An anti-Trump political group organized a letter signed by more than 200 mental health professionals warning that Donald Trump is dangerous because of “his symptoms of a severe, untreatable personality disorder – malignant narcissism,” which makes him “completely unfit for leadership’.
Less than two weeks before the presidential election, the group bought a full-page ad in the New York Times on Thursday arguing that the Republican candidate for the White House is “an existential threat to democracy” in the US. .
The ad was funded by Anti-Psychopath Pac – a political action committee that has produced attack ads questioning Trump’s mental fitness for office.
Related: More than a hundred ex-Republican officials call Trump “unfit to serve” and support Harris
“Using the DSM V,” or the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a basic text that helps mental health professionals define and treat mental disorders, “it is easy to see that Trump meets the behavioral criteria for an antisocial personality. disorder,” the open letter said.
“Even a non-clinician can see that Trump has exhibited a lifelong pattern of ‘inability to conform to social norms and laws’, ‘repeated lying’, ‘reckless disregard for the safety of others’, ‘irritability’, ‘impulsivity’. irresponsibility’ and ‘lack of remorse,'” the letter said.
The American Psychiatric Association considers it unethical to diagnose individuals who have not been personally assessed by a psychiatrist, a prohibition known as the Goldwater Rule.
The rule was named after Barry Goldwater, a former U.S. senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate, by psychiatrists responding to a Fact magazine survey. Goldwater successfully sued the magazine for defamation. Fact was ordered to pay the former candidate $75,000.
Anti-psychopath Pac is led by George Conway, a lawyer and activist best known for leading the Lincoln Project, a Republican group that was a thorn in Trump’s side during his presidency but later imploded amid allegations of sexual misconduct against a of the co-founders. Conway is divorced from Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump adviser from 2016 to 2020.
Thursday’s letter directly addressed the Goldwater Rule by stating that since its introduction in 1973, “the field has modernized the DSM diagnostic system, which relies solely on ‘observable behavioral criteria.’ For years, we have all observed Trump’s behavior for thousands of hours, reinforced by the observations of dozens of individuals who have personally interacted with him.”
The professionals argued that the disarray they observe in Trump “makes him deceptive, destructive, misguided and dangerous.”
Trump’s rival for the White House, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, called the former president “increasingly unstable and unhinged” earlier this month and a fascist this week.
The letter also argued that Trump is showing signs of cognitive decline, and that he should be subjected to “a complete neurological examination.” Signers of the letter range from a lecturer at Cornell University to professionals such as a Maryland psychotherapist, a mental health nurse, a sex therapist and a social worker.
Since Joe Biden dropped out of the race over concerns about his age and mental fitness for office, some of the same criticism has been leveled at dog Trump, who, if elected, would become the oldest US president ever and at the end of his second term would be 82 years old. term.
Recognizing that his speeches are often rambling and even incoherent, Democrats have taken the unconventional step of encouraging voters to watch Trump’s speeches and rallies.
“I’m going to do something very unusual and I’m going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies because it’s very interesting to watch,” Harris said during their only presidential debate.
“You’ll see at his meetings he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about windmills causing cancer. And what you will also notice is that people leave his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” she said.
The Anti-Psychopath Pac ad comes the same week as another full-page ad in the New York Times signed by more than 200 survivors of sexual assault and gender violence. One of the signatories was an ex-girlfriend of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and claimed in an interview with the Guardian that Trump had groped her in the past. The purpose of the ad was to remind voters that Trump was found liable for sexual abuse in civil court following a case brought by New York writer E Jean Carroll.
