Bandy Lee: Case Study USA: A Combustible Mixture of Psychopathic Behavior, Power, Divisiveness, and Violence

In this episode I talk with Dr. Bondy Lee, a psychiatrist who has devoted her life to advancing an understanding the causes of violence and developing ways to reduce violence. As a psychiatrist she is particularly interested in the behavioral features of people who are a danger to society, particularly those with psychopathic traits and behaviors such as lack of empathy and remorse, egocentricity, conning and manipulative behaviors, taking pleasure in other people’s hardships and pain, and criminal versatility. Beginning prior to the 2016 elections Dr. Lee has been outspoken in raising concerns about Donald Trump’s  mental states and his dangerous words and actions. She organized a meeting of eminent psychiatrists and psychologists for a conference at Yale to discuss “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” which resulted in an edited book of the same title. Since then the conclusion that Trump is a psychopath and a danger to society has been firmly established based on an enormous amount of data in the public record. Dr. Lee’s predictions as to the potential consequences of his aberrant behaviors for the country proved correct as evidenced by the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, the multitude of crimes for which Trump and many of his minions have either been convicted or indicted, and even more importantly the division amongst many Americans who had previously got along with each other. We also discuss deficiencies of mechanisms for preventing the ascension individuals with dangerous mental states to positions in which they can wreak havoc on society. 

LINKS:

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump:

https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Case-Donald-Trump-Psychiatrists/dp/1250179459

Book: Violence:

https://www.amazon.com/Violence-Interdisciplinary-Approach-Causes-Consequences/dp/1119240670

World Mental Health Coalition: https://worldmhc.org/

Political affiliation and prejudice:

file:///Users/markmattson/Downloads/s41562-021-01287-2%20(1).pdf

How Psychopathic Behavior can Undermine Democracy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7595043/