"Crazy" is Such a Judgmental Word

8/23/17 USA Today:

When Republican Sen. Bob Corker said last week that President Trump hasn't "been able to demonstrate the stability" needed for success and recommended he "move way beyond himself," it was news mostly because Corker has been one of Trump's key supporters in Congress.

Then James Clapper, who served in top intelligence jobs under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Wednesday morning questioned Trump's "fitness to be in this office" and said he was worried about the president's access to the nuclear codes. Clapper, who had a long military career, is a close friend and longtime colleague of Trump's Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, a former Marine Corps general.

"If in a fit of pique he decides to do something about Kim Jong Un, there's actually very little to stop him," Clapper, former head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said on CNN. "The whole system is built to ensure rapid response if necessary. So there's very little in the way of controls over exercising a nuclear option, which is pretty damn scary."

All the usual suspects come out to argue for removing that crazy man from office.   And there is a brief discussion of the Goldwater Rule, which prohibits psychiatrists from conjecturing about or diagnosing public figures without an actual examination.

"If one has questions about an individual's public behavior or capacity to govern, it's incredibly problematic to conflate with a mental illness," says psychiatrist and Harvard Medical School professor Rebecca Brendel.

Brendel is a consultant to the ethics committee of the American Psychiatric Association, which authored the Goldwater ethics rule. It says psychiatrist members of the American Psychiatric Association shouldn't offer a "professional opinion" about someone in the public eye … "unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.”

Doing so when it's about an individual a psychiatrist hasn't treated diverges from established treatment methods, which include "careful study of medical history and first-hand examination of the patient," wrote psychiatrist and APA President Maria Oquendo.

So what is this?

After Trump's declaration a week before Charlottesville that military action by North Korea would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen," Lee and four other psychiatrists who contributed to her book wrote a letter to all members of Congress.

"It no longer takes a psychiatrist to recognize the alarming patterns of impulsive, reckless, and narcissistic behavior — regardless of diagnosis — that, in the person of President Trump, put the world at risk," read the letter to Congress. "We now find ourselves in a clear and present danger, especially concerning North Korea and the president’s command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal."

But also:

Michael Welner, who is board certified in psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, and disaster medicine — which includes managing patients exposed to nuclear radiation — says Trump has shown throughout his life that he is an “exceptionalist,” adding that “President Trump’s exceptionalism embodies healthy narcissism.”

Trump’s determination to win “dovetails with the ethos of American exceptionalism,” which Welner says contributes to his “success in the face of adversity despite others’ efforts to undermine him."

The left is now "by all means necessary" committed to the status quo.  Hence this additional dig at us "deplorables":

"Trump isn’t crazy — but we are for electing him and not taking seriously the existential threats his policies pose to the health of the people in America, the future and the safety of the world," Frances says.

 Worst of all: the crowd that thinks your sex is determined by how you feel that day are calling Trump crazy?