Trump Supporters Are Victims Of ‘Brainwashing At Massive Scale,’ Says Yale Psychiatrist
In an interview with Raw Story published on Friday, a forensic psychiatrist and violence expert at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Bandy X. Lee, weighed in on Donald Trump’s mental health, the ongoing feud between the president and Fox News, and the mental health of Trump supporters.
According to Lee — who has long suggested that Trump is mentally unfit for office — politicians, media, and the American public do not understand the “profound dangers that mental pathology brings,” which is why the president is not being impeached, and why “we have such a hard time calling out unprecedented falsification of truths as lies.”
The psychiatrist added that she thinks Americans wrongly believe Trump will “calm down or reduce his demands,” but that will not happen, and the president will simply continue to seek more power, which is why his lashing out at Fox News comes as no surprise.
Lee also argued that Trump has a “primitive” psychology, which means that he has not grown out of a “binary” way of responding to what is happening around him.
“Most people grow out of this simplistic way of relating in childhood, but we have seen Mr. Trump repeat numerous cycles of this, from Jeff Sessions to Michael Cohen,” she said.
The psychiatrist then went on to explain why she believes Fox News is having a negative impact on the collective mental health of the country, accusing the conservative network of presenting opinions and fabrications as news, and therefore brainwashing its viewers. According to Lee, the “brainwashing” Fox News engages in is comparable to the techniques Chinese Communists used to employ.
"We don’t work for you": Fox News’s Neil Cavuto rebukes Trump for slamming network https://t.co/Iai8i4uWpR
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 30, 2019
The psychiatrist also weighed in on the dynamic between the president and his supporters, suggesting that Trump supporters are victims of brainwashing,
“Have you noticed how Mr. Trump’s supporters — at least the visible ones — are very conformist, eager to look and behave alike?” she asked.
“They’re wearing the same hat, chanting the same phrases, and responding back with seemingly pre-set talking points… these characteristics are what one would expect from brainwashing at massive scale,” Lee told Raw Story.
The psychiatrist concluded that the media is “ill-equipped” to deal with the issue of Trump’s mental health, arguing that a team of psychiatrists and mental health experts needs to be assembled in order to help the press better understand the president, his motivations, and his supporters.
Lee is the author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump. Immediately after Trump took office, Lee held an ethics conference urging her colleagues to speak up about what she claims is the president’s deteriorating mental health, which she has since done on numerous occasions.
