Psychiatrist: 'Trump Contagion Syndrome' is driving a national emergency

Tomorrow’s midterm elections will determine the future of American democracy. Every day it has become clearer that Trump and his MAGA Republicans are facing a potential wipeout, almost certainly losing the House of Representatives, and perhaps even the Senate. In a time of normal politics in a healthy democracy, the president and the losing party would accept the results, recalibrate, and move forward as responsible stewards of government who transfer power to the victors. America is no longer that place.

President Trump is an aspiring dictator, a fascist, who rejects democracy and other forms of accountability. He has shown himself to have a deeply pathological mind. He is the leader of the MAGA political personality cult.

As Senator Chuck Schumer warned last Friday, “Staring defeat in the face, Donald Trump will do everything he can to subvert the election. Americans must be made aware of his evil intent, and we all must be prepared to do everything we can to stop him.”

The danger posed by Trump is much bigger than the election itself.

Dr. Bandy Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist, a leading expert on violence, and editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.

In this conversation, she explains that the Age of Trump is much more than a democracy crisis — it is a society-wide mental health crisis.

Dr. Lee warns that the midterms will not be a magical cure-all. If Democrats somehow win, the coming weeks and months could be among the most dangerous in American history. What Dr. Lee calls “Trump Contagion Syndrome”— the way a leader’s apparent pathologies and antisocial behaviors, including violence, trickle down to his MAGA followers and then spread to the general public — is getting much worse.

This conversation has been edited for content and length. The full version of the conversation can be heard on my podcasts The Truth Report and The Chauncey DeVega Show.

In the last few months, I have sensed a growing amount of almost uncontrollable rage among the public. There is more meanness. People running traffic lights. Strangers trying to start fights. More people appear to be experiencing mental health crises. As they say, people are losing it. What do we actually know about this from the research?

This is exactly what mental health professionals have been warning against. It is no wonder that people are suffering more, enraged, not knowing where to direct their anger, and actually directing it at people who are innocent but are being scapegoated because that’s the kind of mind that Trump appears to have.

My colleagues and I have been warning publicly about this since Trump’s first presidency. His mental impairments will translate into unspeakable violence and destruction. This will be social, cultural, political, and a threat to American democracy.

How are you feeling? How are you taking care of yourself?

One of the first things you learn as a mental health professional is that you set boundaries because you cannot effectively treat a seriously disturbed individual without being affected yourself. Clear boundaries are a necessity. I do that pretty well.

In terms of my own mental health, I have not been affected by Trump’s return to power. In fact, this crisis has caused me to long for and seek universal things even more. In the sacred literature, we see that in dark times, when the world is turning to evil and destruction, our yearning for the sacred grows.

Whatever happens in the midterm elections, the time between the election and next year will be one of the most perilous times in American history.

Yes, it is going to be the most dangerous period in U.S. history. We have proof of it now. When I warned the public in 2020 about the dangers of Trump, people didn’t believe me. January 6, 2021. My warnings were vindicated. But because the danger of Trump was not contained, we allowed the pathology to spread again. Look at us now. Too many Americans have been denying the extreme danger because it is so great that it is almost unfathomable. Trump has access to nuclear weapons that could destroy the planet, and he constantly threatens to use them.

For example, Trump has shared AI-generated images of himself pressing the nuclear button and destroying the planet. That is his mentality. Trump is angry and furious that he’s not getting the adulation that he craves and feels he deserves.

What do you say to the person who has convinced themselves that the midterms are coming up, everything’s finally going to be okay, and that somehow, we’re just going to go back to normal? What do you tell someone who actually believes these things?

I’ve been constantly telling people that they have to do things other than the vote. The vote alone does not save democracy, and in fact, the vote itself is compromised. We do not even know for certain if the outcome will reflect how people actually voted. Trump has pretty much rigged the election in every possible way he can using the most powerful office in the land.

Even if the election results turn out as we hope — which is the only path to survival for our country — Trump can do any number of things, and it will be violent.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to annihilate the country of Iran. This would mean killing many millions of people and wiping out an entire civilization. That would be a crime against humanity. How does such a horror become normalized? And what does that reflect about where America is right now as a culture?

That’s just normal psychology. People underestimate the degree to which the mind can adapt to just about any situation. There was this common belief that if things got bad enough, his MAGA followers and other supporters would leave him. I would correct them: the reverse is true. Trump’s followers are adhered to him; this is a disordered relationship based on developmental wounds.

I see it as a narcissistic symbiosis. It is a “battered nation syndrome.” The population is abused, and the more the population is abused, the more it will identify with the aggressor. People will cling to the aggressor and convince themselves that they are safe.

Many Americans had to believe that someone as bad as Donald Trump could not actually be so bad. Somehow, he had to be good….

Chauncey DeVega is a politics and opinion writer whose work examines American democracy, inequality, political power, and the enduring significance of race in American society and the wider world. He was formerly a senior politics writer at Salon. His essays and commentary have been cited by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, NPR, The Atlantic and other leading publications. He hosts two podcasts, The Chauncey DeVega Show and The Truth Report.

Read the full, expanded version of this essay on his Substack, Indomitable.