Live Session with Dr. Lee: Series

Next Meeting Tomorrow, September 6, 2024, at Noon Eastern Time

Another critical “political/legal” date is coming soon in this month of September. 

I am not referring to September 10, 2024, when former President Donald Trump will meet and face off for the first time with sitting Vice President and Presidential aspirant, Kamala Harris.

Rather, I am referring to September 18, 2024, the already much-delayed date when Justice Juan Merchan in New York is scheduled to sentence Donald Trump for his conviction of a felonious attempt to falsify business records to deceive the public and win the presidency in 2016.

Donald Trump is desperately trying to get this sentencing date further delayed or even to have the whole case, in which he has already been convicted, upended and thrown into federal court proceedings.

My perspective on this whole situation is neither political nor legal, but rather psychiatric.

Donald Trump is a seriously disturbed and dangerous person.  This is not a diagnosis but a functional assessment, verified through long-term observations of patterns of behavior, as well as multiple episodes of actual violence or incitement to violence.  Many of us have far more evidence of how dangerous Trump is than on any patient we have ever treated.  All of us have a primary ethical responsibility to protect the public from danger.

Psychiatrists do not only diagnose private patients but are called upon by the courts, governments, and employers to make evaluations and recommendations with regard to the dangerousness or fitness of a person.  An assessment of function does not depend on a personal interview, and in most cases it does not even require consent since, unlike in a situation with a patient, the evaluation is for the public, not the person being evaluated.

These evaluations are very routine.  What is unprecedented with respect to Donald Trump is that he poses a greater danger to the country and the entire world than most persons we are called to evaluate and contain.

What do we psychiatrists and mental health experts, who are legally and ethically obligated to protect society as one of our primary obligations, should do now?  I and my eminent colleagues some weeks ago privately presented to Justice Merchan and the commissioner of probation our professional recommendations on the appropriate sentencing of Donald Trump.  Again, I emphasize that we did this because of our responsibility as psychiatrists to protect the public from harm, not as political or legal persons.  In keeping with our professional ethics, we felt that the details of our communication with Justice Merchan should remain confidential until the legal proceedings are complete.

Now, however, I would like to make a very public suggestion as the sentencing day approaches.  In doing so, I take into account this thoughtful summation by Norman Eisen, a highly-respected, former special White House ethics counsel: “The purposes of sentencing, whether retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence or incapacitation, are all frustrated when that sentencing is delayed.”  Incapacitation, in particular, is relevant to our concerns of public safety.  He continues: “Given that Trump was convicted of feloniously interfering in the 2016 presidential election,… the court should specifically deter him from committing more election crimes in 2024 by handing down its sentence without additional delay.”  He recommends a sentence of incarceration, to “protect American voters from imminent election crimes.”

Psychiatrists respond to danger, which has to be imminent danger to self, others, or the public.  These are the criteria for involuntary hospitalization.  When it comes to medical harm, we are not merely speaking of hypotheticals: on January 6, 2021, 174 police officers were injured and five died.  Now, there will be a repeat of the same conditions without any containment, treatment, or other mental health intervention having occurred in the interim.  If anything, Donald Trump is angrier, more emboldened, and much more dangerous than four years ago.

Should the sentence be on hold while legal appeals as well as the election proceed, the medical danger still remains.

Hence, my conclusion and advice to Justice Merchan in this sui generis legal and political situation is that he should sentence Donald Trump to a mandatory psychiatric examination. The situation is not at all unusual from a psychiatric and medical perspective; in fact, these evaluations are quite routine.  I and my colleagues have from the very beginning strongly advised that Donald Trump be properly psychiatrically evaluated and treated.  When I met with the many members of Congress, they were all asking me how a proper psychiatric evaluation would be mandated; I did not have an answer at the time, since he was president, and they had to consider the 25th Amendment.

But now, on the 18th of this month, for the very first time, we have a situation where a legally-empowered justice can mandate something previously unavailable.  As I and my colleagues have continually emphasized, “The dangerous case of Donald Trump” has not been dealt with from a psychiatric and public welfare perspective and needs to be.  Justice Merchan can, at minimum, impose a 72-hour hold on Donald Trump to require him to submit to a full psychiatric evaluation, which the Justice will then use to determine the appropriate monitoring and probation necessary to protect the public welfare and all those Trump has threatened, rather than incarceration at this time pending the outcome of the election.

Announcement:

Dr. Bandy X. Lee will hold a live session on:

“Recovering from Trump Contagion –
Restoring Our Collective Mental Health”

Tomorrow, September 6, 2024, at 12 noon EDT/9 a.m. PDT on Zoom.  A paid subscription is required to receive a link the morning before.  Thank you!

Dr. Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist and an expert on violence who became known to the public in 2017 with her book, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. Since then, she has endeavored to warn the American public of the societal dangers that would result from someone like Donald Trump being given the powers of the U.S. presidency. Now, years later, his individual dangers have morphed into widespread Trump Contagion, collective psychosis, a culture of criminality, and a third presidential candidacy! In 2024, is the country any better prepared to deal with him? There are many more dangers ahead, which is why we are organizing a fundraising campaign for a major, all-day conference at the National Press Club. Please join us to discuss the dangers and a path to healing, including from: The Psychology of Trump Contagion: An Existential Threat to American Democracy and All Humankind, Dr. Lee’s latest book, available now in hard copy!