Donald Trump ‘Driven By Pathology,’ Yale Psychiatrist Says: ‘He’s Choosing A Self-Destructive Course’

Many have questioned President Donald Trump’s mental health and overall stability over the years, citing reckless and erratic behavior, implying that the president is mentally unstable and therefore harming the country. At least once, criticism got to the president, prompting him to proclaim via Twitter that “mental stability” and being “like, very smart” are two of his greatest assets.

But some psychiatrists beg to differ. One of them, Yale psychiatry professor Bandy X. Lee, claims to not diagnose lightly, but she has nonetheless repeatedly, and publicly, suggested that Donald Trump should be evaluated by psychiatrists, as she did in a September interview with Salon. Apart from suggesting that Trump should willingly undergo psychiatric evaluation, Professor Lee has developed a theory of her own about the mental state of President Trump, which she concisely laid out in a recent interview.

Lee noted that her theories do not reflect the professional opinion of Yale University.

In a conversation with Raw Story‘s Tana Ganeva, Lee explained that psychiatrists look for patterns in an effort to develop theories about one’s mental health. When it comes to Donald Trump, Lee claims, his behavior fits the pattern “of someone acting that is driven by emotional compulsions.”

The president has found a way to capitalize on this, managing to re-frame losses — like the recent midterm election, for instance — as victories, therefore convincing his supporters that he is indeed winning.

Yale psychiatrist explains how Trump’s mental issues will cause him to self-destructhttps://t.co/2KYby4apUL

— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 24, 2018

Emotionally-driven, relatively uninformed, and dependent on Trump, his supporters don’t question him and tend to take his claims at face value, according to the psychiatrist. She adds, however, that emotionally manipulating his supporters is not a matter of strategy for President Trump. Rather, “this can be explained through their emotional wounds.”

President Trump himself, in Lee’s assessment, is “driven by pathology rather than healthy choices.”

According to her, Trump sometimes makes seemingly effective choices, without realizing that they are actually self-destructive. He is manipulative, demeaning, deceptive, and destructive, she asserts.

“He is driven by pathology rather than healthy choices. He’ll make choices that are self-destructive even if they seem effective at the time and produce results that appear to benefit him.”

According to the psychiatrist, President Donald Trump’s behavior is not only threatening to destroy him, but it also poses a grave danger to the United States. Prof. Lee has previously written extensively about Trump, notably for Vice, when she called for a psychiatric evaluation with his consent.

“He’s choosing a self destructive course, not just for him but for the nation,” she opined.