I’m a Democrat and a retired psychiatrist and I discredited Hal Sobel’s irrational, false statements a year ago in my letter to Port Washington Times (June 5, 2019). I said then that “the only person who is ‘irrational’ in his statements is Hal Sobel in his letter of May 3, 2019 to the Port Washington Times, not President Trump “
Sobel again now calls President Trump “crazy, “based largely upon his narcissism” (May 15, 2020).
A year ago Sobel called Trump “narcissistic” and I said in my letter of June 5 that “anyone who wants to run for president has to be somewhat narcissistic, i.e. Clinton, Obama, Reagan, etc.”
The other types of people who are narcissistic are people who write letters to the editor every week, seeking attention and praise from the public, like Hal Sobel.
Sobel now raises the question: “Is Trump unfit to hold the presidency?” Sobel said “there is much evidence to prove that this is true.”
He cites two statements that Trump made as proof: “I created the greatest economy the world has ever seen” and “if I weren’t president we’d be at war with North Korea ” Sober questions whether this is “delusion.”
There is truth in both of Trump’s statements, not a delusion.
The unemployment rate was the lowest it’s ever been until the virus ruined our lives, temporarily. The GDP was the highest it’s been in many years. This is a fact, not a delusion.
Trump flew to North Korea to defuse the tension caused by missiles, which could reach Seattle, being fired every week. I don’t know if any other president would have flown to North Korea to meet with its president to stop the missiles from being fired. So Trump is not “unfit to hold the presidency” based on his factual statements.
Sobel said “Trump’s constant need for attention is pathological.” No, it isn’t! Neither was it pathological for our previous presidents. And even though Mr. Sobel’s need for attention far exceeds President Trump’s, it is not pathological.
There are so many things that Mr Sobel erroneously blames Trump for, such as increased homicides, suicides, and tension in the world, I can’t go into them all.
But the last ridiculous, false statement Sobel makes is when he cites Dr. Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist who held a conference that led to publication of a book titled “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.”
Dr. Lee invited thousands of psychiatrists to attend this conference, including me, but only 20 showed up. She has been discredited by many other psychiatrists, including Dr. Allen Frances, a Democrat who hates Trump and is chairman of the psychiatry department at Duke.
He called her book “silly” and accused her of forming a diagnosis of Trump without meeting him.
Mr. Sobel is correct about only one statement he made, when he said, “Her (Dr. Lee) professional organization, the American Psychiatric Association, passed the Goldwater Rule, which states it is unethical to give professional opinions about public figures without meeting them.
The APA made this rule stronger in 2017, when it ruled psychiatrists could not make any statements about public figures at all publicly.
Dr. Lee wanted to send a letter to Congress calling Trump “dangerous,” and invited thousands of psychiatrists to sign it. This time no other psychiatrist would sign this letter, because they knew Dr. Lee was wrong and unethical.
The title of Sobel’s letter, “President Trump has blood on his hands,” is not backed up in the letter and is ridiculous. I’m surprised the Port Washington Times would print such an untrue, ludicrous title for a letter.
Marshall Hubsher
Port Washington
