Donald Trump’s Supporters Are ‘Regressed, Injured Children’ Who See The Same In Him, Yale Psychiatrist Says
Donald Trump’s supporters are “regressed, injured children” who see the same in the president, which creates a potentially dangerous mix, a Yale University psychiatrist claims.
Dr. Bandy X. Lee wrote in DC Report that Trump’s supporters feel “archaic” grievances that go back to their earliest stages of infancy and childhood, and those grievances are now symbolized in the current political environment. She joined Madeline Taylor in writing that his backers feel inherently wronged by the election, and their anger and frustration has been fueled by his baseless claims that his election win was stolen through widespread fraud.
Lee, who has long been a vocal critic of the president and raised questions about his mental capacities, claimed that Trump is able to use vague instructions to rile up his base and lead them to committing violence like the attack carried out last week on the U.S. Capitol. Large crowds of his supporters surrounded and broke into the building after he delivered a speech imploring them to show strength and repeating the baseless claims that his win had been stolen.
Many have blamed Trump’s rhetoric for riling up the crowd, and the pair claimed that he was able to spark their anger without making any direct threats or instructions.
“Donald Trump frequently speaks in generalities, and his listeners fill in the blanks about what he means, how he feels, and what they are supposed to do for him,” the pair wrote. “As president, he does not have to give direct orders for his followers to understand what they are supposed to do, including attack, kidnap, and possibly even kill. He can be a terrorist by means of proxy through his words.”
The essay called on Trump to resign, while also calling for simultaneous discussions on impeachment and removal from office through the 25th Amendment. They concluded that if “proper guardrails” could not be placed around Trump, then he should be placed under an “involuntary psychiatric hold” for an immediate evaluation.
Lee has long warned that Trump’s rhetoric was radicalizing his followers. As The Inquisitr reported, she wrote just after the presidential election that Trump had shown signs of mental illness and that these symptoms had spread to the people who voted for him. Writing for Raw Story, she claimed that his backers are “vulnerable to someone manipulative and exploitative enough to say he will take care of them and protect them in unrealistic ways that defy reality.”
