Crazed Psychiatrist Denounces Trump

As the old saying goes, Physician, heal thyself.

If one were feeling charitable one would be incanting that thought upon reading about the embarrassment that distinguished Duke University psychiatrist Dr. Allen Frances visited upon himself and his profession on CNN yesterday.

It is frankly difficult to believe that Frances, apparently a certifiable imbecile and licensed physician, would so recklessly damage the reputation of the psychiatric profession.

One suspects that the ignoble Frances thinks of himself as a seasoned political commentator. And yet, when asked to comment about President Trump, Frances went into a mindless frenzy, mixing leftist talking points with his own special pseudo-science. And wrapping it up in rhetorical hyperbole that echoes the Antifa playbook.

Being as Frances’s understanding of politics has come straight out of high school, we can only conclude that he is suffering from an incurable narcissistic personality disorder. After all, he noted, he invented the diagnostic category, and must have learned all about it by studying his own mindlessly arrogant behavior.

To be fair, Frances did suggest that he disapproved of the practice of offering psychiatric diagnoses about President Trump or any political figure. But, if that is the case, why was he on CNN. Wasn't he there to offer an expert opinion,or some such?

One must remark, because everyone else has, that CNN’s mentally limited anchor Brian Stelter sat stone faced and silent while Frances was ranting away. He later rationalized his conduct by saying that he did not hear what was being said. Does it get any more pathetic?

Anyway, here is Frances, just in case you thought I was kidding:

Well, I think ‘medicalizing’ politics has three very dire consequences. The first is that it stigmatizes the mentally ill. I’ve known thousands of patients, almost all of them are well-behaved, well-mannered good people. Trump is none of these. Lumping that is a terrible insult to the mentally ill and they have enough problems and stigma as it is.

Second, calling Trump crazy hides the fact that we’re crazy for having elected him and even crazier for allowing his crazy policies to persist.

We do not want to offer a diagnosis of Trump, but Frances is happy to diagnose everyone else. Anyone who did not vote for Hillary Clinton, the nation's leading enabler of sexual harassment, an incompetent fraud, is “crazy.” Coming from a psychiatrist, how could that be anything but “medicalizing” politics.

And then Frances descended into pure hysteria, based on no rational thought, merely echoing radical leftist talking points:

Trump is as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin and Mao were in the last century. He may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were.

He needs to be contained but he needs to be contained by attacking his policies, not his person.

It’s crazy for us to be destroying the climate our children will live in.

It’s crazy to be giving tax cuts to the rich that will add trillions of dollars to the debt our children will have to pay. It’s crazy to be destroying our democracy by claiming that the press and the courts are the enemy of the people.

Apparently, he is referring to the coming climate apocalypse. Yet, Frances knows nothing about meteorology or climate science. How does he get away with presenting his uninformed and ignorant opinions as scientific fact?

He does not know that the United States is leading the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If Trump and America are precipitating a crisis, why about China and India. 

As for destroying democracy, doesn’t France understand that the Mueller investigation is over and that Trump was exonerated? Doesn’t he know that Democratic Party operatives were working as hard as they could to undermine the Trump campaign? And doesn’t he understand that the Democratic party has consistently violated the most basic principle of democratic decorum-- accepting the legitimacy of an election result?

Apparently, not.

Frances has diminished himself and his profession by making himself appear to be a doddering old fool. Since he does not want to use psychiatric diagnostic categories, he passes on to religion and declares Trump to be evil.

I think it’s very clear that he’s dangerous because he’s evil, he’s not dangerous because he’s mentally ill, and the mentally ill argument, if it would get him out of the office, I would say go with it even if it’s inaccurate.

Anything to get this man out of office. But it won’t work, so piling on inaccuracy, stigma, the press will get people who know nothing about psychiatric diagnosis spouting off at the mouth, it won’t add to the discussion, it will distract from the political stuff and we have to focus on how evil….

Speaking of evil, what would you call a psychiatrist who presents himself as an opinionated lout and who promotes any action whatever to get Trump out of office. Isn’t this the argument promoted by the brown shirted storm troopers of Antifa? And why would a radical not hear his words as a call for violence against the president?

It was a sad day for Dr. Allen Frances. It’s time that he overcome his own chronic narcissism and stopped pretending to know something about politics, about the climate or about good and evil.