About The Book

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trup

Reviews

“This is an historic work in the history of American psychiatry. We have never been in this place before.” ―Lawrence O’Donnell

“There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump…profound, illuminating and discomforting.” ―Bill Moyers

“The stand these psychiatrists are taking takes courage, and their conclusions are compelling.” ―The Washington Post

“When I first heard about the conference that gave rise to this book at Yale, I was worried that a manifesto would come out with a diagnosis…. That is not what happened: what happened is a very thoughtful assessment based on lots of public data, which gives us a very clear way of thinking about the terrific vulnerabilities of our current president that elicits a duty to warn.” ―Samuel Barondes, Professor Emeritus and Former Chair of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco

“This insightful collection … is a valuable primary source documenting the critical turning point when American psychiatry reassessed the ethics of restraining commentary on the mental health of public officials in light of the ‘duty to warn’ of imminent danger.” ―Estelle Freedman, the Robinson Professor in U.S. History at Stanford University.

 Authors of THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP:

Bandy X. Lee M.D., M.Div.,‎

Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.,‎‎

Judith Lewis Herman M.D.,‎

Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D.,‎

Rosemary Sword,‎

Craig Malkin, Ph.D.,‎

Tony Schwartz,

Gail Sheehy, Ph.D.,‎

Lance Dodes, M.D.,‎

John D. Gartner Ph.D.,‎

Michael J. Tansey, Ph.D.,‎

David M. Reiss, M.D.,‎

James A. Herb, M.A., Esq.,

Leonard L. Glass, M.D., M.P.H.,‎

Henry J. Friedman, M.D.,‎

James Gilligan, M.D.,

Diane Jhueck, L.M.H.C., D.M.H.P.,‎

H. Covitz, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.,

William J. Doherty, Ph.D.,

Betty P. Teng, M.F.A., L.M.S.W.,‎

Jennifer Contarino Panning, Psy.D.,‎

Harper West, M.A., L.L.P.,

Luba Kessler, M.D.,‎

Steve Wruble, M.D.,‎

Thomas Singer, M.D.,‎

Elizabeth Mika, M.A., L.C.P.C.,‎

Edwin B. Fisher, Ph.D.,‎

Nanette Gartrell M.D.,‎

Dee Mosbacher M.D., Ph.D.,

Noam Chomsky, Ph.D.

The instant New York Times bestseller! 

More than two dozen psychiatrists and other mental health experts offer their consensus view that Trump’s mental state presents a clear and present danger to the nation…and our individual well-being.

Meet the book that has changed national discourse.  Since the first stirrings of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, to the most recent outcry from media commentators, one question has quietly but urgently permeated the observations of concerned citizens: what is wrong with him?

While most commentators have focused on the question of his sanity, this volume turns the debate upside down: what is important is dangerousness, not mental illness.  While mental health professionals have been constrained by the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule,” which prohibits diagnosing public figures without personally examining them, this volume tries to keep with the rule and warn the public about danger.  Dr. Bandy Lee, expert on violence and proponent of the Goldwater rule “as it is written in the code,” with a 15-year forensic career that has meticulously kept it even with minor public figures, says that warning about danger is not about diagnosing.

THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP assembles “possibly the greatest living American thinkers in the field of mental health” (The New Yorker) and other renowned figures to bring together a range of perspectives, an array of possible conditions, and an assortment of expertise to help educate the lay reader while arriving at the same conclusion: danger.  Danger calls for an urgent evaluation—which can in turn reveal whether or not Trump has a mental illness.  Mental illness in itself does not exonerate from criminal responsibility (he can be “mad as well as bad”)—but the combination can make him especially dangerous.

Philip Zimbardo and Rosemary Sword write about his “unbridled and extreme present hedonism.”  Gail Sheehy writes about his lack of trust.  James Gilligan, on his potential for violence.  Robert Jay Lifton speaks of the need to be “witnessing professionals” in a time of malignant normality, and Judith Herman and Bandy Lee about the dangers of psychiatric complicity with an oppressive regime.

From the trauma experienced by individuals under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his violence-prone followers, THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP claims that mental health professionals have a duty to warn when things are not normal, will only get worse, and need our intervention—now.

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