Or a newly created position like Undersecretary for Stochastic Terrorism, or for Violence Prevention. Let’s let her name her own title and job description1
We need a task force to regulate Socical Media. These are mononpolies. These monopolies do more than stiffle competition and innovation. Their commercial algorythms are radicalization acclerators, increase inequality, affect the well being of teens and young adults, increase incidence of depression, isolation, and suicide.
Yes, I have been alerting folks to the 9/27 all-day Conference on Professor Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American ( LFAA ) & Professor Joyce Vance's, Civil Discourse.
Kamala Harris' debate performance was a masterclass in the art of political communication, seamlessly blending psychology and policy in a manner that left a lasting impression. In two-minute increments, she managed to articulate complex policies with clarity, while using her facial expressions to convey confidence, empathy, and authority, even when the microphone was muted. This non-verbal communication became an essential part of her strategy, allowing her to react to her opponent’s statements in real-time, offering subtle rebuttals and support to her own positions without uttering a word.
Her ability to harness both the emotional and intellectual aspects of debate not only resonated with viewers but also elevated her performance into the historical canon of debates. Like the iconic Nixon-Kennedy debates, where body language and poise played pivotal roles, Harris' mastery over both content and presentation ensured her place in debate history. She demonstrated not just a command of policy but also an understanding of human psychology, knowing when to lean in, when to pause, and when to let her expressions do the talking. Her debate will undoubtedly be studied for years to come as a shining example of how to merge policy prowess with psychological insight in a political arena.
Finally, after a decade of centering Trump and the explosion of MAGA followers, it feels like people are hearing your message. VP Harris was 'meant to be'. If all of us were on Earth 1, she and Walz would win in a landslide. I try to fast forward from polls because they mislead and are a snapshot in time. But, the idea that they are so close means that after Trump toxic spread of hate is seeded with generations of families whose young children only know a world with loss, rage and grief. I pray that we are moving in the direction of a kindness and hope and away from cruelty and hate.
I can't emphasize enough, get involved in your local elections. Go to mobilize.us to find events near you. It's not necessary that you've been involved before. It's been said before, but has not carried the weight of this moment in time. "If not now, when?" If you're on the fence, write down a list of people, pets or causes in your life for whom you love and care about. Then look at Project 2025. There is a toxic plan for everyone of those you love and care about. Education, Economy, Women's and Public Health, Environment, Wildlife and so on. Go to KamalaHarris.com and look at detailed proposals that the Harris campaign has laid out and contrast them with Project 2025/Agenda 47. WE'RE NOT GOING BACK!
Great note Susan. It was interesting listening to "undecided" voter's criticism of VP Harris' debate - "we need more details of what she plans to do" "I'm not really sure what her plan is" "I'm not sure if I can trust her to do the job" and a variety of other inane comments that had me practically yelling at the TV. As you point out, all they have to do is to go to her website to find the "details". Unfortunately, the fact that 70 million Americans voted for Trump in 2020, and may vote for him again, points to something far more serious, something that Dr Lee has pointed out for 9 years. If only they would pay attention and listen.
Thank you. Calling it "inane" would be kind and generous. I like your mentioning just to go to the website for any details--that solution to their supposed wondering is so simple. Those supposedly undecided people I think are just spouting talking points they've heard somewhere. Overlooking Trump's abnormal behavior (and no coherent policies at all) by directing attention to Kamala reminds me of the comeback: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Undecided voters, in my opinion, at this point are not undecided. I can’t know what thousands or even millions of ‘undecided’ voters are thinking, but I can’t help but think a broad swath of them are undecided because they are mysogynistic, entitled, racist, xenophobic, attention seeking in a world of being seen on camera or don’t think critically. I recognize my comment is judgmental, but damn!
My husband and I were just watching Chris Hayes who is doing a piece on the increasing public self promotion of neonazis, specifically Lora Loomer. If Troy don’t know who she is, LL is 10x’s more vile and dangerous than Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and
MJT combined (of course they are all vile). Laura Loomer used her social influence platform to accost immigrants crossing the Darien Gap, the most dangerous and deadly passage of immigrants in the world in Central America and ask them their thoughts on DJT. She is mocking them. She attended the 9/11 Remembrance with DJT and is an openly 9/11 conspiracy theorist. And yesterday, on her platform she practically bullhorned followers to hurt/injure/go after Haitians in Ohio or anywhere.
I recognize that many ppl are not paying as much attention to politics but even if you aren’t when does undecided move to decided? A man who said “I grab them by the p***y”, who took out a full page ad against innocent black men, a man who mostly calls black women “nasty”, (I believe it’s his code word for the N word), who spews hate and darkness, whose responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans from COVID against hate, xenophobia, whose need to control women and their bodies is pathological and a party that consciously knows the only way to have power in this country is by stealing an election.
I have no patience with undecided voters at this point.
Agree absolutely. I don't know why anyone with a working brain cell would think that a so-called "debate" would be the place to find the fine points of a policy.
It is important—sometimes existentially important—to treat the symptoms of a disease. But it is also important to keep in mind that the symptom is not the disease. Ideally, the disease is cured, and then its symptoms disappear.
Donald Trump is one symptom of the disease that Dr. Lee has appropriately named Trump contagion. “The authoritarian impulse” might also be an appropriate term. And Dr. Lee is correct in saying that in two months, this debate could easily be forgotten in the public’s mind. Such an outcome would be yet another symptom of the disease.
On my own, being a layperson, I could not see what mental health experts and skilled prosecutors saw on January 6, 2021. They see the depth of Trump’s disturbances, the fragility of his psychology, and the degree of his inability to tolerate reality due to the combined effect of natural talent and deliberate practice, and I don’t have either.
However, when I watched the June 27 presidential debate, I saw one candidate appear to be physically unhealthy and emotionally healthy, and a second candidate who was physically healthy and emotionally unhealthy. For me, Joe Biden won decisively.
I do not have a profound understanding of criminal psychology. But only the normal (emotionally healthy) candidate has any chance of earning my support. And I am not alone. A significant minority of people are immunized against Trump contagion. Many of us from childhood.
Thank God for experts like Dr. Lee and Kamala Harris. But God helps those who help themselves. To be more specific, we need experts who know how to treat the symptoms, and we need to look ourselves in the mirror to cure the disease. As a famous psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, put it, “When we are no longer able to challenge a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
In last week's Zoom meeting, I spoke about the 1st scientific principle. To reiterate and clarify, the principle is a healthy mindset that is always optimistic without ever being naïve about the possibility that any conflict between any two individuals or groups will be resolved. Long story short, no one teaches that principle explicitly. It is learned by chance by people who follow people who set a good example, and it is not learned by chance when people follow people who set a bad example.
When a child receives an elementary school graduation certificate, there is an expectation that the child has been explicitly taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. My vision of the future is one in which the child has also been explicitly taught the 1st scientific principle. Then a significant majority of children will behave accordingly, and not just by chance. My testable-in-advance hypothesis is that achieving that vision cures the disease.
Excellent. Thank you , again, Dr. Lee. I needed that boost. I'd literally just got into an argument over the phone with my sister who is in a circle of people who want Trump. We usually avoid the topic, but somehow we slid into it. It is indeed very frustrating, as well as awkward because she is among the moneyed people who will do anything they can to protect it, even at the expense of the rest of us. When she asked what I thought of Kamala Harris, I called Harris a savior, as anybody normal would be who opposed Trump. I should have thought of saying something about the choice between a career prosecutor and a convicted felon. But I realize when off the phone now and having read what Dr. Lee wrote that my sister and all the people in her group are stuck there, gripping each others' hands as they pull each other over a cliff. I just don't want the rest of us pulled along with them. I told her now what I'm thinking of telling those stuck people, that I wouldn't ever want someone like Trump to cross her path in her personal life because he's that dangerous. There's my attempt at going higher. The other way is vote Blue!!
Thank you for this. The normalization of him has gone on a decade too long. Harris did us all a solid when she exposed him and wounded his narcissistic personality.
Can you inform us about the issues & obvious differences between "Gun Psychopathy" and "Gun Ownership" and how this plays into the nonstop horrific school & mass shootings in this country? "Gun Ownership" could be defined as: strict laws for licensing, vetting, psychological fitness testing, training, spot-checking, vetting for Domestic Violence/Abuse family issues/charges, etc. for the purposes of self-protection; safety; food supply, target practice. "Gun Psychopathy" could be defined as: the abnormal male fixation, worship or compulsion for male dominance to power over/control/dominate others via killing a living animal/human (not for the purposes of food supply, self-protection, safety, etc.) but is strictly for the toxic masculine compulsion to "power over another" -- the savage gratification it gives the toxic male psyche including the "excitement to kill" -- which is the ultimate act of dominance, power & control in the toxic male mind. Does "intergenerational hunting" overlap this issue? Those who hunt for "fun & sport" need to be looked at under some Neuro-Imaging to detect what is going on with this blood lust worshiping of killing/controlling/dominating animals. Start with the Billionaires Boys Clubs Big Game Hunters.... Some say family members will merely disguise this blood lust as "a family tradition." And if that's the case we need to dig deep with all the tools psychiatry has, including Neuro-Imaging... School shootings & mass shootings all begin with the primary dysfunctional organ: the human brain... And there is no "Freedom" in having to hide in a closet after learning the alphabet in a kindergarten... A multi-factoral complex issue that's really hiding in plain sight: "The Psychopathy of Toxic Masculinity in Today's Society"
I agree with this, Jas...Trump, Orban, Putin, et.al. are examples of men whose humanity was gutted in childhood, whose tenderness was ridiculed out of them by 3 or 5 years old. Then they were stuffed with grandiosity and inducted into a culture of cruelty where there's a taboo on tenderness and the most brutal, unfeeling guy is idealized. These gendered dynamics have shaped our world for 5-10 thousand years and the world we're living in right now is replete with horrifying wars and men everywhere competing to be Lord of the Flies, not able to care about the destruction they're causing. Kamala and Tim offer a completely different paradigm. In their world, men and women can be partners. Both men and women can be nurturing. Men can love one another without shame; the taboo on tenderness is lifted; and boys don't have to be turned into tough little robots, prepared to kill for whichever male ruler requires them to do so. Those are two very different worlds, shaped by opposing values...the dominator vs. the partnership model of relationship. (Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade)
The United States is now 248 years old. Do you know what cycle lasts for 248 yrs? The cycle of Pluto around the Sun is 248 yrs. What does that mean? Pluto, Hades is the Lord of the Underworld in the Roman and Greek pantheons. Pluto represents death, corruption, rape, power over, poison, transmutation, and destruction. The United States is in death throes, awaiting rebirth, which comes in Nov 2024.
By rebirth, I'm assuming and hoping you mean with Ms. Harris's victorious election in Nov 2024. Trump's literal mantra is the country is in ruin and needs him to save it.
The public has a hard time identifying Trump Contagion/Psychoses because he excites and amplifies the perennial human battle between power and truth that each of us has to resolve in our maturing process. Harris is an excellent example of someone who has successfully identified and fought the battle between the love of truth or love of power within herself, thereby serving as an antidote to Trump Contagion for the country.
Representative democracy is based on the organizing principal that voters temporarily give someone authority to lead them with good-faith insight and respect for truth. Autocracy is based on the organizing principal of someone permanently seizing power for themselves. The former requires love of truth and the latter requires love of power.
It's startling to see how Trump attracted reporters and observers in the spin room after the debate--like moths to flame. What is his attraction? He excites our Egoic delusional desire to seize absolute power. His pathology mesmerizes the human lust for power.
If the balance between truth and power is as old as the hills, how is it the public is so bad at identifying Trump Contagion/Psychosis? Ego is not a Freudian psychological concept giving equal power between a triumvirate of ego, superego and id. Ego is the unconscious/subconscious focus in ourselves, a developmental organ, that sees human experience solely in terms of itself.
The autocratic drive of Ego helps children form into unique adults, but to mature most learn we must identify, sideline, see-through, and tame our own Ego if we are to be constructive parts of society. Those who have not identified and tamed Ego find Trump fascinating; those who have tamed Ego find him emotionally and mentally weak, pitiable, and dangerous.
Trump's pathology is the extreme way he exerts his Ego without the slightest regard for truth. Respect for truth requires resolving the battle between truth and power in ourselves.
Our society is vulnerable to demagogues like Trump as long as our individual love of truth is subservient to the love of power within us.
This analysis is enlightening in its description of how therapists deal with severely impaired patients, and compelling in its use of the Harris-Trump debate as an example. But a closer look makes me doubtful that the model adequately describes the debate.
Dr. Lee says that Harris was “effective,” and that the debate was “decisive for Donald Trump.” But she does not expressly define what Harris effected, or what the debate decided. She does say that Harris made Trump Contagion lift “for a short while,” so the public could “see what has always been.” However, this effectiveness and decisiveness are limited by the fact that “in two months’ time, this debate could easily be forgotten in the public’s mind.”
Dr. Lee says that Harris lifted the curtain by debating Trump on the principles of a therapist conducting a session with a severely impaired person. Thus Harris conducted a process parallel to the debate, beginning by symbolically turning her relationship with Trump from one between equals into a dominant-subordinate one; commenting on process rather than content; setting boundaries; and repeatedly “framing” the entire “session” verbally. She thereby neutralized Trump’s assaults, and made him “visibly crumble” during the “session.”
I can see that Harris employed these therapeutic principles to neutralize Trump’s aggression against her, thereby preserving her own autonomy and protecting herself from being overwhelmed as Clinton and Biden were.
However, I do not see how Harris employed these principles to make Trump “crumble,” thereby showing the public what he really is. What I saw, and what all the commentary I have heard and read describes, was that Harris made Trump “crumble,” that is, act like a fool and a weakling, by repeatedly baiting him with “triggers,” which is to say, a steady drip of well-targeted, highly-scripted personal insults. Then, while he reacted by making a fool of himself, she smirked and mocked him with contemptuous facial expressions of amusement and derision. Do therapists really sadistically bait and insult their patients, with a long, slow drip of carefully-scripted insults designed to make them act like fools while the therapists look on contemptuously, as “a process of healing” them?
Harris did not enlist therapeutic principles in the service of public mental health. She enlisted them in the service of the cynical, hardball politics of her personal self-advancement. If anyone questions whether she would do this, they should look into her right-wing, law-and-order practices as the District Attorney in San Francisco and as the California Attorney General.
This is not an occasion for getting into an extended discussion of the political aspect of the debate, so I will limit myself to a single further observation. Yes, Trump must be defeated, because if he is elected, he will soon turn America into a fascist country. In the terrible words of Sarah Kendzior, it will then take “generations of martyrs” to restore democracy in America. However, America is already a seriously failing democracy, and the oligarchs of the Democratic Party have long been the constant partners in the ongoing destruction of American democracy with the oligarchs of the Republican Party, as highly-remunerated employees of the plutocracy and the warmongering imperial national-security state. The result is that we now face in November a Sophie’s Choice between the genocidal Democratic Party and the fascist Republican Party. We need to choose the genocidal Democratic Party over the fascist Republican Party, just as Sophie felt she needed to choose to send her daughter to be brutally murdered instead of her son. But an event that contributes to effecting this choice is not “A Beautiful Debate.”
I have no desire to be the skunk at the garden party, especially because of my great admiration for Dr. Lee for both her teaching in this newsletter, and her selfless dedication to her heroic public activities. But it is always better to face reality head on, no matter how bleak it may be. The alternative is to eventually succumb to the despair Sophie succumbed to when she committed suicide, in helpless submission to the triumph of mankind’s inexorable death instinct.
I'm an experienced clinical psychologist. Dr. Lee pointed out that Ms. Harris needed to expose how Trump talks and acts abnormally--exposed to as many people as possible in the limited time of the debate. By "crumble," it meant what was obviously evident, how he resorted to his mess of things by using vicious rumor and wild accusations/generalizations that have no specific relevance to what can be good for the country, let alone make any sense. Also, Dr. Lee made it clear about how a therapist would treat a *patient like Trump*. It's akin to being very directive, reality based, call 'em on it, with an alcoholic (and con artist) who lives in denial and uses misdirection. Regarding the Democratic Party, there's a saying, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Vote Blue!
Very good to see more than 7 detailed comments on Dr. Lee's platform this afternoon. I am looking ahead hopefully to 9/27 Conference & the potential impact on the National conversation.
I think this is a good place to have this conversation. And you're right, it is always better to face reality head on, no matter how bleak it may be. But when we see a threat and an opportunity, the former tends to loom larger in our imagination. And, all else appearing to be equal, neutralizing a threat will always take precedence over seizing an opportunity.
In a real POTUS debate, the two candidates begin with the intent of doing the same thing, and the debate is about which one is more competent. That’s not what this was. The Democratic candidate intends to serve the nation, and the Republican candidate intends to serve himself.
Harris was acting like a therapist trying to heal a patient, but the patient was America, not Trump. A cancer cell serves itself at the expense of the body, so Trump is like a cancer cell to America, and Harris was trying to treat the cancer. So, yes, Harris did enlist therapeutic principles in the service of public mental health.
Think of a pond as a metaphor for America, Trump is looking at the pond thinking he sees below the surface, and what he sees is a heart of darkness, but all he’s really seeing is his own reflection off the surface. His wins if he gets enough people to see what he sees.
Sophie’s Choice is not about Sophie’s choice. It’s about being aware of the long-term impact on others resulting from the choices we make in our daily lives. If we’re not careful, we might be contributing to a situation in which innocent victims will be paying the price for a thoughtless action or inaction.
As beautiful as the debate was, we have a bigger fish to fry and it's more like a whale considering what Dr. Everett E Allie said in his book, "The Origins of Social Dysfunction"
"Governments grow by usurping individual autonomy, relieving the individual of the ability and responsibility to act. As institutional controls increase, learning and reasoning diminishes. The individual becomes increasingly dependent upon authority. The amount of false or distorted information accepted, especially that received at an early age, proportionally blunts one's understanding and blocks the acceptance of reciprocal knowledge. The acceptance of low grade information increases as the individual becomes increasingly deluded and dependent. The world of the dependent individual shrinks, together with intellect and reasoning capabilities. Under authoritarian control, the individual is increasingly maintained as an unwanted child, mistreated and exploited by Big Brother"
Elsewhere he says
"For a democracy to work in the long run, the electorate will have to be predominantly oriented to reality, recognizing and accepting the true nature of existence, humanity and the real nature of problems. Without this fundamental knowledge and rationality, the people will exhibit gross ignorance and dependency, presenting a chaos of opinion and providing no impetus for shaping and maintaining effective systems that would nurture knowledge and rationality within a society"
And so the question arises, Why is it that the Democratic party has not taken what Dr. Allie said as a supreme concern? If the Democratic Party has a vision for a new transformational “orientation of reality” as Dr. Allie said, what does it consist of? When did we ever hear from politicians in the Democratic Party address the need for this kind of reality that would make the Republicans vision of reality -the 2025 Project- look like fascism by comparison? For the love of God, where is the vision for higher stages of human development that contains the much needed profound wisdom to finally resolve poverty, the high cost of health care, homes, food, education, and many other social ills adversely affecting us? Why do we continually subject ourselves to a sick society and think of it as normal? If Kamala makes it to the White House, and when the romance of her success winds down, the many harsh realities affecting our country will be waiting there for her. And no matter how well intentioned Kamala may be, I doubt she will have the much needed "orientation to reality" that Dr. Allie's urgently speaks of . As a result, the Republicans will do everything they can to attack and diminish her just like they did to Obama because Kamala does not have greater truths on her side.
Maybe I'm too idealistic but, as Dr. Allie said, nothing is going to change for the better unless the Democratic Party’s takes a hard look at itself and sees that a new orientation to reality is urgently needed for the harsh realities of the world and especially here at home for the working and middle class who have been forgotten -for DECADES! Until then, we will just go on kicking the proverbial can down the road as nothing changes for the better.
"Governments grow by usurping individual autonomy," the exact Republican position on anti-abortion. Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz, under the Democratic Party, have already said what they want, to put it bluntly toward Republican politicians: "Mind your own damn business!"
It is not so difficult to solve. We merely need to adopt many policies our democratic allies have been using for decades, in countries like Canada, the UK, France, Australia. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. The first hurdle is accepting that other countries have come up with many better policies than we have, and the second hurdle is electing enough Democrats to be able to implement these better ideas. Our Democratic party is well to the right of the conservative parties in most of those countries. Our Republicans are considered a far right fringe to most of the modern world. That is what has led to the current state you describe with Republican policies that are harmful to society since Reagan at least. And electoral participation is not an issue in those countries either, they have more educated populations and common sense fair election processes. All of this is easily within our reach if we would only elect enough Democrats to have strong majorities in Congress. Many of the bills are already written and ready to go.
I hope Dr. Lee will be considered for Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Harris administration
Or a newly created position like Undersecretary for Stochastic Terrorism, or for Violence Prevention. Let’s let her name her own title and job description1
Yes, anything she wants. We need her expertise in a policy making position.
Sec of Mental Health.
We need a task force to regulate Socical Media. These are mononpolies. These monopolies do more than stiffle competition and innovation. Their commercial algorythms are radicalization acclerators, increase inequality, affect the well being of teens and young adults, increase incidence of depression, isolation, and suicide.
Yes, I have been alerting folks to the 9/27 all-day Conference on Professor Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American ( LFAA ) & Professor Joyce Vance's, Civil Discourse.
That's great, Bryan!
Oh my goodness. Yes!!!!!!!
Kamala Harris' debate performance was a masterclass in the art of political communication, seamlessly blending psychology and policy in a manner that left a lasting impression. In two-minute increments, she managed to articulate complex policies with clarity, while using her facial expressions to convey confidence, empathy, and authority, even when the microphone was muted. This non-verbal communication became an essential part of her strategy, allowing her to react to her opponent’s statements in real-time, offering subtle rebuttals and support to her own positions without uttering a word.
Her ability to harness both the emotional and intellectual aspects of debate not only resonated with viewers but also elevated her performance into the historical canon of debates. Like the iconic Nixon-Kennedy debates, where body language and poise played pivotal roles, Harris' mastery over both content and presentation ensured her place in debate history. She demonstrated not just a command of policy but also an understanding of human psychology, knowing when to lean in, when to pause, and when to let her expressions do the talking. Her debate will undoubtedly be studied for years to come as a shining example of how to merge policy prowess with psychological insight in a political arena.
Finally, after a decade of centering Trump and the explosion of MAGA followers, it feels like people are hearing your message. VP Harris was 'meant to be'. If all of us were on Earth 1, she and Walz would win in a landslide. I try to fast forward from polls because they mislead and are a snapshot in time. But, the idea that they are so close means that after Trump toxic spread of hate is seeded with generations of families whose young children only know a world with loss, rage and grief. I pray that we are moving in the direction of a kindness and hope and away from cruelty and hate.
I can't emphasize enough, get involved in your local elections. Go to mobilize.us to find events near you. It's not necessary that you've been involved before. It's been said before, but has not carried the weight of this moment in time. "If not now, when?" If you're on the fence, write down a list of people, pets or causes in your life for whom you love and care about. Then look at Project 2025. There is a toxic plan for everyone of those you love and care about. Education, Economy, Women's and Public Health, Environment, Wildlife and so on. Go to KamalaHarris.com and look at detailed proposals that the Harris campaign has laid out and contrast them with Project 2025/Agenda 47. WE'RE NOT GOING BACK!
Great note Susan. It was interesting listening to "undecided" voter's criticism of VP Harris' debate - "we need more details of what she plans to do" "I'm not really sure what her plan is" "I'm not sure if I can trust her to do the job" and a variety of other inane comments that had me practically yelling at the TV. As you point out, all they have to do is to go to her website to find the "details". Unfortunately, the fact that 70 million Americans voted for Trump in 2020, and may vote for him again, points to something far more serious, something that Dr Lee has pointed out for 9 years. If only they would pay attention and listen.
Thank you. Calling it "inane" would be kind and generous. I like your mentioning just to go to the website for any details--that solution to their supposed wondering is so simple. Those supposedly undecided people I think are just spouting talking points they've heard somewhere. Overlooking Trump's abnormal behavior (and no coherent policies at all) by directing attention to Kamala reminds me of the comeback: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Undecided voters, in my opinion, at this point are not undecided. I can’t know what thousands or even millions of ‘undecided’ voters are thinking, but I can’t help but think a broad swath of them are undecided because they are mysogynistic, entitled, racist, xenophobic, attention seeking in a world of being seen on camera or don’t think critically. I recognize my comment is judgmental, but damn!
My husband and I were just watching Chris Hayes who is doing a piece on the increasing public self promotion of neonazis, specifically Lora Loomer. If Troy don’t know who she is, LL is 10x’s more vile and dangerous than Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and
MJT combined (of course they are all vile). Laura Loomer used her social influence platform to accost immigrants crossing the Darien Gap, the most dangerous and deadly passage of immigrants in the world in Central America and ask them their thoughts on DJT. She is mocking them. She attended the 9/11 Remembrance with DJT and is an openly 9/11 conspiracy theorist. And yesterday, on her platform she practically bullhorned followers to hurt/injure/go after Haitians in Ohio or anywhere.
I recognize that many ppl are not paying as much attention to politics but even if you aren’t when does undecided move to decided? A man who said “I grab them by the p***y”, who took out a full page ad against innocent black men, a man who mostly calls black women “nasty”, (I believe it’s his code word for the N word), who spews hate and darkness, whose responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans from COVID against hate, xenophobia, whose need to control women and their bodies is pathological and a party that consciously knows the only way to have power in this country is by stealing an election.
I have no patience with undecided voters at this point.
Could not have said it better. thanks.
Agree absolutely. I don't know why anyone with a working brain cell would think that a so-called "debate" would be the place to find the fine points of a policy.
Thanks for all the resources, Susan!
Excellent article!
It is important—sometimes existentially important—to treat the symptoms of a disease. But it is also important to keep in mind that the symptom is not the disease. Ideally, the disease is cured, and then its symptoms disappear.
Donald Trump is one symptom of the disease that Dr. Lee has appropriately named Trump contagion. “The authoritarian impulse” might also be an appropriate term. And Dr. Lee is correct in saying that in two months, this debate could easily be forgotten in the public’s mind. Such an outcome would be yet another symptom of the disease.
On my own, being a layperson, I could not see what mental health experts and skilled prosecutors saw on January 6, 2021. They see the depth of Trump’s disturbances, the fragility of his psychology, and the degree of his inability to tolerate reality due to the combined effect of natural talent and deliberate practice, and I don’t have either.
However, when I watched the June 27 presidential debate, I saw one candidate appear to be physically unhealthy and emotionally healthy, and a second candidate who was physically healthy and emotionally unhealthy. For me, Joe Biden won decisively.
I do not have a profound understanding of criminal psychology. But only the normal (emotionally healthy) candidate has any chance of earning my support. And I am not alone. A significant minority of people are immunized against Trump contagion. Many of us from childhood.
Thank God for experts like Dr. Lee and Kamala Harris. But God helps those who help themselves. To be more specific, we need experts who know how to treat the symptoms, and we need to look ourselves in the mirror to cure the disease. As a famous psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, put it, “When we are no longer able to challenge a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
In last week's Zoom meeting, I spoke about the 1st scientific principle. To reiterate and clarify, the principle is a healthy mindset that is always optimistic without ever being naïve about the possibility that any conflict between any two individuals or groups will be resolved. Long story short, no one teaches that principle explicitly. It is learned by chance by people who follow people who set a good example, and it is not learned by chance when people follow people who set a bad example.
When a child receives an elementary school graduation certificate, there is an expectation that the child has been explicitly taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. My vision of the future is one in which the child has also been explicitly taught the 1st scientific principle. Then a significant majority of children will behave accordingly, and not just by chance. My testable-in-advance hypothesis is that achieving that vision cures the disease.
I so appreciate your analyses, opinions, and suggestions. This essay seems spot on to me. Thank you.
Great article, thanks!!
Excellent. Thank you , again, Dr. Lee. I needed that boost. I'd literally just got into an argument over the phone with my sister who is in a circle of people who want Trump. We usually avoid the topic, but somehow we slid into it. It is indeed very frustrating, as well as awkward because she is among the moneyed people who will do anything they can to protect it, even at the expense of the rest of us. When she asked what I thought of Kamala Harris, I called Harris a savior, as anybody normal would be who opposed Trump. I should have thought of saying something about the choice between a career prosecutor and a convicted felon. But I realize when off the phone now and having read what Dr. Lee wrote that my sister and all the people in her group are stuck there, gripping each others' hands as they pull each other over a cliff. I just don't want the rest of us pulled along with them. I told her now what I'm thinking of telling those stuck people, that I wouldn't ever want someone like Trump to cross her path in her personal life because he's that dangerous. There's my attempt at going higher. The other way is vote Blue!!
Thank you for this. The normalization of him has gone on a decade too long. Harris did us all a solid when she exposed him and wounded his narcissistic personality.
Can you inform us about the issues & obvious differences between "Gun Psychopathy" and "Gun Ownership" and how this plays into the nonstop horrific school & mass shootings in this country? "Gun Ownership" could be defined as: strict laws for licensing, vetting, psychological fitness testing, training, spot-checking, vetting for Domestic Violence/Abuse family issues/charges, etc. for the purposes of self-protection; safety; food supply, target practice. "Gun Psychopathy" could be defined as: the abnormal male fixation, worship or compulsion for male dominance to power over/control/dominate others via killing a living animal/human (not for the purposes of food supply, self-protection, safety, etc.) but is strictly for the toxic masculine compulsion to "power over another" -- the savage gratification it gives the toxic male psyche including the "excitement to kill" -- which is the ultimate act of dominance, power & control in the toxic male mind. Does "intergenerational hunting" overlap this issue? Those who hunt for "fun & sport" need to be looked at under some Neuro-Imaging to detect what is going on with this blood lust worshiping of killing/controlling/dominating animals. Start with the Billionaires Boys Clubs Big Game Hunters.... Some say family members will merely disguise this blood lust as "a family tradition." And if that's the case we need to dig deep with all the tools psychiatry has, including Neuro-Imaging... School shootings & mass shootings all begin with the primary dysfunctional organ: the human brain... And there is no "Freedom" in having to hide in a closet after learning the alphabet in a kindergarten... A multi-factoral complex issue that's really hiding in plain sight: "The Psychopathy of Toxic Masculinity in Today's Society"
I agree with this, Jas...Trump, Orban, Putin, et.al. are examples of men whose humanity was gutted in childhood, whose tenderness was ridiculed out of them by 3 or 5 years old. Then they were stuffed with grandiosity and inducted into a culture of cruelty where there's a taboo on tenderness and the most brutal, unfeeling guy is idealized. These gendered dynamics have shaped our world for 5-10 thousand years and the world we're living in right now is replete with horrifying wars and men everywhere competing to be Lord of the Flies, not able to care about the destruction they're causing. Kamala and Tim offer a completely different paradigm. In their world, men and women can be partners. Both men and women can be nurturing. Men can love one another without shame; the taboo on tenderness is lifted; and boys don't have to be turned into tough little robots, prepared to kill for whichever male ruler requires them to do so. Those are two very different worlds, shaped by opposing values...the dominator vs. the partnership model of relationship. (Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade)
The United States is now 248 years old. Do you know what cycle lasts for 248 yrs? The cycle of Pluto around the Sun is 248 yrs. What does that mean? Pluto, Hades is the Lord of the Underworld in the Roman and Greek pantheons. Pluto represents death, corruption, rape, power over, poison, transmutation, and destruction. The United States is in death throes, awaiting rebirth, which comes in Nov 2024.
By rebirth, I'm assuming and hoping you mean with Ms. Harris's victorious election in Nov 2024. Trump's literal mantra is the country is in ruin and needs him to save it.
The public has a hard time identifying Trump Contagion/Psychoses because he excites and amplifies the perennial human battle between power and truth that each of us has to resolve in our maturing process. Harris is an excellent example of someone who has successfully identified and fought the battle between the love of truth or love of power within herself, thereby serving as an antidote to Trump Contagion for the country.
Representative democracy is based on the organizing principal that voters temporarily give someone authority to lead them with good-faith insight and respect for truth. Autocracy is based on the organizing principal of someone permanently seizing power for themselves. The former requires love of truth and the latter requires love of power.
It's startling to see how Trump attracted reporters and observers in the spin room after the debate--like moths to flame. What is his attraction? He excites our Egoic delusional desire to seize absolute power. His pathology mesmerizes the human lust for power.
If the balance between truth and power is as old as the hills, how is it the public is so bad at identifying Trump Contagion/Psychosis? Ego is not a Freudian psychological concept giving equal power between a triumvirate of ego, superego and id. Ego is the unconscious/subconscious focus in ourselves, a developmental organ, that sees human experience solely in terms of itself.
The autocratic drive of Ego helps children form into unique adults, but to mature most learn we must identify, sideline, see-through, and tame our own Ego if we are to be constructive parts of society. Those who have not identified and tamed Ego find Trump fascinating; those who have tamed Ego find him emotionally and mentally weak, pitiable, and dangerous.
Trump's pathology is the extreme way he exerts his Ego without the slightest regard for truth. Respect for truth requires resolving the battle between truth and power in ourselves.
Our society is vulnerable to demagogues like Trump as long as our individual love of truth is subservient to the love of power within us.
This analysis is enlightening in its description of how therapists deal with severely impaired patients, and compelling in its use of the Harris-Trump debate as an example. But a closer look makes me doubtful that the model adequately describes the debate.
Dr. Lee says that Harris was “effective,” and that the debate was “decisive for Donald Trump.” But she does not expressly define what Harris effected, or what the debate decided. She does say that Harris made Trump Contagion lift “for a short while,” so the public could “see what has always been.” However, this effectiveness and decisiveness are limited by the fact that “in two months’ time, this debate could easily be forgotten in the public’s mind.”
Dr. Lee says that Harris lifted the curtain by debating Trump on the principles of a therapist conducting a session with a severely impaired person. Thus Harris conducted a process parallel to the debate, beginning by symbolically turning her relationship with Trump from one between equals into a dominant-subordinate one; commenting on process rather than content; setting boundaries; and repeatedly “framing” the entire “session” verbally. She thereby neutralized Trump’s assaults, and made him “visibly crumble” during the “session.”
I can see that Harris employed these therapeutic principles to neutralize Trump’s aggression against her, thereby preserving her own autonomy and protecting herself from being overwhelmed as Clinton and Biden were.
However, I do not see how Harris employed these principles to make Trump “crumble,” thereby showing the public what he really is. What I saw, and what all the commentary I have heard and read describes, was that Harris made Trump “crumble,” that is, act like a fool and a weakling, by repeatedly baiting him with “triggers,” which is to say, a steady drip of well-targeted, highly-scripted personal insults. Then, while he reacted by making a fool of himself, she smirked and mocked him with contemptuous facial expressions of amusement and derision. Do therapists really sadistically bait and insult their patients, with a long, slow drip of carefully-scripted insults designed to make them act like fools while the therapists look on contemptuously, as “a process of healing” them?
Harris did not enlist therapeutic principles in the service of public mental health. She enlisted them in the service of the cynical, hardball politics of her personal self-advancement. If anyone questions whether she would do this, they should look into her right-wing, law-and-order practices as the District Attorney in San Francisco and as the California Attorney General.
This is not an occasion for getting into an extended discussion of the political aspect of the debate, so I will limit myself to a single further observation. Yes, Trump must be defeated, because if he is elected, he will soon turn America into a fascist country. In the terrible words of Sarah Kendzior, it will then take “generations of martyrs” to restore democracy in America. However, America is already a seriously failing democracy, and the oligarchs of the Democratic Party have long been the constant partners in the ongoing destruction of American democracy with the oligarchs of the Republican Party, as highly-remunerated employees of the plutocracy and the warmongering imperial national-security state. The result is that we now face in November a Sophie’s Choice between the genocidal Democratic Party and the fascist Republican Party. We need to choose the genocidal Democratic Party over the fascist Republican Party, just as Sophie felt she needed to choose to send her daughter to be brutally murdered instead of her son. But an event that contributes to effecting this choice is not “A Beautiful Debate.”
I have no desire to be the skunk at the garden party, especially because of my great admiration for Dr. Lee for both her teaching in this newsletter, and her selfless dedication to her heroic public activities. But it is always better to face reality head on, no matter how bleak it may be. The alternative is to eventually succumb to the despair Sophie succumbed to when she committed suicide, in helpless submission to the triumph of mankind’s inexorable death instinct.
I'm an experienced clinical psychologist. Dr. Lee pointed out that Ms. Harris needed to expose how Trump talks and acts abnormally--exposed to as many people as possible in the limited time of the debate. By "crumble," it meant what was obviously evident, how he resorted to his mess of things by using vicious rumor and wild accusations/generalizations that have no specific relevance to what can be good for the country, let alone make any sense. Also, Dr. Lee made it clear about how a therapist would treat a *patient like Trump*. It's akin to being very directive, reality based, call 'em on it, with an alcoholic (and con artist) who lives in denial and uses misdirection. Regarding the Democratic Party, there's a saying, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Vote Blue!
Very good to see more than 7 detailed comments on Dr. Lee's platform this afternoon. I am looking ahead hopefully to 9/27 Conference & the potential impact on the National conversation.
Your opinion of the Democratic Party is not shared by all and I do not think it is accurate at all.
I think this is a good place to have this conversation. And you're right, it is always better to face reality head on, no matter how bleak it may be. But when we see a threat and an opportunity, the former tends to loom larger in our imagination. And, all else appearing to be equal, neutralizing a threat will always take precedence over seizing an opportunity.
In a real POTUS debate, the two candidates begin with the intent of doing the same thing, and the debate is about which one is more competent. That’s not what this was. The Democratic candidate intends to serve the nation, and the Republican candidate intends to serve himself.
Harris was acting like a therapist trying to heal a patient, but the patient was America, not Trump. A cancer cell serves itself at the expense of the body, so Trump is like a cancer cell to America, and Harris was trying to treat the cancer. So, yes, Harris did enlist therapeutic principles in the service of public mental health.
Think of a pond as a metaphor for America, Trump is looking at the pond thinking he sees below the surface, and what he sees is a heart of darkness, but all he’s really seeing is his own reflection off the surface. His wins if he gets enough people to see what he sees.
Sophie’s Choice is not about Sophie’s choice. It’s about being aware of the long-term impact on others resulting from the choices we make in our daily lives. If we’re not careful, we might be contributing to a situation in which innocent victims will be paying the price for a thoughtless action or inaction.
As beautiful as the debate was, we have a bigger fish to fry and it's more like a whale considering what Dr. Everett E Allie said in his book, "The Origins of Social Dysfunction"
"Governments grow by usurping individual autonomy, relieving the individual of the ability and responsibility to act. As institutional controls increase, learning and reasoning diminishes. The individual becomes increasingly dependent upon authority. The amount of false or distorted information accepted, especially that received at an early age, proportionally blunts one's understanding and blocks the acceptance of reciprocal knowledge. The acceptance of low grade information increases as the individual becomes increasingly deluded and dependent. The world of the dependent individual shrinks, together with intellect and reasoning capabilities. Under authoritarian control, the individual is increasingly maintained as an unwanted child, mistreated and exploited by Big Brother"
Elsewhere he says
"For a democracy to work in the long run, the electorate will have to be predominantly oriented to reality, recognizing and accepting the true nature of existence, humanity and the real nature of problems. Without this fundamental knowledge and rationality, the people will exhibit gross ignorance and dependency, presenting a chaos of opinion and providing no impetus for shaping and maintaining effective systems that would nurture knowledge and rationality within a society"
And so the question arises, Why is it that the Democratic party has not taken what Dr. Allie said as a supreme concern? If the Democratic Party has a vision for a new transformational “orientation of reality” as Dr. Allie said, what does it consist of? When did we ever hear from politicians in the Democratic Party address the need for this kind of reality that would make the Republicans vision of reality -the 2025 Project- look like fascism by comparison? For the love of God, where is the vision for higher stages of human development that contains the much needed profound wisdom to finally resolve poverty, the high cost of health care, homes, food, education, and many other social ills adversely affecting us? Why do we continually subject ourselves to a sick society and think of it as normal? If Kamala makes it to the White House, and when the romance of her success winds down, the many harsh realities affecting our country will be waiting there for her. And no matter how well intentioned Kamala may be, I doubt she will have the much needed "orientation to reality" that Dr. Allie's urgently speaks of . As a result, the Republicans will do everything they can to attack and diminish her just like they did to Obama because Kamala does not have greater truths on her side.
Maybe I'm too idealistic but, as Dr. Allie said, nothing is going to change for the better unless the Democratic Party’s takes a hard look at itself and sees that a new orientation to reality is urgently needed for the harsh realities of the world and especially here at home for the working and middle class who have been forgotten -for DECADES! Until then, we will just go on kicking the proverbial can down the road as nothing changes for the better.
"Governments grow by usurping individual autonomy," the exact Republican position on anti-abortion. Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz, under the Democratic Party, have already said what they want, to put it bluntly toward Republican politicians: "Mind your own damn business!"
It is not so difficult to solve. We merely need to adopt many policies our democratic allies have been using for decades, in countries like Canada, the UK, France, Australia. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. The first hurdle is accepting that other countries have come up with many better policies than we have, and the second hurdle is electing enough Democrats to be able to implement these better ideas. Our Democratic party is well to the right of the conservative parties in most of those countries. Our Republicans are considered a far right fringe to most of the modern world. That is what has led to the current state you describe with Republican policies that are harmful to society since Reagan at least. And electoral participation is not an issue in those countries either, they have more educated populations and common sense fair election processes. All of this is easily within our reach if we would only elect enough Democrats to have strong majorities in Congress. Many of the bills are already written and ready to go.