Harvard and University of California psychiatry professors weigh in on President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to lead
President-elect Donald Trump may not be short of critics a month before his inauguration, and now it seems the medical community is weighing in on his leadership style too.
Three leading professors of psychiatry have warned that Trump's "grandiosity" and "hypersensitivity" to criticism deserve a psychiatric evaluation (as opposed to, say, angry tweets and Saturday Night Live sketches).
Trump's mental stability is of "grave concern" to professors Judith Herman, of Harvard Medical School, and Nanette Gartrell and Dee Mosbacher, of the University of California, the trio wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama at the end of last month seen by the Huffington Post.
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They recommended the billionaire tycoon-turned-politician "receive a full medical and neuropsychiatric evaluation by an impartial team of investigators", also saying:
Professional standards do not permit us to venture a diagnosis for a public figure whom we have not evaluated personally. Nevertheless, his widely reported symptoms of mental instability — including grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticism, and an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality — lead us to question his fitness for the immense responsibilities of the office.
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Obama has previously said Trump is "unfit to serve as president".
Trump's "hypersensitivity" can best be observed on Twitter, where he still controls his @realDonaldTrump account and has taken aim at everyone from Republican senator John McCain, Hillary Clinton, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and European leaders.
Last week, a tweet about the F-35 fighter jet programme wiped billions off defence giant Lockheed Martin's market value.