"the unconscious mind knows exactly what one is doing, even as the conscious mind denies it"

[Demovictory9]

Yale psychiatrist explains the root of Trump’s ‘pathological racism’

Raw Story: It has been a week submerged in Donald Trump’s racist remarks. You yourself got wrapped up in the controversy.

Dr. Bandy X. Lee: I believe people thought I was giving excuse to Donald Trump’s racism, when I was trying to add another layer. As a psychiatrist, I will see different things. What is medically salient is not always evident to the average person, while ideology or political position may not be as interesting to me as a medical professional. When appropriate, the medical layer should give depth to our understanding and, in fact, seriousness to this situation. We as a nation consistently underestimate the dangers. No matter how we may say we already know the president is dangerous, we will lack the appreciation of just how dangerous.


Dr. Bandy X. Lee: Surely he is racist, but that is not all. When he says, “I am the least racist person you have ever met,” he tells me that he is surely the most racist person I have ever met. In psychiatry, we are trained not simply to believe a person’s words at face value but to evaluate the person’s reliability, whether there are consistent patterns of defense, and whether it is the person or the disease that is speaking, before we believe.

Mr. Trump’s patterns indicate that when he says others are “hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down,” he actually means, “I am a hate-filled extremist constantly trying to tear this country down.” When he says, “Presidential harassment!” he is describing harassment that the president metes out. And his statement, “Their comments are helping fuel the rise of a dangerous, militant hard left,” is an admission that his comments are doing this of the militant hard right. The reason why the attribution is uncannily correct is because the mind is not random: the unconscious mind knows exactly what one is doing, even as the conscious mind denies it.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/yale-psychiatrist-explains-the-root-of-trumps-pathological-racism/

[woodsprite]

1. I didn't need a psychiatric degree to see that, maybe to explain it,

but not to realize that what DonnieBoy and his cabal all do is project their failures, their "sins", their indiscretions, etc. onto anyone who is handy at the moment.

Now, to explain why they do that or to let the adults in the room know how to fix it ......

[empedocles]

4. The psychiatrist's insight of how 'uncannily correct' trump's projections are is

more interesting and telling, then the usual observation, that 'it's ironic that trump will accuse someone . . . '[else of a trump fault].

[smirkymonkey]

2. I have been saying this all along, everything he says is pure projection.

Just flip the meaning around and you will have the truth about him. If he's talking about another person, substitute that person's name with "Trump". If he is talking about "Democrats", replace it with "republicans", when he criticizes the "left", substitute the word "right" and so on.

He is so transparent. Not only is what he says about others usually a complete lie, but it is often an EXACT description of his own behavior.

[shanti]

3. As have I

Classic projection, no doubt about it. He's mentally ill, always has been, and the onset of his dementia is making it worse.

My mother has dementia, but she isn't mentally ill. The difference is obvious.

[empedocles]

5. 'uncannily correct' is significant observation on the projection issue