. Last week I thought it could be a what is referred to as "a soft coup." (From Wikipedia) "This is also known as a silent coup, an illegal overthrow of a government. Unlike a classical coup d'état, it is achieved without the use of force or violence." Now I am leaning towards a classical coup. 

This would entail, among other actions, tanks around the White House and the 82nd Airborne landing troops on the lawn. A general would be the acting president. The new administration would hold free and fair elections when the county was stabilized. 

 Additional thought: 

 Our tall ship moment is a combination of two groups of powerful people. One are the oligarchs who we knew had incredible control over our politics, but we did not know how malevolent they were. The other group are Trump, Musk, & Co. We knew they were malevolent, but weren’t sure they were all that malevolent. From what I can tell the oligarchs, with the possible exception of Musk, don’t call many of the shots. 

The shots may literally become real bullet shots since Trump controls the people with guns. It is still metaphorical, but when Trump and Musk say “shoot here” the oligarchs put on their noise suppressors and pretend nobody is getting hurt. 

Sabrina Haake's "take" on Musk and his admitting he uses ketamine prompted me to write today's blog, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

Under the influence of ketamine, by Sabrina Haake

I am an admirer of Sabrina Haake who publishes a SubStack with the eponymous and rhyming title of The Haake Take. Her columns are also published on RawStory, Salon, and elsewhere. She is an attorney specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense.  She  ran unsuccessfully in an Indiana Democratic primary for Congress in 2020.

In the first sentence of her article she refers to this NY Times article from a few days ago:

Her article begins:

Psychedelic drugs hit the news last week just as America’s unelected oligarch started blowing up the government, because, chaos.

She writes the following about Elon Musk:

Musk, whose life is not ending anytime soon, uses ketamine to reduce his “negative chemical states like depression,” and says he uses the drug once every other week “or something like that.”

She goes on further about Musk:

Elon Musk’s judgment is… impaired

Although a budget finally passed yesterday, Musk created deliberate and unnecessary chaos to get there. Musk posted 100+ feverish tweets with misleading or outright false claims to kill the first deal. Among other juvenile rants, he posted, “Just close down the govt until January 20th. Defund everything. We will be fine for 33 days.” He posted in a separate tweet that a federal government shutdown “doesn’t actually shut down critical functions.”

He’s a complete governance idiot, but all Trump the intellectual midget sees is shiny rocket. Trump assumes that since Musk works with technology, Musk is all wise; it's a dangerous assumption any teenage boy might make.

Ketamine, according to doctors who prescribe it, is wildly effective at suppressing fear of death, which is great for patients facing imminent death. But for people like Musk who aren’t facing death, I’m not so sure losing fear of death is a good thing. I’m not sure a giant national defense contractor should have an “alternative perspective” of what death means, because for the rest of us who aren’t on ketamine, death means we’re dead and it’s not a temporary condition.

As a therapist retired after over 40 years in practice, I was pleased when my state of Oregon legalized the use of psilocybin, which is similar to ketamine, for treatment of certain emotional disorders. This is the psychedelic chemical obtained in certain mushrooms. These mushrooms have been used by native tribes where they are called "sacred mushrooms" and used in certain ceremonies. In Oregon there is a protocol for treatment with psilocybin which always includes a trained facilitator. The following is from the State of Oregon Heath website:

Will someone be there to help me during the administration session?

Yes, a licensed facilitator will support you in your journey. The Oregon Psilocybin Services Act ensures that psilocybin services will be non-directive, which means that licensed facilitators will not direct you or psychoanalyze you while you are in an altered state. They will help calm you, make you comfortable, and be present with you through the entire session but will not interfere with your experience unless you need additional support. For example, facilitators are allowed to engage in appropriate touch, such as on the hand or shoulder, and perhaps a hug, but only if that is agreed up on before the administration session. If you have toileting, mobility, assistive device support or interpretation needs, a client-support person may be allowed to be present with you for an administration session, but they would have to be prepared for the administration session by a licensed facilitator to learn about informed consent, the Client Bill of Rights, and how not to interfere with a session while supporting a client with specific accessibility needs.

Musk is taking katamine on his own. This is no surprise given his egotism. However, it also shows to me that he doesn't want anyone privy to his innermost thoughts and feelings. 

As a therapist I can say that one runs a huge risk when they take a psychedelic drug like ketamine, LSD, or psilocybin on their own. 

Those, like myself, who were in college in the 1960s, knew people who did. I didn't use these substances myself but had friends who did. They sometimes told about their so-called "bad trips."  A few ended up in hospital psychiatric units sometimes being treated with major anti-psychotic drugs. When I was doing my clincial internship I saw someone in a psychiatric hosptial who I was barely acquainted with.  He hung out at the student grill and knew some people I knew. He was on Thorazine which was used in those days for such reactions. He had experienced a severe reaction on LSD and was like a zombie because of the medication. 

Musk has revealed his that he is neurodivergent and has Asperger’s syndrome. This is part of the autism spectrum disorder. WebMd tells us that There aren't any drugs approved by the FDA to specifically treat Asperger's or autism spectrum disorders. WebMD tells us that "some medications, though, can help with related symptoms like depression and anxiety." Another website (The Mood Center) says:

 "People with Asperger’s have benefited from ketamine treatments to help with various issues that may have been caused by the difficulty of living with autism. Additionally, there have been reports that ketamine therapy may also improve the primary symptoms of autism."

 

Note the word "treatments" which is used in the section on ketamine assisted psychotherapy. 

Musk isn't, as far as we know, engaged in any kind of psychotherapy. We don't know if he ever had been. I doubt Trump understands that Musk, while apparently not an alcoholic, is using a substance that effects his brain functioning as much as alcohol does, albeit in a very different way.

Addendum:

Here's an article about the differences between katamine and philocybin.

The founder of the Duty to Warn movement, Dr. John D. Gartner, in addition to being one of the top mental health professionals who have warned about the dangerous psychopathology of Donald Trump (since 2017), has taken an interest in psilocybin therapy calling it the enlightenment cure (read article).

Yesterday's blog was also about Elon Musk. 

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