Mental fitness, politicized psychiatry, and the authoritarian impulse

For criticizing President Biden’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan, Lt. Col Stuart Scheller has lost his commission and is having his mental health questioned by the Marine Corps.

For criticizing President Biden’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan, Lt. Col Stuart Scheller has lost his commission and is having his mental health questioned by the Marine Corps. Meanwhile, with the current POTUS showing signs of cognitive impairment, a noted psychiatrist who maintained President Trump was mentally impaired appears to be silent.

Questions currently raised, in the context of Biden's Afghanistan humiliation reminded me of the attacks on President Trump's mental stability from leftist psychiatrists, most famously Dr. Bandy Lee, then at Yale University. Could she be expressing doubts, now, about Biden's fitness for the presidency; could she now be concerned about his mental stability?

By way of a Google search, I learned that Dr. Lee is no longer at Yale, having been terminated in May 2020. I further learned that she has a website: Bandylee.com. At her website, I noticed this entry, which explains why she filed suit against Yale, for terminating her.

"So when Mr. Alan Dershowitz complained about my speech about him and the president he was defending, and Yale dismissed me, I filed the lawsuit. If I can be silenced, then professionals and intellectuals are imperiled everywhere. I care about Yale, and it is a matter of academic freedom, the obligation to share our knowledge in our civic contribution to society, and freedom of speech that is our protection against authoritarianism and dangerous leadership."

Watch his video, he was not in his right mind.

- He asked for people interested in donating to his cause to instead donate money to his wife.

- He was working himself up to say that he resigned his commission out loud and was going to forfeit any VA benefits that would come to him.

- He repeatedly made statements indicating he had plans to do something drastic in response to his situation, to the effect of “you don’t know what I’m capable of” in ways that would very easily be construed as threatening to his command.

His first video was much more controlled and focused, the second video was agitated and emotional. It was tough to watch. His emotions suggest he’s not in his right mind, his statements and the conspicuously placed chess board suggests he’s got a plan. Those are red flags. Big red flags.

If he was not thinking of his finances and his wife’s finances as one unit, I wouldn’t be surprised if his wife was not supporting his decision to resign his commission, and being faced with the loss of everything he trusted and worked for in his personal and professional life, he’s got to be in a pretty dark place. I hope he gets the help he needs.

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