A psychiatrist who shared in the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize declared this week that President Donald Trump is “a maniac at night,” and he insists he means it clinically.
Dr. Henry David Abraham, a professor of psychiatry emeritus at Tufts University School of Medicine, told AlterNet in an interview published Sunday that Trump behaves like “a maniac at night.” He pointed to the president’s late-night posting sprees as manic behavior, contrasted with what he described as Trump nodding off during the day.
“No one stays up half the night tweeting 50 or 75 or 150 times and has a normal mental status examination,” Abraham said.
Abraham is a founding member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the group awarded the Peace Prize. He spearheaded a statement from 36 psychiatrists and neurologists that Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed (D-RI) entered into the Congressional Record on April 30. The statement warned of the 80-year-old president’s “rapidly worsening, reality-untethered, increasingly dangerous decline.”
In the new interview, Abraham listed 10 or 11 symptoms he considers red flags, including rage, disinhibition, rambling off-topic asides, illogical speech and grandiosity, which he tied to posts showing Trump as the pope and shaking hands with God. He said a member of the White House press corps he consulted told him about half of those symptoms had worsened over the past year. He also said Trump at times appears disoriented.
“He needs to be literally led by the arm by world leaders, who have to treat him like the demented grandfather that he probably is,” Abraham said.
No diagnosis is possible without examining the patient, he noted. The American Psychiatric Association’s so-called Goldwater Rule deems it unethical for psychiatrists to offer a professional opinion on a public figure they have not examined.
Abraham also argued that much of Trump’s presidency has been devoted to dismantling Barack Obama’s legacy, which he attributed to racism and deep insecurity.
In May, Abraham said Trump’s speech showed signs of regression. In September, he warned on Dean Obeidallah’s SiriusXM show that the danger of Trump using a nuclear weapon “in a fit of pique or rage or confusion or poor impulse control” was greater than ever. Forensic psychiatrist Bandy Lee has raised similar concerns.
The White House has not publicly addressed Abraham’s latest remarks. In May, White House physician Sean Barbabella released a memo declaring Trump in “excellent health,” with excellent cognitive performance, while recommending he lose weight and exercise more.
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