For over 10 years, I have been creating messages for my local community and my circles of friends that are grounded to your work. I am deeply grateful for your work, commitment, and persistence regarding the danger of Trump — the risks he is to our country and world. I have learned so much from you.
For over 10 years I’ve been writing letters to the editor to my local paper related to Donald Trump. Sometimes I directly attribute ideas and details to your work, Dr. Lee, sometimes I don’t. I want the content of my informal messages/opinions to speak to readers in a friendly nonacademic way. However when I speak to people who I believe may be open to a deeper understanding of your writing and work, I always encourage suggest reading one of your books or watching your videos.
The key thing is that the knowledge you offer is becoming common knowledge and it will not go away. Trump’s behavior and rants will continue because that’s who he is. But understanding why Trump is who he is, and the danger he embodies… that is the gift you have delivered to me and so many others. Thank you!
I feel the tension and hear the anxiety among friends and currently fellow poll greeters. I encourage all to stay active if for nothing else to lessen the worry. Each day brings us closer to November 5. Whatever the outcome, understanding how to move forward will have been strengthened by your expertise and persistence.
Excellent points. I just wish that mental health professionals would have stepped forward en masse much earlier. And I am grateful to Dr. Lee for her ethics and courage to do just that.
Deb, you may not know that Dr. Lee was the first and most courageous to hold a conference and publish a book early in 2017, sounding the alarm regarding the dangerousness of Donald Trump. She organized hundreds of mental health professional like myself but the APA accused her of violating "the Goldwater rule" and frightened the media into silencing mental health professionals. They abruptly stopped inviting Dr. Lee and other experts like Steve Hassan author of The Cult of Trump, for interviews. She continued writing and speaking but seven years went by without hardly any media attention at all. Hundreds of us have been working behind the scenes in social media and other formats to educate the public and media personnel themselves. Our message has seeped in now to public discourse but much more could've been done if the APA hadn't frightened the media into silencing us.
I agree with Paul Smith. You’re a treasure. I’d like to see Trump & his ilk defeated, but I’m not convinced that they & he are going to be. I think I’ll be in the same concentration camp as my peers. 🥴
Oh, Ed... I know we have those dreaded pictures in our minds because it has happened before. But the women of Liberia performed acts of civil disobedience for three years and finally drove the dictator Charles Taylor into the Hague. The Yugoslavs were able to get rid of Milošević, and Poland also rescued itself from a dictator, I believe. We need to have more of these pictures in our minds.
I try to be careful where my thoughts take me. I treat to avoid wishing. Wishing leaves me winsome and without power. When I have made flippant public statements about being jailed or assaulted, I may be expressing my fears but I’m also generating fear in others. My intention is to always recognize the power of words and labels and be consciously specific about their impact.
As I read and listen to Dr. Lee, I see how she frames the future with serious specificity. We influence each other with the way we express ourselves. We will be facing tough times immediately following the election and if Trump is elected… well… It will be important to add to accurate understanding of Trump and his followers vs offering distraction or fear.
I often read and listen to George Conway. I have also read the appropriate portions of the DSM. I have not noticed that he delves into Trump’s personality in much depth beyond what can be found in the DSM. Your complaint needs to be more specific. I also notice that your work is relatively technical in style and content whereas Conway’s is simplified for consumption by the “average” voter.
I'll just try to help with reminding that she is a professional--psychiatrist--whereas Conway (as helpful as he's been) is a lay person. So, each in her/his own way seems appropriate to me. Also, WMHC has professional members who can "talk the same language."
Dr Lee, you should know the way of this world. If you really do something selfless and valuable to society, your effort will get less attention than it deserves. And often it will get no attention and praise at all. There are so many scholars/thinkers/philosophers of past and present who lived or live in obscurity, getting little attention. Just to give you a small example. Tesla, the great scientist who pioneered study in electromagnetism lived last days of his life in bankruptcy and misery, digging ditches. While Thomas Edison, the great capitalist entrepreneur became multi-millionaire.
In today's world, the mediocrity, charlatanism, entrepreneurial ambition, business mindedness, fake charm is rewarded. Real effort, philosophical work and especially selfless service has little value. Regardless of that, you choose to do your work even if you don't get deserving respect and attention. I know many thinkers who have brilliant ideas, original intellect and philosophy. But all they can do is linger on boundaries of sociopolitical discourse. Writing obscure journals, blogs, articles, op-eds (if media is slightly courteous enough to give them small attention).
But all this is not surprising. Dr Lee, we live in monetized and hyper-capitalized society. The worth of your work is decided by how much of it can be monetized and commercialized. And how much of it is tolerable to mainstream media and mainstream academics which are just tentacles of plutocracy in this age. An independent thinker who doesn't kow-tow to plutocratic interests has little place in this world.
This is truly infuriating, and I'm sorry you and the team haven't gotten direct, prominent coverage and amplification as you deserve. I read another article of a study where female experts are discounted by juries in favor of White Male experts. We're dealing with subordination, silencing, avoidance and exploitation on a mass scale, and you and many others are feeling the effects of it. What I've noticed though, that things are "getting in the water" - the thinking apparatus of the culture is at least partly engaged. Maybe there's a Bandy Contagion as well (a Bandy Immune Response) - that is also making headway. Ultimately, it's not about us as individuals, but about the overall growth of the culture - the culture within each of us, and that embodied by our collective action. You have helped me grow and learn as a psychiatrist, and there's still so much more to learn. Thanks a LOT America, lol.
When we say Trump's a fascist, when we liken him to Hitler, what we're really saying is that he has no conscience, no ability to care about other human beings; that he is sadistic and malevolent. What isn't observable to the lay public is that he is driven, as was Hitler, by an old, unconscious need to avenge the powerless little boy he once was, and become like his domineering father who had complete control over the world that this little boy inhabited. That's who he's trying to emulate and he uses present day dictators as his models for how to achieve that feeling of having power over everyone.
It's this quality that makes him appear "weird" to many people but of heroic stature to others. Half the country knows there's something "wrong" with him even if they can't explain what that is. But they recognize now, after many years, thanks to Bandy and others, that he behaves like a dictator and that makes him "dangerous and unfit."
Conway goes so far as to label him a malignant narcissist. What's harder to explain is that, as we've seen with the J6 insurrection, Trump literally enacts his fantasies of triumphalist revenge with the help of his brainwashed followers. He enacts his fantasies of annihilating the ancient mommies and daddies who neglected and humiliated him. Every human being he encounters is either completely obedient to him or a mortal enemy that must be denigrated and vanquished. It's his mental states, his seriously disordered, delusional mind, that makes him analogous to Hitler.
I don’t know enough if Gartner is not giving credit where credit is due but I see Conway talking about narcissism and warning the populace regarding trump’s malignant behavior. There is also Sam Ray’s substack w his deep dive into the personality disorders of trump and his inner circle and I see that spilling over into the main media outlets.
I hope that Dr Lee and other psychotherapists or analysts continue to warn the country about other psychopaths that are in power or trying to attain elected office to abuse such power. It won’t end with Harris winning.
I agree with you 100%, and more! I myself am fighting to get the word out to rural radio talk shows. A steep uphill climb. I will try hard. Are you directly contacting legislators up for election?
Buchanan, are you finding a way to interact or communicate with the "red" world? Unless you live in a given state newspapers won't print your letters to the editor, for example...at least not the ones I've tried. Let me know if you have other ideas of how to do that. Thanks!
45's "tribe" his malignant contagion and symbiotic infection with so, so many preemptively intelligent human beings is breath taking ... and quite sadly reflecting the nation's lack of educationally mature citizens. We are in a world of hurt and in deep trouble. There is no one in the media truly reporting 45's dangerous state of mind and his deleterious effect on so many.
I was away for 2 weeks and just read this article. I couldn’t enjoy this long planned vacation as much as I wanted to because of the worry that has consumed me. I know I’m not alone. While in Europe, our ‘neighbors’ asked me “what is happening in America?” Of course, the consequences of our election will impact Europe greatly.
So, this article is another critical statement of the greed and vanity of opportunistic ‘celebrities’ who either consciously or otherwise put themselves before the needs of society. Day by day, we are inundated with mind numbing idiocy by wanna be social media celebrities while society splinters and the emotional/psychological toll of our citizens declines. They (Gardner, Conway) and their enablers don’t seem to get the big picture.
I just watched Ali Velshi profile Hanna Nicolle Jones (The 1619 Project) and the right wing efforts to silence her and her message. Of course, Dr. Jones was also fired from University of NC for the perceived ‘threat’ she posed with the 1619 Project centering slavery as a significant part of American history.
Dr. Lee and Dr. Jones, nevertheless, persist and won’t be silenced. 2 of the most critical voices in this dangerous and fraught moment in American history. The levers of white male patriarchy, billionaires and tech bros from then until now and the attempts to discredit powerful female voices (Lee, Jones, Harris) will be the downfall of our Democracy.
Thanks again. I give Dr. Lee extra credit for maintaining her professionalism. I have a lot of trouble handling the frustration over those descriptions about Trump that we especially in WMHC have know for so long. WMHC is also helpful in managing the frustration. But that "news" now is like, "Duh!!" Vote Blue.
Conway, in the times I have seen him does not name any specific mental health practitioners. What I have heard him say is that the first people to recognize how seriously mentally unwell Trump was and is are 1. mental health professionals 2. military and national security personnel and 3. women who have left abusive men. Have you specifically asked Conway to credit your work? He's a lawyer and not an academic so "citing" in ways academics do may just not occur to him in the same way it does to academics. That doesn't mean he is off the hook, mind you, but I do believe I heard him say about Trump's narcissistic traits something along the lines of "Look. It's not me saying this. It's the experts who study this." So, he's not taking total claim for others' work unless he's specifically been asked to cite where this knowledge comes from and yet he refuses. If that's the case, then Conway needs to stop that. He can be sued if he is ripping content off, I believe. Anyway, thank YOU for what you are doing!!!
I accept your relevant, acceptable position that others are making money from your analysis without attribution much less your consent. Intellectual Property is fundamental. That's why I subscribe and contribute to your media, and reference it often.
What I'd like to see on your Substack is a comment on Accelerationism.
This is an ideology gaining in popularity amongst tech billionaires that the world is inevitably heading toward a collapse, and that instead of trying to prevent that collapse, we should rip off the band aid as fast as possible so we can get to the better world on the other side. While there’s a cold logic to it, it’s a dangerous philosophy that ignores the incalculable human suffering that such a collapse would create.
I appreciate your remark which sits at the end of this fascinating and sometimes contentious, far-ranging thread. It is not always easy to be reflective and concise. Dr Lee has a good point that others have rather openly purloined her message without crediting her. Conway has mentioned that he was greatly informed by the original Dangerous Case book but then quickly moves into his re-branding, which has become its own "show" on the Bulwark, and he has often guested on Shrinking Trump. Dr Lee was the first one through the door and took much heavy fire that these white males have not had to take. If I watch Conway or Shrinking Trump et al., on YouTube I always leave a comment acknowledging Dr Lee and ask why they are not giving her any such respect. However, as you suggest, they are all engaged in the same effort, or "war" against the common foe of MAGA. If Conway sways people, yet slights Dr Lee, then we all win in the larger battle. Dr Lee made that possible, she planted that seed. More people should know that but I'll take the win from Conway for now. The stakes are momentous. Those who know that Dr Lee forged the way for millions of people to have the language to say "Trump is mentally unfit and too dangerous to be president" and to see such language in headlines and on airwaves will not forget her contribution. Harris puts it as "he is too unstable and is getting more unhinged" every time she speaks. I think people are thinking more in these terms now when they see things like the vile circus of the MSG event - - which was a ghastly, arrogant display not just of Trump but of Trump Contagion. So, while respecting Dr Lee's feelings she expressed, I also encourage Dr Lee to remain proud of her accomplishments and her courage in the use of rigorous clinical knowledge to reveal the grave dangers we face. Remember, it was not Conway or Gartner who published 5 books on the subject, nor did they have the cachet to gather dozens of top experts for a world-class conference. They all came for Dr Lee. Eyes on the prize!
For over 10 years, I have been creating messages for my local community and my circles of friends that are grounded to your work. I am deeply grateful for your work, commitment, and persistence regarding the danger of Trump — the risks he is to our country and world. I have learned so much from you.
For over 10 years I’ve been writing letters to the editor to my local paper related to Donald Trump. Sometimes I directly attribute ideas and details to your work, Dr. Lee, sometimes I don’t. I want the content of my informal messages/opinions to speak to readers in a friendly nonacademic way. However when I speak to people who I believe may be open to a deeper understanding of your writing and work, I always encourage suggest reading one of your books or watching your videos.
The key thing is that the knowledge you offer is becoming common knowledge and it will not go away. Trump’s behavior and rants will continue because that’s who he is. But understanding why Trump is who he is, and the danger he embodies… that is the gift you have delivered to me and so many others. Thank you!
I feel the tension and hear the anxiety among friends and currently fellow poll greeters. I encourage all to stay active if for nothing else to lessen the worry. Each day brings us closer to November 5. Whatever the outcome, understanding how to move forward will have been strengthened by your expertise and persistence.
Excellent points. I just wish that mental health professionals would have stepped forward en masse much earlier. And I am grateful to Dr. Lee for her ethics and courage to do just that.
Deb, you may not know that Dr. Lee was the first and most courageous to hold a conference and publish a book early in 2017, sounding the alarm regarding the dangerousness of Donald Trump. She organized hundreds of mental health professional like myself but the APA accused her of violating "the Goldwater rule" and frightened the media into silencing mental health professionals. They abruptly stopped inviting Dr. Lee and other experts like Steve Hassan author of The Cult of Trump, for interviews. She continued writing and speaking but seven years went by without hardly any media attention at all. Hundreds of us have been working behind the scenes in social media and other formats to educate the public and media personnel themselves. Our message has seeped in now to public discourse but much more could've been done if the APA hadn't frightened the media into silencing us.
I believe they do but were immediately censored.
I agree with Paul Smith. You’re a treasure. I’d like to see Trump & his ilk defeated, but I’m not convinced that they & he are going to be. I think I’ll be in the same concentration camp as my peers. 🥴
Oh, Ed... I know we have those dreaded pictures in our minds because it has happened before. But the women of Liberia performed acts of civil disobedience for three years and finally drove the dictator Charles Taylor into the Hague. The Yugoslavs were able to get rid of Milošević, and Poland also rescued itself from a dictator, I believe. We need to have more of these pictures in our minds.
I try to be careful where my thoughts take me. I treat to avoid wishing. Wishing leaves me winsome and without power. When I have made flippant public statements about being jailed or assaulted, I may be expressing my fears but I’m also generating fear in others. My intention is to always recognize the power of words and labels and be consciously specific about their impact.
As I read and listen to Dr. Lee, I see how she frames the future with serious specificity. We influence each other with the way we express ourselves. We will be facing tough times immediately following the election and if Trump is elected… well… It will be important to add to accurate understanding of Trump and his followers vs offering distraction or fear.
I often read and listen to George Conway. I have also read the appropriate portions of the DSM. I have not noticed that he delves into Trump’s personality in much depth beyond what can be found in the DSM. Your complaint needs to be more specific. I also notice that your work is relatively technical in style and content whereas Conway’s is simplified for consumption by the “average” voter.
I'll just try to help with reminding that she is a professional--psychiatrist--whereas Conway (as helpful as he's been) is a lay person. So, each in her/his own way seems appropriate to me. Also, WMHC has professional members who can "talk the same language."
Thanks. Yes, of course. That’s why I have trouble understanding her complaint.
Dr Lee, you should know the way of this world. If you really do something selfless and valuable to society, your effort will get less attention than it deserves. And often it will get no attention and praise at all. There are so many scholars/thinkers/philosophers of past and present who lived or live in obscurity, getting little attention. Just to give you a small example. Tesla, the great scientist who pioneered study in electromagnetism lived last days of his life in bankruptcy and misery, digging ditches. While Thomas Edison, the great capitalist entrepreneur became multi-millionaire.
In today's world, the mediocrity, charlatanism, entrepreneurial ambition, business mindedness, fake charm is rewarded. Real effort, philosophical work and especially selfless service has little value. Regardless of that, you choose to do your work even if you don't get deserving respect and attention. I know many thinkers who have brilliant ideas, original intellect and philosophy. But all they can do is linger on boundaries of sociopolitical discourse. Writing obscure journals, blogs, articles, op-eds (if media is slightly courteous enough to give them small attention).
But all this is not surprising. Dr Lee, we live in monetized and hyper-capitalized society. The worth of your work is decided by how much of it can be monetized and commercialized. And how much of it is tolerable to mainstream media and mainstream academics which are just tentacles of plutocracy in this age. An independent thinker who doesn't kow-tow to plutocratic interests has little place in this world.
This is truly infuriating, and I'm sorry you and the team haven't gotten direct, prominent coverage and amplification as you deserve. I read another article of a study where female experts are discounted by juries in favor of White Male experts. We're dealing with subordination, silencing, avoidance and exploitation on a mass scale, and you and many others are feeling the effects of it. What I've noticed though, that things are "getting in the water" - the thinking apparatus of the culture is at least partly engaged. Maybe there's a Bandy Contagion as well (a Bandy Immune Response) - that is also making headway. Ultimately, it's not about us as individuals, but about the overall growth of the culture - the culture within each of us, and that embodied by our collective action. You have helped me grow and learn as a psychiatrist, and there's still so much more to learn. Thanks a LOT America, lol.
When we say Trump's a fascist, when we liken him to Hitler, what we're really saying is that he has no conscience, no ability to care about other human beings; that he is sadistic and malevolent. What isn't observable to the lay public is that he is driven, as was Hitler, by an old, unconscious need to avenge the powerless little boy he once was, and become like his domineering father who had complete control over the world that this little boy inhabited. That's who he's trying to emulate and he uses present day dictators as his models for how to achieve that feeling of having power over everyone.
It's this quality that makes him appear "weird" to many people but of heroic stature to others. Half the country knows there's something "wrong" with him even if they can't explain what that is. But they recognize now, after many years, thanks to Bandy and others, that he behaves like a dictator and that makes him "dangerous and unfit."
Conway goes so far as to label him a malignant narcissist. What's harder to explain is that, as we've seen with the J6 insurrection, Trump literally enacts his fantasies of triumphalist revenge with the help of his brainwashed followers. He enacts his fantasies of annihilating the ancient mommies and daddies who neglected and humiliated him. Every human being he encounters is either completely obedient to him or a mortal enemy that must be denigrated and vanquished. It's his mental states, his seriously disordered, delusional mind, that makes him analogous to Hitler.
I don’t know enough if Gartner is not giving credit where credit is due but I see Conway talking about narcissism and warning the populace regarding trump’s malignant behavior. There is also Sam Ray’s substack w his deep dive into the personality disorders of trump and his inner circle and I see that spilling over into the main media outlets.
I hope that Dr Lee and other psychotherapists or analysts continue to warn the country about other psychopaths that are in power or trying to attain elected office to abuse such power. It won’t end with Harris winning.
I agree with you 100%, and more! I myself am fighting to get the word out to rural radio talk shows. A steep uphill climb. I will try hard. Are you directly contacting legislators up for election?
Buchanan, are you finding a way to interact or communicate with the "red" world? Unless you live in a given state newspapers won't print your letters to the editor, for example...at least not the ones I've tried. Let me know if you have other ideas of how to do that. Thanks!
45's "tribe" his malignant contagion and symbiotic infection with so, so many preemptively intelligent human beings is breath taking ... and quite sadly reflecting the nation's lack of educationally mature citizens. We are in a world of hurt and in deep trouble. There is no one in the media truly reporting 45's dangerous state of mind and his deleterious effect on so many.
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for the regular updates and insightful analyses as November 5 draws closer and closer...
I was away for 2 weeks and just read this article. I couldn’t enjoy this long planned vacation as much as I wanted to because of the worry that has consumed me. I know I’m not alone. While in Europe, our ‘neighbors’ asked me “what is happening in America?” Of course, the consequences of our election will impact Europe greatly.
So, this article is another critical statement of the greed and vanity of opportunistic ‘celebrities’ who either consciously or otherwise put themselves before the needs of society. Day by day, we are inundated with mind numbing idiocy by wanna be social media celebrities while society splinters and the emotional/psychological toll of our citizens declines. They (Gardner, Conway) and their enablers don’t seem to get the big picture.
I just watched Ali Velshi profile Hanna Nicolle Jones (The 1619 Project) and the right wing efforts to silence her and her message. Of course, Dr. Jones was also fired from University of NC for the perceived ‘threat’ she posed with the 1619 Project centering slavery as a significant part of American history.
Dr. Lee and Dr. Jones, nevertheless, persist and won’t be silenced. 2 of the most critical voices in this dangerous and fraught moment in American history. The levers of white male patriarchy, billionaires and tech bros from then until now and the attempts to discredit powerful female voices (Lee, Jones, Harris) will be the downfall of our Democracy.
Thanks again. I give Dr. Lee extra credit for maintaining her professionalism. I have a lot of trouble handling the frustration over those descriptions about Trump that we especially in WMHC have know for so long. WMHC is also helpful in managing the frustration. But that "news" now is like, "Duh!!" Vote Blue.
I'm so confused by this piece ... I've read it twice and I still do not really understand what you are saying.
Conway, in the times I have seen him does not name any specific mental health practitioners. What I have heard him say is that the first people to recognize how seriously mentally unwell Trump was and is are 1. mental health professionals 2. military and national security personnel and 3. women who have left abusive men. Have you specifically asked Conway to credit your work? He's a lawyer and not an academic so "citing" in ways academics do may just not occur to him in the same way it does to academics. That doesn't mean he is off the hook, mind you, but I do believe I heard him say about Trump's narcissistic traits something along the lines of "Look. It's not me saying this. It's the experts who study this." So, he's not taking total claim for others' work unless he's specifically been asked to cite where this knowledge comes from and yet he refuses. If that's the case, then Conway needs to stop that. He can be sued if he is ripping content off, I believe. Anyway, thank YOU for what you are doing!!!
I accept your relevant, acceptable position that others are making money from your analysis without attribution much less your consent. Intellectual Property is fundamental. That's why I subscribe and contribute to your media, and reference it often.
What I'd like to see on your Substack is a comment on Accelerationism.
https://youtu.be/CQmoQEeNYrs?si=7MwwSHY1c994wzr5
This is an ideology gaining in popularity amongst tech billionaires that the world is inevitably heading toward a collapse, and that instead of trying to prevent that collapse, we should rip off the band aid as fast as possible so we can get to the better world on the other side. While there’s a cold logic to it, it’s a dangerous philosophy that ignores the incalculable human suffering that such a collapse would create.
We need to win the war. We cannot afford to try to win all the battles in the middle of a war. Eyes on the prize, please.
I appreciate your remark which sits at the end of this fascinating and sometimes contentious, far-ranging thread. It is not always easy to be reflective and concise. Dr Lee has a good point that others have rather openly purloined her message without crediting her. Conway has mentioned that he was greatly informed by the original Dangerous Case book but then quickly moves into his re-branding, which has become its own "show" on the Bulwark, and he has often guested on Shrinking Trump. Dr Lee was the first one through the door and took much heavy fire that these white males have not had to take. If I watch Conway or Shrinking Trump et al., on YouTube I always leave a comment acknowledging Dr Lee and ask why they are not giving her any such respect. However, as you suggest, they are all engaged in the same effort, or "war" against the common foe of MAGA. If Conway sways people, yet slights Dr Lee, then we all win in the larger battle. Dr Lee made that possible, she planted that seed. More people should know that but I'll take the win from Conway for now. The stakes are momentous. Those who know that Dr Lee forged the way for millions of people to have the language to say "Trump is mentally unfit and too dangerous to be president" and to see such language in headlines and on airwaves will not forget her contribution. Harris puts it as "he is too unstable and is getting more unhinged" every time she speaks. I think people are thinking more in these terms now when they see things like the vile circus of the MSG event - - which was a ghastly, arrogant display not just of Trump but of Trump Contagion. So, while respecting Dr Lee's feelings she expressed, I also encourage Dr Lee to remain proud of her accomplishments and her courage in the use of rigorous clinical knowledge to reveal the grave dangers we face. Remember, it was not Conway or Gartner who published 5 books on the subject, nor did they have the cachet to gather dozens of top experts for a world-class conference. They all came for Dr Lee. Eyes on the prize!
ACTIONS BY EVERYONE GROWS FREEDOM
How to Prevent "GOP MASS PSYCHOSIS - How an Entire Population Becomes MENTALLY ILL"
❤️ Discredit totalitarian propaganda everywhere
🤣 Mock GOP worship of dictators
❤️ Grow joyful unifying structures
❤️ c 1st 📈
https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M